Xenocide

Rating:
Summary: Different but not worse
Review: One of the wonderful things about Card is his capacity to write intelligently about so many different things. Ender's game was a book of military strategy and child genius, Speaker of the Dead was about biology and psychology, and Xenocide is more about theology, biology, morality, and philosophy. It's a fascinating book and those readers who think its awful or less than the previous books in the series are nuts. It's not slow, it takes you through logical processes and it's not difficult to understand. Card discusses philotes alot- which are just undivisable parts of atoms that create mysterious bonds. Xenocide is a fantastic continuation of the story and if you love the story, and theorhetical theology, you'll love Xenocide.

Rating:
Summary: Losing faith in card
Review: Ender's Game rocked. Speaker was kind of dull, but an interesting 180 from Ender's Game. Xenocide, while I think it was a little better than Speaker, could have been so much better if he'd cut mayeb 100 pages from it. It's very long, very dry, and very slow. For four hundred pages he hits us with problems and quandries, then solves them very ho hum, as if it's no big deal. Better than a lot of stuff i've read, but a let down as far as Card's work is concerned. If the next one is any worse, I may forego Card's work for a while.

Rating:
Summary: A Disappointment.
Review: I hate myself for writing these words, but they must be written: Xenocide is a major disappointment.

In all honesty, ANY sequel to Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead would probably be something of a disappointment. Those two books did a superb job of telling an excellent story in an extremely detailed universe. It's a miracle the Card managed to follow them up at all, given their scope, but, sadly, the follow-up will leave even the most faithful Ender fan let down.

Card clearly likes to write. That's why he's written so many books. But he must have REALLY wanted to write this time around, because every single conversation is long beyond belief. Every character has something to say concerning some ethical or philosophical issue, but then some other character who has a different take on that issue shoots down the points made by the first person. And then the first person goes and shoots down the shoot-down. Except then the second person shoots down the shoot-down of the shoot-down, and that soon gets shot down as well. I am NOT exaggerating.

This is the root of all problems in Xenocide. Card writes too much when it comes to everything, especially all the trivial, boring points, and as a result, everything else gets bogged down too. The story is good, but you can only get bits and pieces at one time because there's so much dialogue shoved in between.

All of this is encompassed in the single, biggest flaw in the entire series: Orson Scott Card only wrote half a book. Everything is left unfulfilled because the author decided to leave the end to the saga until Children of the Mind. It's a shame, too, because this book had so much potential. I'm sorry for writing this, Mr. Card; just put the whole story in one package next time, and shut up about philosophy already.

Rating:
Summary: No Speaker For The Dead but solid none the less
Review: The first thing you notice about "Xenocide" is the difference in sheer size compared to the rest of the Ender Series. There's a reason for that, and it's the sheer complexity of the story Card is telling here. This novel is a return to the style Card used in "Ender's Game." By that I mean, he's telling two stories at once that will some how come together in the end. In "Ender's Game" the stories were that of Ender in battle school, and of Valentine and Peter's actions on Earth. "Speaker for the Dead" was a much more focused book taking place in one locale. With "Xenocide" we have the still unfolding story on Lusitania, as well as occurences on a new colony called Path. To be honest, for awhile it seems as though the story on Path and the continuing story on Lusitania could be two seperate novels. Perhaps the weak point of this novel is that when it does become clear how the two are tied together, it does not turn out to be a very strong correlation. It could even be said that "Xenocide" would remain much the same novel without the story of Path. A lot of people compalined about the preachy nature of this novel, and admitedly it is rather heavy on the metaphysical philosophy. However, the basic themes of the series, such as mankind's struggle with their exagerated fear of foreigness, still ring true throughout "Xenocide."

Rating:
Summary: Good but not perfect.
Review: This is a wonderful book but it is probably the poorest one in the Ender Wiggin series (not counting the books from the Enders Shadow line, which all basicaly stunk). This is an enjoyable read and should be read if only so you can read the last book in this series, which is a really enjoyable book.

Rating:
Summary: advancing in complexity
Review: Lusitania is about to be destroyed by the fleet, if a virus does not wipe them out first. Path is being ruled by people mutated to have obsessive compulsive disorder. Ender Wiggin and his family are the only hope for the humans on both of these colonies, as well as the two other sentinant species on Lusitania. This novel is deeply complex with different scientific hypothosis being discussed. The story though complex never lets you put it down. You want to know what they are they are talking about and Card does a good job explaining it. This story efficiantly closes the Ender stories and leaves no loose threads to be tied up. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Xenocide
Review: The book Xenocide by Orson Scott Card was made with the magnificence of mankind that shows the true meaning of human existence. Card was able to put his deepest thoughts about men into this book. I think this could be called the future testament of the Bible. I should expect this from Card, him being a religious man and all. Xenocide is about the aftermath of a huge war between men and the formics (an alien race). We destroyed them all. Mankind gets a chance to give back what they took when Andrew Wiggen finds a larva of the formics of a queen that lays a lot of eggs to save the formic species. He hatches the larva on a planet that has a rebelling colony. The supreme government sends a fleet to destroy the rebelling planet with the formic last chance for survival. The fleet suddenly disappears. Card put feelings of compassion and love into his most meaningful book yet that will change your thoughts about mankind.

Rating:
Summary: Fabulous story marred by absurd ending
Review: "Xenocide" continues the compelling storyline begun in "Speaker for the Dead". Having violated the strict policy of the Starways Congress regarding interference with indigenous species, the human colony on the planet Lusitania has been targeted for dissolution. The added factor of the existence of the killer (and highly contagious) genetic virus, Descolada, on Lusitania has led the Congress to order to the planet be destroyed before the colonists or other indigenous life can leave and spread the virus elsewhere. On Lusitania, a group of colonists, led by Ender Wiggin and his adopted family, are in a race against time to find an antidote to the Descolada (not just a 'fix' like they are using currently) and find a way to stop the Fleet that is being sent to destroy the planet. The official full partnership between the 'piggies' species and the humans threatens to break apart under the stress of the events surrounding the Descolada and arrival of the Fleet.

"Xenocide" is, on may levels, as equally captivating as "Speaker for the Dead" because author Orson Scott Card focuses on what he does best, character development and character interactions. Such focus is what made "Speaker for the Dead" and "Ender's Game" spectacular novels and Nebula award winners. "Xenocide" keeps much of that momentum going. The politics on the planet among the species (the Buggers have also been reborn there) are quite compelling. The efforts of the high-minded members of the human and piggie species to prevent the ignition of a bloody civil war caused by ignorant members of both species is both harrowing and suspenseful. The events take place 30 years after "Speaker for the Dead" and Novinha's children are all grown now and play major roles in the resolution of this conflict. Seeing how they have evolved from the broken children when Ender first arrived in "Speaker..." is one of the more satisfying aspects of "Xenocide". The paths in life they have chosen are wholly believable and the reader can see that, without Ender's intercession decades earlier, these children might never had the opportunity to make the choices they make here.

This book is nearly 600 pages long, but powers forward at a rapid clip until about the last 100 pages. It is there that "Xenocide" goes on an existential path that would continue into, and plague, "Children of the Mind". Without revealing any plot details, it can be said that this literary choice of Card's dramatically slows the momentum created by the previous 2 1/2 books. Since it only occurs over the last 100 pages, it doesn't slow the reader down so much that they would be compelled to put the book down. It does, however, make reading the sequel, "Children of the Mind", more difficult.

Card seemingly wanted to explore a higher meaning in the overall story arc with this development. It just seems unnecessary because the character-driven stories he had told up to this point clearly revealed a greater meaning that just simply science fiction novels would. Complaints aside, "Xenocide" is still an excellent book and a good read for anyone who appreciated what "Speaker for the Dead" stood for.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent story continues
Review: Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead were two of the best books that I have ever read, science fiction or otherwise. While I don't think Xenocode quite lives up to that standard, it is still a very interesting book. I thought that it was a bit long and dragged at times, but never for long enough for me to get frustrated with it. This is a good follow-up to Speaker for the Dead and maintains a lot of the interesting characters and cultures contained in that story, and also introduces some new ones. If you've read the other books in the series, you'll want to read this one as well.

Rating:
Summary: Xenocide was a great book.
Review: The book I read was called Xenocide by Orson Scott Card. This book was a sequel to my favorite book, Ender's Game. Before I read this book I had a basic idea of what the setting, characters, and background information was. I like how the author would, in different parts of the book, refresh my memory of how or what certain things were. For example on p.53 it says, "Plikt had been a student of Ender's when he was on Trondheim as a speaker for the dead. She had figured out, quite independently, that Andrew Wiggin was the Speaker for the Dead and that he was also the Ender Wiggin." In many parts of the book it amazed me in how much I would read because of the tension and conflict which would make me read on and on. When Miro stretched out his arms and went in front of the pequininos and faced the crowd yelling out, "You want to kill? Kill me!"(p.343), just to save the pequininos made me even fear for Miro's life. When Ela or her family came up with new ideas, it made me put down the book and think how great the author made each of the characters' personalities. Some parts, however, that I disliked were when there would be complex words and sentences that would be difficult to understand.

The author's theme for this book is: The way to solve a problem(s), dont fight, and start to work together with eachother's ideas. I agree with this because when you need to solve a problem, people usually get mad and get out of control. This could lead to more problems for that person and also many others. If you fight, it will not help out at all. In the book, many times there are problems being faced, and sometimes a fight breaks out. When this happened, there was a very big consequent, but they solved this problem by teamwork instead of rage. This connects with my life as well. When I face a problem, I try to slow down and see what is wrong. When I get stuck on it, I can just ask my siblings and parents or my friends and teachers. At the end, everything is solved and I feel good about it.

I would recommend this book to others because of how well the content is displayed. When you read this book, you really don't want to put it down. There are so many problems that are faced in this book, you couldn't imagine how they all could get solved. But Orson Scott Card did a wonderful job concluding this book as well as writing the whole thing. If you like reading about Science Fiction and Fantasy, this is your book. However, you need to read Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead to fully understand this wonderful piece.