Let me reassure you, but not at, fabulous, the first two books, the direct sequel to Ender's strategy clearly seems to me above all that Card was added later in this universe.
Know then that this book is between chapter 14 and chapter 15 of Ender strategy, so when his Exile. For, and the title is not usurped Card speaks of Exile Ender, why the Hero of Humanity has enough quickly turned into a horrible bogeyman, reflecting lynchings AD Media lacking time perspective and hindsight. Strangely, but as often with Card, the ultimate reasons of events MUST be in individuals, here his brother and sister who conspire to exile him, each for different reasons.
On reflection, I think this is the biggest flaw of Card, its excess of customization, which caused him to miss the crowd movements or society that are not necessarily or entirely embodied in personalities. Conversely it is also its greatest strength and quality of psychologies he is able to create.
In this novel little action actually political maneuvers pagailles, intrigue certainly, but nothing as strong as in his two previous novels illustrious. And yet it is exciting. The novel takes place mainly in a vessel filled with settlers in stasis for two years to last the trip, at the end of which Ender will head Shakespeare Planet. But Ender and Valentine (who thinks his sister to have to play the role of his brother's keeper) chose to stay awake during the journey along the Captain of the ship, its crew and some of the settlers.
Military bureaucrat, Captain Quincy Morgan intends to leverage the extreme remoteness of the Earth and Ender youth to depart smoothly from one post of Governor clearly intended for a mature man and not to a teenager. As Quincy Morgan holds absolute power over his ship, the odds seem against Ender, but it demonstrates that the talents that enabled him to win the war against the Doryphores (empathy to know and love his enemy more responsibility in order to put him to death) are just as effective in the political arena. So there is no military action, yet you'd read about long and dangerous skirmishes in wartime.
Meanwhile on Earth and on time thus passes Shakespeare twenty times faster and we are seeing accelerated rate, and essentially through the letters sent by Ansible, to the reign of Peter and development of Shakespeare's colony.
As for the intimate pain Ender: Doryphores destruction of his own hand and misunderstanding of accepting this destruction by Doryphores Queens, it underlies the whole book and finds its natural conclusion, in part, that we all know at the end of Ender's Game.
Read American.
