Children of the Mind
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4.4 • 586 Ratings
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
The planet Lusitania is home to three sentient species: the Pequeninos; a large colony of humans; and the Hive Queen, brought there by Ender. But once against the human race has grown fearful; the Starways Congress has gathered a fleet to destroy Lusitania.
Jane, the evolved computer intelligence, can save the three sentient races of Lusitania. She has learned how to move ships outside the universe, and then instantly back to a different world, abolishing the light-speed limit. But it takes all the processing power available to her, and the Starways Congress is shutting down the Net, world by world.
Soon Jane will not be able to move the ships. Ender's children must save her if they are to save themselves. Children of the Mind is the fourth book in Orson Scott Card's Ender Quintet.
At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The first two volumes of Card's Ender saga, Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, each won the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel. This adept fifth volume in the series (after Xenocide, 1991) continues the story of Ender Wiggin, hero, social conscience and unwitting mass murderer. Here, however, Ender, feeling the weight of his years, plays only a limited role in the desperate attempt to avert the destruction by the Starways Congress of the planet Lusitania and its three intelligent races. Foremost among those at center stage are Peter and Young Valentine, Ender's "children of the mind," copies of his brother and sister whom he accidentally created on his trip Outside the universe in Xenocide. Also central is Jane, the prickly Artificial Intelligence whose unique ability to use the Outside to transcend the light-speed barrier is key to all attempts to save Ender's adopted world. Peter, Val, Jane and their companions must criss-cross the galaxy to find new planets for Lusitania's refugees while trying to influence the politicians and philosophers who have the power to stop the Congress's approaching war fleet. Readers unfamiliar with earlier Ender novels may have trouble picking up some plot threads. But Card's prose is powerful here, as is his consideration of mystical and quasi-religious themes, and his ability to write convincing, at times heartrending, scenes of intrafamily conflict is as strong as ever. Though billed as the final Ender novel, this story leaves enough mysteries unexplored to justify another sequel; and Card fans should find that possibility, like this novel, very welcome indeed. Major ad/promo; 200-copy limited leather-bound edition, $200, .
Customer Reviews
Is Jane's last name 'Austen'?
Enjoyable read with all the great and brilliant sci-fi mind blowing aspects I enjoy, but also with a heaping helping of the long pining looks and heaving bosoms as the author plays the role of Mrs Bennet and matchmaker for all the main characters. That's not a criticism since I enjoyed Pride and Prejudice as well. Also despite this being the last o the Ender saga, there turns out at the end to be a juicy possibility of another gripping followup.
A decade later.
It has been ten years since i found the worn and locally abused copy of Enders's Game in my school's library. Through all that time i related with young ender as most young adult readers invariably do, and relived his youth all throughout my own. In ten years i've purchased almost as many copies and either lent and lost to friends or given as gifts. But in all that time i have never attempted to pick up these new (and final) chapters to Ender's tale. In truth i never wanted the story to end. And a part of me wanted Ender immortalized as the world weary child who had to conquer himself to defeat someone who was never his enemy. It was a beautiful, exhilarating, frightening story but it wasn't where Card wanted Ender to live forever. Instead he gave us the speaker, xeonocide, and children of the mind as a conclusion that in truth could have been told through the eyes of anyone. But Card, again, gave us Ender.
Children of the Mind is a constant flurry of philosophy, scientific extrapolation, arguments that shake your morality to its core, and perhaps most beautifully of all, a genius blend of our history as a people and a plausible sci-fi future. This is not the fast paced tale of boy genius vs. the world as Card's bean's trilogy but a series that will be in your mind long after the final pages fall.
A reward after reading with Xenocide.
Xenocide made me wary of reading this one but Card has dialed back the heavy metaphysical musings and moves the story along at a much better clip. He finishes with a heartfelt and fitting conclusion to the Ender Saga.