Xenocide

Rating:
Summary: Ever notice that people like fairy tales more then reality?
Review: While the feeling of the first two books is not exactly carefree and joyful (far from it)they both have the scense of danger one might have when dealing with an mysterious alien race in some form or another. In Xenocide we have no new and mysterious alien characters to meet and learn about... all we get is a methodical thinking virus, which is far from the same. Also Xenocide has the almost constant pall of having one of the main characters a man who has lost all he ever held dear. OSC got the anger and resentment across all to well for some peoples liking. Orson Scott Card is among the short list of truly incredible sci-fi writers of our time. Ender Wiggins is one of the most captavating and powerful characters to have ever been brought to "life" by any author in any time. Enders Game and Speaker for the Dead are two of the best books ever written. Xenocide is simply a continuation of the story, and though it does lack some of the magic that the others two possess, but it is still wonderful. As the author says in the forward of Speaker, his main ideas were for Speaker and Enders Game was simply the novel form of his "long first chapter" that would set the stage for Speaker. I feel that to create Jane in Speaker and then not develope her character (as thus her story)would be unkind in the extreme.

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Summary: So lots of people don't like it. Read it anyway!
Review: Every time the first book of a series gains some followers, some of them are always going to be disappointed in the sequels. Of course, this book wasn't *quite* as good as EG and SFTD, but it was very, very close. It just didn't have as much of a surprise ending. I was prepared for a disappointment after reading some of these reviews, but Xenocide was good anyway. Some people were bored by the philosophical and scientific debates, but I was interested by them and thought that was one of the best things about the novel. Anyway, you should _definitely not_ skip this book just because some of the other reviews said to. Even if you did turn out to hate it, don't you want to find out what happens? You also get to find out a lot more about Jane, which is great! The subplot on the planet of Path was really interesting, but I thought they could have had a bigger part in the story. I also thought Ender hogged the book a little-- he had his two books, and this time he didn't help much. But this is about all the criticism I have for it. My recommendations for reading this book: Be prepared for a disappointment (especially if you prefer lots of action and video games like in book 1) -- but read it anyway. That way, if you're not disappointed, you'll like it all the more. Another recommendation for an excellent sf book with lots of scientific and philosophical theories is the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman, my favorite books ever. (BTW this trilogy is much more popular than Xenocide. Almost no-one hates it, at least according to the Amazon reviews!)

Rating:
Summary: A Great, Interesting Book.
Review: I thought this book was great. The inclusion of the godspoken, and Ender's children made it original. Ender's Game was great, Speaker for the Dead was philosophly interesting, and Xenocide adds more. I started Ender's Quartet this year, 6th grade, and have been combing the shelves for sequels ever since.

Rating:
Summary: Cheers to the gratest sci-fi writter of our time
Review: I must say that this novel, though not as thought provoking as Speaker for the Dead, or as exciting as Ender's Game, was still a masterpiece of sci-fi. Many of you may disregard my comments as they come from a mere "child" of thirteen, but mind you I have been indulging myself in Asimov since kindergarten, and started the Ender series in third grade. And I will tell you; this novel deserved the Hugo it was nominated for. Though there were some slow parts, they only made the exciting more spectacular, and increased the book's spectrum of reality. And for all you skeptics out there, who though this book deserved less than at least four stars, I recommend that you read the theory of faster than light travel, and its effects on our universe. For all we know, Jane may actually be God.

Rating:
Summary: Don't try to improve on perfection
Review: Orson Scott Card, one of the greatest living American authors and certainly in the pantheon of sci-fi authors, made me smite my forehead in pain after I read Xenocide. Ender's Game was an incredibly powerful novel; Speaker For the Dead was less powerful but more thoughtful, and the two existed in an elegant symmetry: the first told the story of Ender's childhood and consequent crimes, the second showed an adult Ender and his redemption.

Xenocide, and its equally smite-inducing sequel Children of the Mind, imbalance the near-perfect duo by tacking on additional, irrelevent material at the end of Speaker for the Dead. The problem is that the character of Ender has already developed as much as possible; by the end of Speaker for the Dead he has come full circle. I felt cheated that OSC (or at least, I suspect, his publishers) took the characters from the end of the second book and used them statically, in the manner of a Star Trek novel, to advance a meandering, tritely philosophizing plot that really contributed nothing to the "Ender" lexicon.

Rating:
Summary: A lot to think about
Review: The thing I like most about Card's writing is that he gives you something to think about after you've put the book down. I think this is true with "Xenocide". Of course the book is a little lengthy, and I would have liked to see more focus on some issues. Card has so many ideas going on at the end of this book, that hopefully the sequel can tie them all together. I would recommend this and the previous 2 books of the series to not only science fiction fans, but fans of an interesting story.

Rating:
Summary: Card suffers from the Tom Clancy syndrome
Review: Ender's Game started life as a novella and then became a great novel - just like The Hunt for Red October. Then came Speaker for the Dead. Different but still an interesting novel. Just like Cardinal of the Kremlin was a good novel. Now we come to Xenocide. A ponderous piece of hard copy bloatware. Much like the rest of Tom Clancy's later work. Where are the editors at TOR? There's some really good work buried in the 592 pages but it's one of those books that you wonder if its worth wading through.

I was not thrilled with the ending. Wishing your way out of a dilemma smacks of the old Space 1999 television show where they were always wishing themselves out of a fix. Did we really need to bring back Peter and Val? Sounds like a never ending series of big, bloated novels for Card. Just like Clancy.

Rating:
Summary: Xenocide is a crime against its two predecessors
Review: "Ender's Game" was a great book, among the greatestin the genre of Science Fiction. "Speaker for the Dead" wasa completely different book: not as enthralling, but perhaps more original. These were high art. "Xenocide" defaces that art. "Xenocide" takes the characters Orson Scott Card created in his early art and changes them in order to spread his theology to the fan group which had hitherto (justly) respected his work. As a result, "Xenocide" is not only ponderous and preachy, it violates the both rational and dramatic sensibilities.

Card has already novelized the "Book of Mormon" in his "Call to Earth" series. He should have left his theology there.

Rating:
Summary: Not quite a match for Mr. Card's previous brilliance.
Review: The ideas were original and exciting, with a wonderful suspensful build that made me hold my breath, hoping for something as shockingly unbelievable "You will never guess this, EVER" perfect as _Speaker For the Dead_, which topped _Ender's Game_ in awesome surprise endings. I overestimated Mr. Card, however. I'm sorry for that - if I hadn't expected so much in an area that _Xenocide_ was never out to cover, it probably wouldn't have felt like it ought to be different, please, this isn't what you wanted, right...?

Those who defend this book I feel defend the original ideas of it, which is right in my mind. The ideas were fun. They reminded me of Douglas Adams' ideas of improbability taken seriously and deeply. I guess the thing that disappointed me most was that I could have guessed it, if my guesses would have shallow reasons. If a room full of monkeys banging out Shakespeare on typewriters appeared all of a sudden, it wouldn't have surprised me too much; these seemed to be the kind of cop-out shocks this master of surprise endings had unknowingly - or so we hope - resorted to. When we laugh, we regret it and feel sorry for him. I hate to compare Mr. Card to Douglas Adams, but this is truly what I thought, glumly, while reading the easy ending he used.

Still, please, read this book as you go through the series, because the series is most highly recommended. Just, when reading any of Mr. Card's stories, take nothing for granted, and expect nothing. He can surprise you in every way, including not being what you expected, and coming up with brilliancies that would never occur to the reader.

I love one idea in this book above all other ideas I've seen in this series, and if for nothing else I would recommend _Xenocide_ for this: the nature of Jane.

Rating:
Summary: Finally someone who attempts to expand the human imagination
Review: Everyone who wrote critsizing the story for its various ideas brought up are all a bunch of sheep you all cling to the belief that what you believe is the truth you all remind me of the Christian religion afraid to open up and think for a second that your beliefs may not be the only ones or even the right one's, Card on the other hand is willing to think, even if his beliefs are not accurate at least he is willing to ponder the ideas of the universe. A wonderful story.