Don't Forget to Read a Book!

Hello, Stranger. Let's talk about Orson Scott Card's  Xenocide and Children of the Mind. The Short of It Plot:  Buggers, Piggies, and Humans all live together in uneasy peace. But the descolada virus lives with them, lethal to humans. Perhaps the only way to stop it is to destroy the planet.  Page Count:      Xenocide: 592     Children of the Mind: 370 Award: Books 3 and 4 of a series; 1 and 2 won awards. Worth a read : No. Which hurts to say. Primary Driver:  (Plot,  World , or  Character ) Bechdel Test : Pass Technobabble:  Mucho. Review:  Were you satisfied with the evolution of Ender from Ender's Game to Speaker for the Dead? Good, because we're done with character development. Massive cast of characters, each with one negative character trait, which is fixed by the end of the story. Slapdash inclusion of galactic politics to try to add stakes instead rips out the human core of the Enderverse. Meanders unpleasantly - actual story has some interesting beats but could

Hello, Stranger. Let's talk about Orson Scott Card's Speaker for the Dead. The Short of It Plot: Ender Wiggin travels to the only planet where humans are interacting with another species, in the hopes of finding somewhere to leave the Bugger Queen.  Page Count: 419 Award:  1986 Nebula, 1987 Hugo Worth a read : Yes Primary Driver:  (Plot,  World , or  Character ) Bechdel Test : Pass Technobabble:  Moderate. Review:  A very different side of Ender, but a believable development. A truly massive cast of characters to keep track of, for the most part successfully. The Piggies are excellent - aliens with confusing customs, misunderstandings, physiology, and so on. And all grounded with some compelling and heartbreaking human drama. A worthy follow up to Ender's Game .  The Medium of It Spoiler Free! Well, spoilers for Ender's Game  but not this one. Go read that first! Well, here we are, hanging out with Ender once more. This is a different Ender, a more mature one, one who i