Enders In Exile

missed
anything if you don't read it.
    In fact, the most
important purpose for that revised chapter is to keep people from
writing to me about contradictions between the original version of chapter 15 and this novel. So
if you're content to take my word for it that all the contradictions
are now resolved, you won't need to look it up online.
    In preparing this
novel, I had to venture back into old territory. It's not just that I
had to fit in with
Ender's Game
(where that was
even possible). This story also had to fit in with every casual
decision I made in
Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon,
Shadow Puppets, Shadow of the Giant, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide,
and
Children of the Mind,
not to mention all the
short stories.
    There was no way I had
the time or the inclination to reread all those books. It would just
depress me to notice all the things in all those books that now, being
a better or at least more experienced writer, I would like to change.
    Fortunately, I had the
aid of people who have read my fiction more carefully and more recently
than I have.
    First and foremost, Jake
Black recently wrote
The Ender's Game
Companion,
in which he deals with every event, character,
location, and situation in all the Ender novels and stories. He was a
consultant on this book (as he is on the Marvel Comics adaptation of
Ender's
Game
) and vetted everything.
    And in preparing
his
book, he also had the help of Ami Chopine, a writer in her own right, who also has been the mother superior and/or
nanny of PhiloticWeb.Net ,
and Andy Wahr (alias "Hobbes" on my
website at Hatrack.com ),
who also helped me directly by answering many questions I had in
preparing to write this book. I hope I never have to write an Ender
novel without their help; and in the meantime, I count them all as good
friends.
    I also have the benefit
of a community of kind people and friends at http://www.hatrack.com ,
whom I exploit mercilessly as a resource. As I set out to write this
novel, I had several questions I needed to have answered. If I had
never addressed the issue in any of the books, I needed to know that;
if I had, I needed to know what I had said so I could try not to
contradict it.
    Here is the original
request I posted at Hatrack.com :
    I can't trust my memory
about details in
Ender's Game
and the Shadow
books, and I'm afraid that in writing
Ender in Exile
I might be contradicting some points in the EG universe. Perhaps
someone can help on the following questions:
Who decided Ender should not come back to
Earth, and why? Peter was involved, but I think he gives different
motives from what Valentine and/or the narrator of EG specifies.
I think there's already a contradiction
between EG and the Shadow books (Giant?) about the circumstances
surrounding Ender's governorship and who commanded the colony ship. But
was it already fully resolved? That is, Mazer was announced as
commander of the ship, but then didn't go? I remember that in
conversation with Han Tzu, this was solved (after Hatrack citizens
helped by pointing out the contradiction in the first place!).
    I'm referring to that
last chapter in EG, but what I can't do is ferret out details from the
four Shadow books or any stray references elsewhere in EG or the
Speaker series. I'll be grateful for any reminders people can give me
of details from this time period—from the end of Ender's last
battle to the arrival on his new colony world, not just what happens to
Ender, but what happens to Peter and Valentine, Mazer and Graff, and
the world at large.
    I had valuable
responses to this cri de coeur, from C. Porter Bassett,
Jaime Benlevy, Chris Wegford, Marc Van Pelt, Rob Taber, Steven R Beers,
Shannon Blood, Jason Bradshaw, Lloyd Waldo, Simeon Anfinrud, Jonathan
Barbee, Adam Hobart, Beau Pearce, and Robert
Prince. Thank you to all of them for plunging back into
the books to find the answers to my questions.
    In addition, Clinton
Parks found an issue I hadn't even thought of, and sent
my staff this letter:
    I know you guys
probably got this already, but I wanted to put it out there just in
case. Did you remember that there was a discussion in "Shadow of the
Giant" where the first colony's name is revealed as "Shakespeare"? It
stuck in my mind cause I wondered why Ender would name his colony that.
Anyway, I just wanted to be vigilant and send a reminder. Take care!
    This was, in fact, a
real contradiction—elsewhere, I definitively stated that the
first colony was named Rov. That's