Reviews from Monday, June 8th

Ender in Exile byOrson Scott Card

Review: I started “Ender in Exile” believing that this was a sequel to “Ender’s Game”, and I was very confused but I went along for the ride. At the end of this audiobook, the author describes how this is actually a “mid-quel”, an    expostulation on what happened between two chapters in the first book. And because the original books (and some subsequent books in Ender’s Shadow series) were not written with this story in mind, there were a few facts that had to be changed in the original story to make this work. OK, so that’s a little like learning how sausage is made, but I found the
idea of the mid-quel interesting and the explanation just enough “inside baseball” (to mix in another metaphor) to let me understand Card’s abilities as a writer and plotter of multi-book stories. I did enjoy this additional Ender story. Like all of them, it focuses on problems of figuring people out. There were two characters that felt oddly out of place. It seems like Valentine is important to the story but her part is not developed. This makes me wonder if Card is thinking of a line  extension showing Valentine’s point of view, like Bean’s in the Ender’s Shadow series. To some extent you can say the same about Ender’s parents, although they do get developed more in Ender’s Shadow. Secondly, the “Achilles”-related character (trying to avoid spoilers) has a lot of ink, but it’s all incredibly one-dimensional. That’s not what I expected for this part of the story. This seems to be added on to close a plot thread from another book, but it feels more like a separate short story. And given Card’s discussion after the book, that’s what it may have started out as – he’s responsible for regular short stories concerning Ender’s universe. Despite these nits, I really enjoyed the story, especially the first ¾ of the book, and will continue on to the next “chronological” story.

Dream More: Celebrate the Dreamer in You by Dolly Parton
Review: Dolly Parton is associated with an amusement park called Dollywood. I’ve visited it, it is a country music Disneyland, smaller, with shows tied to the music of the Tennessee area where it is located. As I listened to Parton’s “Dream More”, I realized that this short (hour and a half) audiobook, read, no performed, by Dolly herself, would be the perfect soundtrack to an animatronic Dolly Parton show at her theme park. Imagine being ushered into a large Branson-style theater, the lights darken, and a robotic Dolly Parton rises from the stage and starts performing this book. The book is based on a graduation speech she gave at the University of Tennessee, but you could divide it into half her personal history and half how she ties her story to her themes of how to live life. And it’s Dolly, so she breaks into song every few minutes, she giggles in that way she has, and she drops some self deprecating humorous comments, 80% of these being
about her figure. While the advice is what you’d expect from a graduation speech, I found the topics she covers, especially her involvement with a foundation focused on reading, to be involving. Some things made me scratch my head – in her talks on the topic of dreaming more Dolly relates how she made the decision to leave the Porter Wagoner Show and how difficult that decision was. I wonder how many of her audience remember Porter – you need to understand Wagoner was a powerhouse in country music to understand the story. Anyway, I think this would be a great soundtrack to an animatronic show at Dollywood – Dolly, I give you this idea for free. If your experience of Parton is of her being a guest on a talk show like Leno, that’s really what this is like. It’s time with Dolly being her country self, with a very light coating of uplifting advice. As a bonus on the audiobook, and maybe in the paper book, Dolly is asked questions and she responds in a humorous fashion. These are pretty much the same punchlines she’s been saying for years, familiar yet still funny at times. Example: “Q: Do you look more like your mother or father?” “A: It depends on whether I’m wearing my makeup or not.” Available in eMediaLibrary - Overdrive.