Children of the Mind - Hardcover

Card, Orson Scott

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312853955 ISBN 13: 9780312853952

Publisher: Tor Books, 1996

Synopsis

In the conclusion of the Ender saga, Ender Wiggin confronts his ultimate challenge when his adopted world, Lusitania, is threatened by his old planet-destroying weapon, and his ally, Jane, is about to be killed off by the Starways Congress.

About this title

Review:

Orson Scott Card's SF career began with Ender's Game, a 1977 story expanded into an acclaimed 1985 novel. Unwittingly responsible for xenocide--destruction of an alien species--while still a boy, Ender expiates his guilt on another world in Speaker for the Dead. This confronts humanity with a deadly alien-built virus whose elimination seems to demand another xenocide. The tense continuing story takes an extraordinary leap into magical metaphysics at the climax of Xenocide, of which Children of the Mind is in effect the second half. Though that virus is now defeated, this isn't believed: the planet-eating doomsday weapon still approaches. Ender's AI friend Jane, who inhabits the galactic net and is the only agency that can move spacecraft faster than light, is being killed by dismantling the net. Ender himself is fading, passing responsibility to strange young avatars of his dead brother and aging sister created from his memories in Xenocide. Even in the shadow of death there are grippingly argued political, philosophical and moral debates--plus bitter family quarrels. A master storyteller with a knack for showing painful human relationships, Card achieves almost unbearable suspense before resolving his complex tangle and finishing Ender's 3000-year story with a touching elegy. One dangling plot line suggests that Card may return again to this universe. Solid, high-quality SF despite some implausible science. --David Langford

Review:

"Card's prose is powerful."--"Publishers Weekly
"This is a worthy ending to what might be styled a saga of the ethical evolution of humanity, a concept seldom attempted before and never realized with the success Card achieved here."--"Booklist
"Card's prose is powerful."--"Publishers Weekly"
"This is a worthy ending to what might be styled a saga of the ethical evolution of humanity, a concept seldom attempted before and never realized with the success Card achieved here."--"Booklist"
"Card's prose is powerful."--"Publishers Weekly""This is a worthy ending to what might be styled a saga of the ethical evolution of humanity, a concept seldom attempted before and never realized with the success Card achieved here."--"Booklist"

"Card's prose is powerful."--"Publishers Weekly"

"This is a worthy ending to what might be styled a saga of the ethical evolution of humanity, a concept seldom attempted before and never realized with the success Card achieved here."--"Booklist"

Card's prose is powerful. "Publishers Weekly"

This is a worthy ending to what might be styled a saga of the ethical evolution of humanity, a concept seldom attempted before and never realized with the success Card achieved here. "Booklist""

"Card's prose is powerful." --Publishers Weekly

"This is a worthy ending to what might be styled a saga of the ethical evolution of humanity, a concept seldom attempted before and never realized with the success Card achieved here." --Booklist

About this edition

• Publisher: Tor Books
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0312853955
• ISBN 13: 9780312853952
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 349