Rating: 
Summary: Not as fast paced as Ender's Game - Still a Great Read
Review: OSC is one of the best writers in the US today. In fact I will go so far as to say he is second only to Stephen King. This book is not a stand-alone book, it is a sequal to Ender's Game. I read this book around 1996. I heard about Ender's Shadow a month or two ago and have recently finished the series. I have read all of the Ender and Shadow series and will continue to do so as long as they keep being written. If you are not familiar with OSC, he is also the author/playright of the Abyss! Ender's Game is planned to be made into a movie by WB and the producer of a Perfect Storm. This book is about Ender's life off-planet after having saved the world. This book is very philosophical and has less action. It is a not as fast paced as Ender's Game. I would say more about the book, but I hate people giving away any information about books and movies so I won't.
Rating: 
Summary: Best of the series, if you have the head for it.
Review: Everyone is saying this is the worst book of the Enders Saga, while I have always thought it the best. I guess everyone just reads it, but doesn't actually LIVE it. Whenever I read a science fiction, I think about it all the time, dream it, write it. When I read Children of the Mind, I thought, Wow, finally a book that contains science fiction, drama, romance, and just a bit of angst. Not a lot of sci-fi out there that captures your mind like this one. The deatail is amazing, and, for once, Card begins to focus on a many different characters, other than just Ender. Everything about this book was a stroke of pure genious. I believe most people don't like this book because the deatails are just to deep for them. It has more scientific and historical deatails that not everyone is willing to study if they do not understand them. I didn't understand, so I looked for information, read the book over, and there was the understanding! To truely love a book, you must understand it from all angles, not just one.
Rating: 
Summary: Clearly the fourth book in a trilogy
Review: I agree with what reviewer Webster says, and add the following. Ender's Game is no doubt a classic sf novel, and one I enjoyed all over again 25 years after I first read it. The second and third novels follow logically, maintain the forward momentum of the plot, and increase the emotional depth. But Children of the Mind was a real disappointment. It reads as an afterthought, beginning with the fact that, unlike the books in the Ender "trilogy", it assumes you've read the first three -- and recently. Each of the other three could stand on its own; this one can't. Also, it's way too talky. Card seems here to have given up *showing* and just decided to *tell* everything he wanted to say. Finally, it seems to me this book breaks the golden rule of sf: assume one element contrary to nature as we know it, and trace the logical consequences. When Jane starts popping people in and out of places, Card's just playing God, and it ceases to be interesting. In the Afterword, Card says he's trying to write mature American fiction, and maybe even mature Mormon fiction, but this ain't it.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as I hoped
Review: I really loved the Ender series. I thought Speaker for the Dead was better than Ender's Game and Xenocide was building on that untill Ender's umm... children came into being. Then Xenocide got weird. This book doesn't end this series like it should have. It continues on similar to the last hundred or so pages of Xenocide, and can be compelling, but lacks the substance of Speaker. Speaker was a sci-fi book that actually had a human story, based on human problems, and was a masterpeice. Children of the mind just deviates from that as much as possible. None of the problems faced by Peter or Jane are realistic in any sense. However the book is still a fun read for people such as myself that really enjoyed the rest of the series. It just lacks substance.
Rating:
Summary: strong entry if you have read previous books
Review: Ender Wiggin continues to redeem his life following the genocide he once caused. Ender resides on the planet Lusitania, home to the indigenous Pequeninos, a human settlement, and the Hive Queen he saved. Ender soon finds life is a circle as the weapon that he used thousands of years ago has come to destroy his adopted home. The Starways Congress has sent a fleet to destroy the planet out of fear of a virus traced back to Lusitania. They also want to kill Ender's friend, Jane the computer for they are afraid of her ability to control communications. Jane tries to save the sentient races of Lusitania before the Congress shuts down her intergalactic Net. Meanwhile Ender makes a last stand by creating replicas of his brother Peter and his sister Valentine. The conclusion of the Ender's series is a strong entry that readers will appreciate if they have read the previous novels. The tale provides the Orson Scott Card's powerful philosophy of involvement inside a strong redemption story line. However, many threads tied up in this novel will mean nothing to new readers, as this book is not a stand-alone. Still CHILDREN OF THE MIND is a fine finale (with new dangling threads) to a wonderful series. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Low point in the Ender series
Review: It seems almost like two different people wrote Ender's Game and Children of the Mind. Ender's Game was brilliant ... Children of the Mind was just dull, melodramatic, and overextended. Ender himself all but disappeared in this last book, even before literally crumbling to dust 2/3 of the way through the book. I couldn't really buy into all of this one-Ender/three-bodies business, and the love interests of all the main characters seemed awfully forced. The "looming" Lusitania Fleet seemed like an afterthought as the characters launched into long winded philosophies on aiua and dealing with the three Enders. It's almost like Card tried to make a large scale, Dune-type epic out of this series but changed course with this last book. The idea of aiua connecting us all together was interesting (very reminiscent of neo-Confucian ideas about the structure of the universe), but it just wasn't enough to carry the book. I think Card's biggest mistake with the whole series was aging Ender so quickly and reducing his role to meaningless cameo appearances. The tragic young Ender of Ender's Game--the Ender that won our hearts and imaginations--and the middle-aged Ender of the later books were like complete strangers. Maybe if the books had developed around Ender's growth as a person and Card had allowed Ender himself a more active role the conclusion would've been more satisfying. But sadly, by the end of the book, I just couldn't bring myself to care anymore. Ender was dead, the characters were all dull and the wild plotlines just seemed to spiral out of control. I believe that development of characters and the depth of a book's environment/setting is absolutely crucial and the difference between great science fiction and average material. Children of the Mind really is not that bad of a book. But coming from Card, knowing he can do better ... it was a disappointment. The good news is that after this book, the Ender's series returns back to its roots, back to the time when Ender was in Battle School. While the next books in the series might not be as "deep" as this one, they are much more emotionally engaging. Regardless of how you felt about how the Speaker-Xenocide-Children trilogy ended up, if you liked Ender's Game (hey, who didn't?) continue on in this series.
Rating:
Summary: Ehhhh...
Review: Okay, Ender's game. An action packed book, very exciting and very entertaining. Then, Speaker for the Dead. Great book, good plotline, not as exciting, but good. The only flaws in these two books were the cliffhanger endings, which led to the drivel Xenocide and Children of the Mind. These two books are quite ridicolous, Ender and Co. have long talks bickering with each other and talking about "philotes" and "Inside and Outide", which all make absolutely no sense at all, and how much they all hate each other and love each other. Theres a lot of complaining too. After a while, they just get really boring, you know? I think Card should have ended the books with Speaker for the Dead. With each book, the series declines more and more. Rent this book from the library, otherwise, don't spend the money. Wait for a new Series of Unfortunate Events to come out.
Rating:
Summary: This series just gets [worse and worse]
Review: This is the fourth book in the Ender series by Orson Scott card. The series starts out with the fast-paced, action packed Ender's Game, then moves on to the relationship oriented Speaker for the Dead. The next book in the series is the preachy Xenocide and finally ends with the long winded, highly incredulous Children of the Mind. As a friend of mine said, Card milked it for all it's worth. In fact, the author created another series devoted to a character in a parallel timeline to Ender's Game. What did I not like about this book? The dialogue for the most part was horrible. At any point in the story a character is bound to be giving a monologue on something. Some characters speak and bicker like kids one moment and turn around and sound like psychologists with measured words the next. This is really a story about Jane. Ender's role as a provider, healer and source of strength ended with Speaker for the Dead. It's too bad the author decided to leave the second and third books incomplete. You really need to read this book to have closure on Ender's life. But to read this book is to devote time and energy to a particulary limp and lame story. Don't you miss the days of the award-winning Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead? LEAP rating (each out of 5):
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L (Language) - 2 (did Orson Scott Card really write this drivel?)
E (Erotica) - 0 (n/a)
A (Action) - 0.5 (the launch of the MD device was probably as exciting as it got) P (Plot) - 3 (let's save jane, see jane save herself, see jane save the rest of humanity, ugh...)
Rating:
Summary: Getting a Bit Too Hard Core Science Fiction?
Review: Like virtually everything that is written by Orson Scott Card, "Children of the Mind" is a masterpiece and a 'tour de force' and a couple of other superlatives as well. However, the complex philosophical ramblings involving aiuas and philotic twining and things of that ilk cause the book to lose some of the beauty and humanity that is so wonderful about the bulk of Card's works. As a result, there are no characters introduced developed that are nearly so enthralling and beloved as Ender himself, Valentine, Human, Han Fei-Tzu, and Si Wang-mu were in the previous novels. Some new characters are introduced - Grace Drinker and Malu for example - but the only one who approaches the pantheon of Card's beloved characters is Aimaina Hikari. Also, some of the characterizations are a bit of a stretch. The Peter Wiggin who greets Si Wang-mu as she enters his ship at the start of this book is not the same bitterly nasty Peter Wiggin that invited her onto the ship at the end of "Xenocide." True, he does start it off by saying that he's not himself - meaning that he's really Ender - but the vulnerability he shows here is nothing like that seen in the previous book. And the nastiness and sarcasm he exhibits here is also nowhere as biting as it was previously. The other character of whom I have problems is Quara. She was pretty wacked out in "Xenocide," but in this book she has become a caricature of herself. One of Card's skills is that he is able to develop his stories without having characters who are evil-intentioned or blindly anti-social. Instead, the antagonists make their decisions for perfectly rational and well-intended reasons, even if their decisions ultimately turn out to be poor ones. Look at Card's treatment of Admiral Bobby Lands' moral dilemna in this book for an example. Quara, however, doesn't have this quality. Her behaviour is just stupid and ultimately unbelievable, even given the explanations that are offered for it. Regardless, saying that this book does not quite equal the beauty or humanity of Card's other works does not mean that it does not remain a very good book. This is definitely a must read for anyone who is familiar with the Ender saga, unless you are one of those readers who are looking for an action-paced novel without much in terms of greater depth, in which case you should stop with "Ender's Game" and move on to "Ender's Shadow."
Rating:
Summary: Faster than light travel?
Review: Really nice device! Card can find a way to beat all the odds and get out of any situation. So it applies for the philotic connection. What else can I say except that it rings true? In this book there is the religious layer, in which, Catholicism is the main target in opposition to something we can't totally figure as Pantheism. This is largely analyzed with interesting elements.
Card plays with politics and how politicians use religion to further their own interests which is a nice critic on human history. Religious sci fi has been very little exploited so it has a freshness to it in fact. So I do think the story has a lot of merits. Not to give up too much of the plot: there is a definite change in Ender. A liberation that I really disliked a little, because he was what he was for all the had to do and go through. Nonetheless, it lets open a big space for more to come. If you read the three previous books you will have to do this one too. If you haven't read any of the series before, it's better left alone.
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