Children of the Mind (Ender, Book 4) (Ender Quartet)

Read 'Enders Game' and stop there
This is an awful book and (luckily) the last in the Ender Quartet.

Ender Wiggin plays almost no part in it at all, and instead his `children' are central. Ender is dying and because of a quantum-physics crap-fest nightmare with a super-computer named Jane (who has taken him `In' and `Out' of space time, allowing for faster than light travel), his personality is split between three people.

The story follows a plethora of characters, none of whom the reader has any reason to care about. They are all two dimensional and completely unbelievable. In the midst of interstellar warfare and dramatic tension, they leap constantly into long diatribes and dialogues whereby they psycho-analyze themselves, their traveling companions, Ender Wiggin, and the moral complications of the situations they have found themselves in. There is no subtlety. There is no action. There are only malformed characters and a convoluted plot that leaves you wishing all three species would be annihilated.

Not recommended. Read 'Enders Game' and stop there.

Children of the Mind
This Book is insightful as well as entertaining and takes the reader on an adventure into the possibilities of other worlds and creation. It engages the reader such that one feel invested and involved in the destination of 'good' ultimately triumphing.
I loved it, as did my children.

Birngs the undertones of the first three to the surface
There were times, reading the first three books in the Ender series, where I wanted to skip page after page of Battle School talk. Sure, I like strategy and I like the occasional shoot-em-up, but what attracted me to Card's series was the undertones - the explorations of humanity. Ender embodied both the perfect weapon - able to destroy an entire species without a second thought. But Ender also embodied immense compassion. This book really highlights the significance of who Ender is outside of the Battle School.

Maybe Card could have combined Xenocide (the last of the first three books) with Children of the Mind - but I really didn't mind the extra reading - and I suspect his publishers also didn't mind the additional sales!

Interesting series, but takes patience to read
I just finished Children of the Mind, the last of the 4-part series on Ender et al. The first book, Ender's Game, is really self contained, requiring no further reading. The next three books are a series, basically covering a colony on the planet Lusitania 3000 years in the future from when Ender's Game concluded. Ender and his sister have been star hopping, traveling so close to the speed of light when relocating that they essentially haven't aged much during that time. They now feel it's time to settle down and take root.

I have mixed feelings on this book and the others. I will just summarize below.

The good:

Card has created a very interesting world! The story revolves around the planet of Lusitania and the (ultra) Catholic colony of Milagre. The planet was already populated by the pequeninos and their "sacred trees", pequeninos who have proved their worthiness to be sacrificed and reborn as a tree for breeding pequeninos, before the humans arrived. Ender adds the last remaining Hive Queen to the mix. Jane, a good-hearted computer program that sprang to life over the instantaneous ansible network, is there to help whenever needed.

I also loved the other worlds in the story, like "Path", a Chinese colony world, and "Divine Wind", based on Japan. (These specialized worlds remind me of satellite radio stations ...) All the characters and philosophical teachings on Path were easy to digest, but with a strange lack of technology (which I mention later). It isn't explicitly stated, but it seems that some try returning to the simpler life, which seems much like the Amish.

Ender's brother, Peter, is blunt, arrogant and ambitious, but in a good way.

Metaphysics: there's plenty of it here. Card seems a little obsessed with the subject, essentially using the story as a vehicle to discuss some interesting ideas he's undoubtedly formulated over the years. Most of it is interesting... whether you will like it in the doses he feeds us is to be determined. I also found many of his philological and psychological observations and statements, voiced via the books' characters, fun. Hats off to Card's observation and analysis skills :)

The ending has decent, though not complete, closure, Some may not like the way it ends, but I found it refreshing for whatever reason.


The bad:

Well, my biggest complaint is that all three books - Speaker, Xenocide and Children - are really longwinded. He could easily have his characters get their point across with far fewer words. I know editing is one of the hardest things for an author to do, but 10-20% of these books (easy) could go without anyone noticing. More than likely he edited a lot out already, but there's still way too much repetition. A writer needs to have friends (or publishers) who will tell them the truth here.

As noted, many of the characters are interesting; Sadly, many are extremely boring and whinny, really testing the reader's patience. Ender's entire adopted family for instance, which sort of reminded me of the crazy drunk family down the street but with PhDs, whined and argued the entire three books... Of course, Card could have intended these characters to be just that (it probably takes just as much literary talent to create annoying characters as pleasing ones. But since I'm not a writer, I really wouldn't know). Ender's sister is also quite yawning.

The books 'jump the shark' in many spots, esp when it comes to space travel. I won't spoil it, but things get a little unbelievable even for a sci-fi story. Networks that exist in the mind using instantaneous thought transmissions and so on .. it's all in there, a smorgasbord of wild ideas (!)

Concerning future technology, you can really see how Card tries to sidestep the entire 'What will they be able to do in the future?' question. He willfully avoids reference to future vehicles, dwellings, medical advancements, and so on, glossing over any details.

But in the process, this interferes with the story. For instance, Ender's angry young adapted son Miro is seriously injured trying to climb an electrified fence. He suffers sever spinal and nerve damage, making it difficult for him to walk and talk normally (he supposedly brain damaged too, but I saw no evidence in the story). Are we really supposed to believe that some 3000 years in the future, humanity has made no medical advancements to cure nerve damage?? This is but one small example of Card copping out on this area, but maybe he felt he wanted to tell a story and not spend time guessing of future gadgets (you're bound to be mostly wrong anyway, I would think).

Card did seem fascinated - even obsessed - with people (especially women) 'telling off' someone. (Imagine that you're stuck in an RV with a really annoying angry partner, nagging the entire time.) I must have read this 10-15 times in the three books.. basically the same sequence; attack, catch air, attack, catch some more air, and destroy. Since writers often use real world experiences in their work, I can only pity the author :)


The bottom line:

Card's world of Lusitania and many characters are fun, and I feel like a spent a few years of my life on the planet, in a modest house watching the pequeninos and Hive Queen workers moving about. A simple life, indeed. The books were frustrating at times, taking a lot of patience to read them (I skimmed a little here and there, especially when a character decided to tell another one off ..yet again). If you have the time, take up the challenge. I'm glad I did, though they may not be for everyone.

RE: D. Cloyce Smith & More an "epilogue" than a fourth book in this classic series
First off, to say that this fourth installment & finale of Ender's journey should have been a climax instead of a denouement? Do people reading your reviews actually pay any attention to your words and what they actually mean, or do they only see what I see on the surface of your quasi attempts at dabbling with intelligent writing? I suspect the later. The be the end cannot also be the climax. Your point is moot.

A few additional examples of what I am referring to is your unintelligible use of a dichotomy:

"...the final installment, on its own, is as unsatisfying as it is pleasing."

and your ill stated refference to the psychological condition of schizophrenia in your pun on the phrase "split mind":

"...I am of split mind about the finale (and how appropriate, given the schizophrenic existence of its lead characters Ender-Peter and Val-Jane)."

Your ignorance in this condition and attempted use of it to be witty only proves my point. "Ender-Peter" & "Val-Jane" have nothing at all to do with schizophrenia. If anything, it would be referred to in the clinical sense as you have used it, as Dissociative Identity Disorder.

In reading your entire review of this particular book, your rather cavalier use of superficial wit is pathetic. If you are going to give a passive-aggressive analysis (i.e. saying that this book should not have been written versus "don't miss it") you should at least not over extend your ego as much as you have here. I can certainly respect your opinion of anything you may wish to have an opinion on; it is the facade that you put on while writing that irks me to no foreseeable end.

All in all, to turn this around into a REAL review, I can agree that this book was considerably more difficult to read than the other installments in Ender's series. As is the case with all of the other books of Ender's universe, including The Shadow Series, I found it to be challenging and enjoyable at the same time. This book certainly dabbles much more into philosophy and certainly does take a more sophisticated train of thought to grasp some of the concepts of the "dizzying dialogue" as D. Cloyce Smith so stated. Perhaps then his/her superficiality is further illustrated by the fact that this book was "unsatisfying" by said person. This installment is certainly no less worthy to be enjoyed and read as any other in the series. If you wish to be challenged intellectually, then you will certainly enjoy this book as deeply as I did.