Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card (2008, Hardcover)

Orson Scott Card's novel, "Ender in Exile," picks up where "Ender's Game," the 1985 winner of the Hugo and Nebula awards, science fiction's highest honors, left off. The revival of Ender, the boy hero who saves Earth from bug-like aliens. "Ender in Exile," like its prequel, blur the lines between young-adult and adult fiction, engaging in serious philosophical conversations.

Ender returns in "Exile" as a hero at the age of 17. He is exalted for fending off the third wave of alien marauders that threatened to obliterate Earth. But the brutal actions he undertook render him a monster in the eyes of the people who trained him. He is mercilessly exiled from his home planet and forced to emigrate to a colony that is light years away.

Card wrote three sequels and a spinoff series of "Ender's Game." But "Exile" fills in the "lost years." Ender's biggest challenge at 17 is not any beings threatening to destroy Earth but rather himself. He is ready for adulthood and might find happiness with his intended mate, yet he rejects a conventional life and opts for the role of solitary leader, a protector who reaches into humanity's most basic fighting instinct.

It is difficult to determine whether "Ender in Exile" is pro-military because it glamorizes duty-at-all-cost or anti-military because the deception and cruelty used to train the boy have an adverse effect. Either way, the novel is a wonderful escapist tale which could be viewed as a parable of the importance and effects of life training.