Children of the Mind

Rating:
Summary: Great conclusion, could have used less review
Review: First of all, Children of the Mind was a great conclusion to the Ender saga, providing closure to a story that was already somewhat resolved. However, I don't think it is geared toward those who haven't read the earlier books in the series, so it could have done without all the review to catch readers up to speed. If you can survive reading over familiar plot details, then you should find this book worthwhile.

Rating:
Summary: I big disappointment with a lot of loop holes
Review: Ender's Game= great, Speaker for the dead- good, Xenocid= GREAT, but Children of the mind=poor. Card in his last book of the Ender "quartet" just reies to juggle to many themes and eventually just loses himself and ends up with a heaped up plot. The book is left wide open open the issue of the new species, the descoladores, who made the virus. Though this is the last of the ENDER books, Card should write ONE last novel to tie up all the lose ends like the issue of Jane, Peter & wang-mu, Starways Congress's response to hearing the descolada netralized, and they should be alerted about the descoladores! The next book should mainly be about the descoladores. THERE SHOULD BE A NEXT BOOK TO CLOSE THE HOLES.

Rating:
Summary: Only Regret: Wish it wouldn't End.
Review: As a reader, I didn't find Ender's Game to be particularly great or noteworthy when I first read it. The plot just seemed like your standard "Ohhh, Big Bad Alien Insects invade and good ol' humans have to defend themselves" kind of theme. Card's characterization of Ender Wiggin, however, was truly extraordinary in both his depth and pyschological accuracy. Through the eyes of a scared, yet iron-willed 5 yr. old Card creates the essence of what humanity was feeling after the first two Bugger invasions: we fear you, and it is our fear that drives our will to survive, even if the price is Xenocide.

Ender's Game establishes the platform for the lead-in with Speaker for the Dead where Ender attempts to speak not only for those who call upon him, but partly for himself, the self that has tried to atone for humanity's, his sins. He never finds the peace he seeks among the stars until he travels to Luistania and becomes the father of another man's broken family. His role as adoptive father allows him to finally heal his own childhood scars and at last provide him some semblance of peace.

In Children of the Mind Card may attempt too much in such a short book, but he does attempt, and in that effort I praise him for what he does succeed in doing. A little bit overpreachy towards the end, but nevertheless, Card brings up important questions as to how and why we are the way we are. In Children of the Mind he gives an overview of where humanity started from in Ender's Game, glimpes of how humans reflected upon themselves in Speaker for the Dead, an examination of human/alien interactions in Xenocide, and a glimpse of where we might go in his final endeavor. The answers Card provides aren't perfect, they are sentimental, judgmental, culturally stereotypical in many instances, and unaswerable in many others. Still, there are many, many undeniable truths in this small novel that stabs at us to answer them for ourselves if we are to understand who we are as a race, and more importantly, who we are.

Rating:
Summary: I thought this book was pretty close to as good as EndersGam
Review: I thought this book was great. I thought It was one of the best I've read. A great end to a great saga. I suffered though reading Speaker for The Dead and Xenocide, which weren't that bad but kind of slow and boring. But when I got to Children of the Mind I loved it. It was a great book and had a great ending and was just GREAT!!!

Rating:
Summary: This was a great book.
Review: When I first started reading the series with Ender's Game, I was blown away. That book was one of the best I have ever read. Speaker for the Dead was another strong book, though it wasn't as good as Ender's Game. Then came Xenocide, I was incredibly bored throughout the entire book, it had its good moments, but they couldn't make up for the rest of the book. I still wanted to read Children of the Mind because I wanted to finish the series. I was pleasantly surprised when I read it. I believe that it was a strong ending to an overall excellent series.

Rating:
Summary: Best apart from Ender's Game
Review: I found this ending the best to the entire ender quartet, apart from Ender's Game, which really can't be compared to it. Why? Becacuse Ender's Game is a different type of book to the other 3 in the series. Ender's Game is really a pure science fiction book, whereas the others always dab slightly into philosophy. I found Children of the Mind absolutely wonderful as a suitable ending the the Ender series. The only flaw I think that is valid is the fact that occasionally, scenes are abruptly changed just as the story gets to a climax. This was rather dis-orientating, in my opinion

Rating:
Summary: 6 feet ender!
Review: You thought Ender's Game is one of the very best books written?

You thought Speaker of the Dead was a good book?

You thought Xenocide was slightly above average?

You'll think this is god awful... but you'll have to read it, because you're an Ender fan. But I'd skip this and go read 'Hyperion' by Dan Simmons or some really classic Sci-Fi like Asimov, or even ENDER'S GAME again

Rating:
Summary: I thought it was the most amazing conclusion I haver read
Review: I can`t believe that someone in a previous review would call this corny. Card is the best SF writer there is,was,and always will be. this book was amazing I believe that the only book that ever matched up to this is Enders Game.

Rating:
Summary: A Necessary Disappointment
Review: This last book in Ender's saga was the weakest because it was just that; the last. Facing the daunting task of wrapping up all the loose ends of the story in a neat package, OSC does not achieve the level of suspense and drama that he does earlier in the series.

Also, much of the story is very theoretical, and less convincing overall than the others.

But despite its flaws, this book must be read by anyone who knows Ender, for we must know what happens. The ending of the novel is really quite nice, even touching, if we know and love the characters.

And come on, if you've read the first three novels, it's hard not to love these characters, for they are some of the more intriguing and endearing characters in the genre of sci-fi. Read Children of the Mind, if only to see what happens in the end to Ender and Valentine.

Rating:
Summary: Just under Ender's Game itself!
Review: I think Ender's Game could have ended after the end of that first book. I trudged through Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide and just wanted to finish the whole series. I was pleasently suprized with Children of the Mind. I was really interested if and how Jane would be saved, how the Fleet would have been stopped and so forth. This book I'd rank as #2, right after Ender's Game but the entire series is an existance in one's mind in itself.