Xenocide and Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card

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 be told in a third of the time.

The Medium of It

Spoiler Free! Well, probably spoilers for the previous two books...

Why does this book need to exist? Does it need to exist? Let's find out!

No.

This is not the worst book that is out there, but it's one of the least necessary. Ender's arc is complete, and then there's this book. If Ender's Game was about the dehumanizing power of the military and the strength of fear, and Speaker for the Dead was a redemptive story about the basic humanity of everyone and everything, Xenocide is... some fears are rational but not if the government has them? Science can solve any issue, if it's magic? We all contain multitudes, and that's super unhealthy? 

The first problem with this book is that it is boring. Pacing is dreadful: we bounce between a wide cast of characters, very few of which are actually worth our time. Pretty much every relationship subplot could be solved with marginally better communication; nothing human happens between our humans. This is Card's attempt to expand the Enderverse: we see other planets, other people. And they are not fun. Perhaps interesting, briefly. But certainly not nearly as much so as Card thinks. 

Issues here are resolved in one of two ways. First, whatever the most obvious solution is. We like a side character more than a main? The side is actually the chosen one. A complex theory is proposed? It's actually the easier option. Second, deus ex machina. Things get solved by getting solved. That's about it. 

This is a frustrating read. It feels slow, plodding, and unnecessary. It undermines some of the characters from the previous book, leaving them as irritating perversions of the people it was suggested that they could be at the end of Speaker. Actually seeing some of the other worlds demystifies them in the worst way: they are not worthy of exploration. It is not a galaxy of varied and mysterious planets; they are rather recognizable. 

Originally I was planning to write separate reviews of Xenocide and Children of the Mind, but that feels silly; they are two halves of one book. This is another issue; the end of Xenocide is a small, partial resolution, but not really enough to call it a conclusion. Both books together are the end of the Lusitania story. 

The above, then, is what was on my mind for Xenocide. It applies just as much for Children. Here is another pacing issue: Ender tells a fast-paced adventure. Speaker slows things down, but still moves decently. For these two, we've entered into solidly plodding territory. 

An astounding number of scenes are completely unnecessary for the reader. We sometimes watch a character do something, then have them meet someone and explain what they have done. There are frequent meetings or conversations which exist only for themselves - they progress plot nowhere and add nothing to the relationships we have seen. It feels like empty page space. There are no more big reveals on Bugger or Piggie society - a few minor, but nothing that really rocks the boat. 

Rambling about technology and metaphysics takes up a truly staggering amount of these books - and none of it is profound. Like, there's pretty good evidence from one character that a God or gods exist - and even that comes off as just... blah. It goes far past tedious.

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Xenocide

Children of the Mind

The Long of It

Spoilers Ahead!

I really don't like these books. The solution to everything is a teleporting spaceship that uses wishes to jump through space. Also it can bring anything back from the alternate realm - basically things can be wished into existence. What an irritating solution. It's just a magic lamp. 

Because Ender can only imagine himself as the composite of Valentine and Peter, he creates them with his mind - and his soul now needs to support three bodies. Gasp. Also, Jane needs a body. And clearly Ender's actual body is dying. Wanna guess what happens? If you guessed, "Jane gets Valentine and Ender gets Peter..." well, duh. Of course they do. And we need to pretend that it was not obvious, and that things actually go wrong sometimes. 

There is never any real sense of tension here: there is, as far as I can tell, only one death of a major character, and there is a huge amount of foreshadowing. This is the death of a missionary - and we have a whole slew of "It sure would be a shame if he died" comments leading up to it. Things work out, all the time. There are plenty of ticking clock issues that come into play - which are intended to add some time pressure - but when everything is saved in the nick of time... each clock feels like it means less. 

Valentine and Peter are intentionally created as archetypes: they are intended to be Pure Good and Pure Evil. Surprisingly, this a) does not make them interesting or nuanced characters, as they are born without nuance and b) has almost no impact on anything at all. Commit one way or the other! Make Peter evil enough that he resists plans, make Valentine too pure to become involved with anything. 

I haven't even gotten into OCD: The Planet. A whole planet genetically designed to create perfect bureaucrats, with added intelligence, but crippled with OCD? Really? That's the master plan? OCD? And if this level of genetic manipulation was available the whole time... that certainly undermines a whole lot of other issues that try to be depicted as important.

Oh and the descolada is a terraforming agent of another alien species. This seems like a thing we should discuss more. Instead of someone suggesting it as a theory, and then people going, "huh, maybe!" until it proves true... and then that storyline just ends.

These two are a completely underwhelming conclusion of the Ender Saga.

This review is getting unnecessarily long. Which feels apt, in the context of these two books...

Perhaps it would be best to leave well enough alone, Stranger

And don't forget to read a book!