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Xenocide (Ender's Saga (Publication Order) #3)

3.71 of 5 stars 3.71 · rating details · 54,002 ratings · 1,496 reviews

The war for survival of the planet Lusitania will be fought in the hearts of a child named Gloriously Bright.

On Lusitania, Ender found a world where humans and pequininos and the Hive Queen could all live together; where three very different intelligent species could find common ground at last. Or so he thought.

Lusitania also harbors the descolada, a virus that kills all h...more

Paperback, 592 pages

Published August 15th 1992 by Tor (first published 1991)

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Jan 23, 2011 blake rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi-fantasy-horror

TOO LONG. I grudgingly give this book a 3, based only on my affection for the characters and the creativity of the story. Most of the book suffers from overkill in one sense or another, which leads to its main problem of length. It´s impossible to deny that Card is brilliant, but I can think of no writers other than Dickens and presumably Tolstoy (although I have yet to read him) who can justifiably write 600 or more pages of novel. Card could have brought this one in at under 500 and lost nothi...more TOO LONG. I grudgingly give this book a 3, based only on my affection for the characters and the creativity of the story. Most of the book suffers from overkill in one sense or another, which leads to its main problem of length. It´s impossible to deny that Card is brilliant, but I can think of no writers other than Dickens and presumably Tolstoy (although I have yet to read him) who can justifiably write 600 or more pages of novel. Card could have brought this one in at under 500 and lost nothing while gaining much due to brevity.

Problems (where to start?):

Much of the length problem was due to tedious treatment of 3 of the main characters. Miro -- look, I get that he doesn´t like being paralyzed and that he´s wallowing in self-pity. You can cut at least 10 pages of his wallowing and I will still understand it. His transformation at the end will still be impactful.

Si Wang-Mu -- the introduction of Path and the gradual revelation of OCD was masterful. What I needed much less of was the hammering home of their inner turmoil over the gods. There´s a specific 5 page passage starting on 430 that as far as I can tell is used solely for Wang-Mu to ponder the nature of godhood. If you´re going to spend 5 pages on her, at least use it to develop the mind-boggling and completely inexplicable split-second decision she makes at the end(view spoiler).

Quara -- I did not swallow this character for one instant. Besides the ridiculous lapse in logic that she´s prepared to wipe out 2 species (including her own) so as not to kill 1 species, I´m supposed to believe that she´s defending Descolada just to get back at her family? And this is the first sign of mental instability that she´s shown in 30 years? Ender couldn´t have "healed" her in all that time (Is he a demi-god with supernatural powers of healing as shown in Speaker for the Dead or isn´t he?)? And then in all the arguments they had with her, no one could have raised the point that a dying Piggy raises at the very end:(view spoiler) This woman is simply insane, and I do not believe that she would have been allowed to affect so much of the goings-on if Card were trying to be at all realistic. She was used to create conflict in an already uber-conflictive book, and guess what -- not necessary! That´s almost 30 pages saved right there. Did anyone else catch the part where she was passing Ela´s defense work to the virus itself? Mentioned but never follwed up on.

My other objections are less grave. There´s the dialogue style, just as present in Speaker and to a lesser extent in Ender´s, where every character is constantly psychoanalyzing every other, and everything they say can be decoded to show a deep personal insight. Although it worked without overtly bothering me in the first two books it got to be too much in this one (perhaps due to the length). People don´t actually talk like this, or if they do I´ve never met them. It´s not natural and became intrusive to my reading experience. There was a bizarre narration sequence on page 100 where Card suddenly addresses the reader in the 2nd person -- jarring to say the least. Finally(view spoiler)

This is one of my longest reviews because this book was very frustrating to me. It was frustrating because there were so many really good things about it (mainly plot and the ethical/geo-political dilemmas), but some really bad ones as well.(less)

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Oct 04, 2007 Samantha Leigh rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone.

Shelves: personalfavorites

Let me tell you the most beautiful story i know.
a man was given a dog, which he loved very much.
the dog went with him everywhere,
but the man could not teach it to do anything useful...
instead it regarded him with the same inscrutable expression.
"thats not a dog, its a wolf!" said the mans wife
"he alone is faithful to me" said the man
and his wife never discussed it with him again.
one day, the man took his dog with him onto his private airplane
and as they flew over the winter mountains
the engines...more

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May 08, 2011 Ezra rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This xkcd web comic makes for the best review of this book. http://xkcd.com/304/

I didn't hate it. The philosophy and science annoyingly reminded me of Tom Clancy's later stuff where he rambles on and on over minutia no one but him and his 7 true fans really enjoy. The rest of us start skimming hoping to find something to make continuing to read worth it. Only to depressingly read the last sentence wondering why successful authors stop using editors.

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Dec 31, 2012 Stephanie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is one of the most profoundly philosophical science fiction books ever written.

Humans have colonized the planet they call Lusitania, home to the "piggies," intelligent mammal-like animals with no technology. Then Ender Wiggin arrives, with the Hive Queen, the last remaining member of her high-tech species. Now three intelligent species must cohabit one world -- for if they leave it, they will take with them the ultimate biological weapon, the descolada virus.

The contact with not one but two...more

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Sep 26, 2011 Jeremy Johnson rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. How many stars do you give a book that starts off good, wanders around dully in the middle, and then becomes offensively horrible at the end? Do you average 5, 3, and 1 star? Do you give it 2 because of the overall picture? Do you give it 1 because it's doubly bad to start out promising and then mislead the reader?

I'm in the last category.

I'm 90% finished, and I think I'm not going to make it much further. I loved the first two books, but this one is sort of awful. It started out with a good mys...more

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Nov 23, 2010 Jacob rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008-2009, sci-fi-fantasy-etc, card

September 2009
Previously: Speaker for the Dead

Almost thirty years have passed since Ender first came to the planet Lusitania (although for his sister Valentine and his stepson Miro, thanks to relativity brought on by near-lightspeed travel, only a week has passed) and events are coming to a head. The descolada virus, fatal to humans but essential to the development of Lusitania's native life, is resisting all efforts to contain it--and the ships sent by Starways Congress to destroy the planet an...more

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Feb 08, 2009 Sarah rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, fiction, ya

Had this been a stand alone novel, rather than a continuation of the Ender Wiggins series, it probably wouldn’t have irritated me so much. In the interview with the author at the end of the CD, he pretty much verifies what I thought throughout the whole novel. The premises of this book is one that he had first thought of as an independent story line, but since Ender Wiggins was a ready made hit, rolled it into the trilogy instead. With each subsequent book, Card looses a bit more of the initial...more

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Jul 31, 2008 Courtney rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This may be my favorite of the Ender series. The dynamic with all of the different forms of alien life and the debate about when and whether it is OK to destroy such life is facsinating to me. I think that part of the reason I enjoy science fiction so much is that, not only does it force me to use my brain, but it can address real life issues in a setting that, although comparable to real life, does not have quite the same affect on my while still making me think about real principles. I am not...more

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Sep 13, 2007 Debbie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: science fiction fans

Shelves: sciencefiction

Xenocide picks up Ender's story on Lusitania. With a starship on the way to destroy the planet, Ender and his family race to find a cure for the descolada, a virus integral to the life cycle of the pequeninos, but lethal to humans. Jane, a sentient being who came to life as a result of the bugger's attempt to contact Ender through the fantasy computer game, may die as a result of her efforts to help Ender stop the destruction of Lusitania. A faction of the pequeninos decides they want to bring t...more

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Mar 12, 2008 Kelly rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, adult

Wow. It took me so long to finish this book after racing through the previous portion of this series. It's really too bad because Orson Scott Card's ideas are definitely worth exploring -- some of the most thought provoking and original of the ones that I have read in my limited science fiction repertoire. Card is truly one of the most brilliant writers I have had the pleasure of reading.

That said, certain portions of the book I just found to be tedious. I finally finished this only after borrow...more

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Aug 29, 2011 aPriL MEOWS often with scratching rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, favorites, metafiction, audiobook, literary, roller-coaster-ride

I adore the Ender series. This is really part one of a two book set in the series. On to the Children of the Mind next which will finish what was started in Xenocide. There are a lot of ideas in the story as everything related to the psychology and philosophy of prejudice is explored in a dramatic speculative fiction setting. Religion and politics, as well as basic species survival imperatives come into play throughout the complete Ender series. Generally the book is very realistic and true to h...more

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Apr 06, 2009 Kate rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Very good exploration of how others perceive your acts; you can actually save the world and be pegged a villan; but it helps the reader understand the self interest in demonizing others.

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Aug 02, 2010 BJ Rose rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, fantasy, futuristic, young-adult

A weak 4* but deserves more than 3*. There were several disappointments in this book, but the main one is that so much of the book was spent on detailing the OCD actions of the 'godspoken', that the author decided to write a part 2 Children of the Mind rather than dealing now with resolving the problems of Jane's survival and the splintering of Ender's adopted family - in fact, those problems just kept getting bigger! And I'm not sure i'm optimistic enough to want to read the 4th book of what sh...more

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Aug 09, 2011 Jen added it

I began reading this series because my boyfriend said my philosophy of human connection resembles Card's philotes. I enjoyed Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, but I was impatiently waiting for philotic connections to be described. Xenocide finally delivered, and I will never forget the AHA! moment when I read that passage.

Xenocide's fully-developed characters seem real because they act in response to deeply-felt emotions. In particular, I was surprised by Card's sensitivity toward Novinha....more

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Mar 13, 2011 Peter added it · review of another edition

A wealth of emotional, scientific and philosophical conflict: Third in Orson Scott Card's "Ender" cycle, "Xenocide" charts the events on the planet of Lusitania, home to all three sentient species in existence, two of which are not represented anywhere else in the universe. All living things on Lusitania are subject to a virus, the Descolada, which attacks and modifies the genetic information of the host and is evolving rapidly to the extend that combating it requires constant alteration of viri...more

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Mar 03, 2009 Ashley rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi

"So let me tell you what I think about gods. I think a real god is not going to be so scared or angry that he tries to keep other people down . . . A real god doesn‚Äôt care about control. A real god already has control of everything that needs controlling. Real gods would want to teach you how to be just like them."

The third part of the Ender Quartet, the sequel to Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, which takes place on the Brazilian colony of Lusitania -- the habitat of all three known spe...more "So let me tell you what I think about gods. I think a real god is not going to be so scared or angry that he tries to keep other people down . . . A real god doesn‚Äôt care about control. A real god already has control of everything that needs controlling. Real gods would want to teach you how to be just like them."

The third part of the Ender Quartet, the sequel to Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, which takes place on the Brazilian colony of Lusitania -- the habitat of all three known species in the universe: humans, pequeninos, and the Hive Queen's buggers -- and a planet called Path, a descendant colony of China whose inhabitants believe themselves to be "godspoken." The plot is concerned with three main issues: the development of a cure and an understanding of the descolada virus, which is threatening to wipe out all life it comes into contact with, but which is necessary for pequenino survival, and the existence of which has led Starways Congress to condemn the planet to destruction; the growing conflicts between species on all planets and the ethical, spiritual, and philosophical dilemmas that result; and finally, the quest of three individuals on Path to find out what happened to the Lusitania fleet which was sent by Starways Congress to destroy Lusitania -- a "godspoken," his daughter, and her servant -- all who will be instrumental in the shape of things to come.

I enjoyed this book. As always, Card manages to make you care about his characters at the same time as making you think in ways you never have before about religion, philosophy, and the nature of life. Reading one of his books is like a religious experience; I always walk away after finishing one feeling as if I've really accomplished something, like I'm a better person for having done it. For this reason alone all of his stories are 'A' quality, but this one misses the mark (as does it's sequel, Children of the Mind) in terms of narrative structure and control. More on this below. Overall, though, this book is well worth your time, if only for the education of your soul (and the tying up of a few plotlines from Speaker for the Dead).

I love Jane -- so much. I also really enjoy all the ethical dilemmas that Card so brilliantly orchestrates. His creation of a planet full of people who believe themselves to have the ability to speak with the gods, but who have really been genetically manipulated into having a specific form of obsessive compulsive disorder, is frankly genius. But I think my favorite part about this book (and the rest of the Ender Quartet) is the way that they force you to examine the way that you see the world through the use of the pequeninos and the buggers. Everything looks different and a hell of a lot scarier when you don't understand it.

The thing that makes Speaker for the Dead such an A+(++++++) book, a masterpiece really, is the way that Card interweaves character, plotting, pacing, and action. Speaker for the Dead is the perfect length, with things being revealed at just the right pace, and tension perfectly distributed. The result of this is a feeling of perfect completion upon finishing. The narrative is also almost all self-contained. With the exception of several unresolved problems (how they're going to stop the Lusitania fleet, what will happen to Miro, etc.) the conflict of the story is perfectly resolved. This is where Xenocide suffers. Xenocide and Children of the Mind were originally supposed to have been one book, but the narrative became too long and Card was forced to separate the two. Unfortunately this hurts both stories. Xenocide feels incomplete in terms of theme, and Children of the Mind feels almost trite in comparison to its behemoth of a brother. Ultimately, it would have been a much more successful story with a good paring down, and combining the two into one, as Card originally intended. And, to end on a whine, Ender's fate was pretty upsetting and I'm not sure what exactly about it bothers me, other than I felt cheated. Intellectually, the decision to give his soul to the Peter-body was a good one. He can now live out his life without the immense burden of guilt of having committed xenocide, which has haunted him since Ender's Game. While I know this is good, I still can't help but feel cheated in some way. But I digress. Oh, and also, I really hate Qing-Jao.(less)

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Jan 18, 2009 Joy rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Ender fans

The Congress fleet is on its way to destroy Lusitania. Their order was already sent to the fleet to disintegrate the planet. That's not just because of the rebellion of the Lusitanian humans, who have formed a community with the other species. It's also because the virus that transformed the biosphere of the planet will probably be fatal to all life forms in the Hundred Worlds.

Then the fleet disappears. The search of a brilliant girl on the planet Path for the missing fleet leads to the discove...more

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Apr 17, 2013 Sharon The Cat rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I loved the plot, I just hate how much it was hijacked for hysterical women. Novinha is horrible to everyone about everything, and this book just served to highlight how every single bad thing in her life had to be turned into a huge thing that everyone in Milagre had to stop the world and pay attention to. Her marriage was her own personal exhibitionist self-torture porn. She did obvious and irreparable damage to her children, but she never felt like divorcing him for their sake. Not while she...more

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Mar 24, 2013 Jake rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Let me tell you the most beautiful story i know.
a man was given a dog, which he loved very much.
the dog went with him everywhere,
but the man could not teach it to do anything useful...
instead it regarded him with the same inscrutable expression.
"that's not a dog, its a wolf!" said the mans wife
"he alone is faithful to me" said the man
and his wife never discussed it with him again.
one day, the man took his dog with him onto his private airplane
and as they flew over the winter mountains
the engines...more

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Mar 08, 2013 Gary rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Extremely compelling and gripping read. From the way way the chapters are composed to the capitulating way Mr Card draws you completely into the character of the brother, the sister and most especially Ender (Andrew Wiggin), himself!

I have prayed long and hard for them to turn this film into a movie, but I almost gave up ever seeing this manifest itself in my lifetime, I first read the book when I turn 18 years old and to this day think its my greatest ever fictional read. I finally got the news...more

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Feb 07, 2013 Al rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The war for survival of the planet Lusitania will be fought in the hearts of a child named Gloriously Bright.

On Lusitania, Ender found a world where humans and pequininos and the Hive Queen could all live together; where three very different intelligent species could find common ground at last. Or so he thought.

Lusitania also harbors the descolada, a virus that kills all humans it infects, but which the pequininos require in order to become adults. The Startways Congress so fears the effects

...more

The war for survival of the planet Lusitania will be fought in the hearts of a child named Gloriously Bright.

Lusitania also harbors the descolada, a virus that kills all humans it infects, but which the pequininos require in order to become adults. The Startways Congress so fears the effects of the descolada, should it escape from Lusitania, that they have ordered eh destruction of the entire planet, and all who live there. The Fleet is on its way, a second xenocide seems inevitble.

Amazon.com Review

Orson Scott Card's Xenocide is a space opera with verve. In this continuation of Ender Wiggin's story, the Starways Congress has sent a fleet to immolate the rebellious planet of Lusitania, home to the alien race of pequeninos, and home to Ender Wiggin and his family. Concealed on Lusitania is the only remaining Hive Queen, who holds a secret that may save or destroy humanity throughout the galaxy. Familiar characters from the previous novels continue to grapple with religious conflicts and family squabbles while inventing faster-than-light travel and miraculous virus treatments. Throw into the mix an entire planet of mad geniuses and a self-aware computer who wants to be a martyr, and it's hard to guess who will topple the first domino. Due to the densely woven and melodramatic nature of the story, newcomers to Ender's tale will want to start reading this series with the first books, Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead. --Brooks Peck

From Publishers Weekly

As the penultimate story in the series that began with the impeccable Ender's Game, this volume is essential for fans but neither the book nor audio rise to the level of the first two volumes. The planet Lusitania is home to a small Portuguese colony, a newly discovered sentient race called the Pequininos, the last surviving Hive Queen of the Buggers, and Descolada, a virus that will destroy the human race if it gets off-planet. Because of the virus, a starship fleet is dispatched to destroy Lusitania. On the distant Chinese world of Path, a young pious girl influences history by uncovering secrets kept well-buried for millennia and in the process sealing the fate of both Lusitania and Path. The sanctimonious tone used by the girl's reader has great depth and fits the character so perfectly that she creates a fully dimensional, aggravating character. The pacing is as uneven as the cast's ability to maintain their Chinese and Portuguese accents. The music is randomly placed throughout and loses its effectiveness. A great deal of talent went into this production and while the good parts dominate, this is still a weaker effort in the series. Available as a TOR paperback. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

(less)

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Feb 05, 2013 Stephen rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was throughly enjoying enders story, until i got to this book. I was really into the story and the characters and all that but then i came to the end of this story. Spoiler alert: all of a sudden, its like the writer hit a wall and just thought, oh- i know, i will just make up this completely ridiculous outside place to literally create new characters for me so i can keep writing. And thats what he did. I know this book is fiction and set in the future but that is far too unbelievable for me,...more

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Jan 23, 2013 Samp rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I really enjoyed Orson Scott Card's Ender series, however the books seem to take a long time to tell the story. It's excellent writing, in my opinion, with strong character development (which is appreciated). I realize why he spends so many pages building the story line, it's very complex futuristic science upon which the story hinges (and makes it somewhat plausible to the reader in a futuristic/scientific kind of way). However, it just goes on, and on, and on. In my opinion, he probably could...more

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Dec 28, 2012 Deleen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really liked this book. It made up for the emotional and arrogant tone of Speaker for the Dead by bringing Ender down a peg. It also introduced some unique ideas that take an imaginitive look at quantum entanglement by using the idea of something called a philote. I thought it was very imaginative to tie that in with a philisophical discussion on what makes a soul and what agency is.

Further, it was fun to think of space as a function of time and how that relates to our perception. It was some...more

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Nov 16, 2012 Jeremy rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

** spoiler alert ** How many stars do you give a book that starts off good, wanders around dully in the middle, and then becomes offensively horrible at the end? Do you average 5, 3, and 1 star? Do you give it 2 because of the overall picture? Do you give it 1 because it's doubly bad to start out promising and then mislead the reader?

I'm in the last category.

I'm 90% finished, and I think I'm not going to make it much further. I loved the first two books, but this one is sort of awful. It started...more

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Aug 28, 2012 Liz rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Aug 20, 2012 Chris rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi

*** Card's open bigotry toward the LGBT community has crossed a line with me that will prevent me from ever reading any more of his works. It's a pity, because few writers in any genre handle topics of religion and the human condition as well as he. ***

If philosophy and mysticism are your thing, and you enjoyed the two previous novels in the series, "Xenocide" will blow your wig right off. Of course we get resolution to the cliffhanger at the end of "Speaker for the Dead." There's also a fantast...more

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Aug 04, 2012 Eric Herboso rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: soft-science-fiction

Xenocide, like most other novels in the Ender's Series, receives five stars from me. I know there are parts of it I strongly disagree with, and there are even a few portions that make me pause as a reader when it comes to my suspension of disbelief -- but if you can manage to read Xenocide as a description of an alternate universe where the philosophy and physics that Card posits really is real, then the story is amazing.

Nevertheless, I cannot stress how much I disagree with the concept of categ...more Xenocide, like most other novels in the Ender's Series, receives five stars from me. I know there are parts of it I strongly disagree with, and there are even a few portions that make me pause as a reader when it comes to my suspension of disbelief -- but if you can manage to read Xenocide as a description of an alternate universe where the philosophy and physics that Card posits really is real, then the story is amazing.

Nevertheless, I cannot stress how much I disagree with the concept of categories like ramen and varelse which play such a strong part of the story. These concepts are NOT valid in real life. But as this is fiction, I will try not to harp on this point too much. (c:

Without giving the storyline away, I also must comment on the physics of this book. There's a great tradition in soft science fiction to make it where the outrageous physical phenomena are true in-universe, even though they'd be horribly implausible theories in reality. This book does much of the same. But Card does it in a way that reminds me of Dan Brown; I can almost see him winking as he writes this stuff, which is more than a little disconcerting. If you do not know what I'm talking about, then GOOD. read the series and enjoy it for the fiction that it is. It is a wonderful novel. But, if you want to know what I'm talking about after you finish the entire Ender Series, I suggest you look into reading some of what Orson Scott Card has said in interviews about this stuff. It's more than a little disturbing when authors like Dan Brown or Orson Scott Card start to confuse their own works of fiction with reality.

In the end, the book nevertheless gets the full five stars just because it's so damn good. I enjoyed the commentary Card gave on sexuality, love, disability, OCD, politics, and the utter weirdness of varelse. Of course, I disagree with some of the conclusions reached (Miro's storyline especially pissed me off), but that's only to be expected.

Oh, and while I was doing my reread of this book, I had my iphone on shuffle for background music, and Ravel's Bolero happened to start playing while I was reading about Qing-jao. The effect was awesome. (c:(less)

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Apr 04, 2012 Ashish rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi

Part 3 of the Ender series, and last of the trilogy, Xenocide displays all the classic symptoms of a trilogy going bad - the good plotlines and ideas have been used up, and the loose ends remaining are so complex now after remaining unresolved over the last 2 books that it would take a miracle to clear them up.
In a sinse, that's exactly what Orson Scott Card serves up - a straight-up miracle. There is a backstory and the reasoning for how it would work - but it's too rushed for something of thi...more

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Mar 12, 2012 Alexander rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Let me start out by saying I liked Ender's Game a lot. It contained moments of action to make it exciting to read, and yet had enough philosophical undertones and moments of peace to make it much more than just your run-of-the-mill shoot 'em up adventure. When I finished it, I was excited to discover it had sequels. I now feel like those sequels might have detracted from what made Ender's Game such a good read (<---see what I did there?), though.

Xenocide (and, for that matter, Speakers of the...more Let me start out by saying I liked Ender's Game a lot. It contained moments of action to make it exciting to read, and yet had enough philosophical undertones and moments of peace to make it much more than just your run-of-the-mill shoot 'em up adventure. When I finished it, I was excited to discover it had sequels. I now feel like those sequels might have detracted from what made Ender's Game such a good read (<---see what I did there?), though.

Xenocide (and, for that matter, Speakers of the Dead) felt a little detached from Ender's Game, almost as if the books are unconnected. Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that the author decided to change things up a little and write something different from Ender's Game; however, I don't think that particular strategy worked very well with these sequels. I know this is more a complaint of the series than of Xenocide, but it sort of bothered me that Ender was suddenly an old man in only the second book. It seemed like sort of an odd leap for me. More importantly, however, I was extremely sad to discover that Ender was no longer the main protagonist of the series, especially in Xenocide. Ender is now simply part of the cast, and although he is still a large part of it, Xenocide left me wanting something more from him. Ender is a very complex and interesting character, and I feel like more could have been done with that. I'll say this right now: my favorite books have always been ones where one character is focused on throughout the book. In Xenocide, there are probably 10 pairs of eyes the reader is forced to look through.

Many of the characters themselves also sort of bugged me. Foremost among these was Han Qing-jao, who pretty much fits the stereotype for young-genius-heroine-girl (at least until the end). By the time she went crazy at the end, I was getting a little sick of the way she could figure out every mystery, solve every problem etc. etc. One could certainly argue this is the way Scott-Card wanted it; she is, after all, a genetically enhanced genius. However, I've never enjoyed reading stories focused on a genius who can solve any problem. Even with her OCD, Qing-jao was a little two perfect, in my opinion. Additionally, although this is just a minor opinion of mine, Quara was getting very annoying with her whole "save the virus" heroine act. I think this was the way the author wanted it, though; it is usually a good writer who can cause a reader to either very strongly agree/disagree with a character's motives or behavior.

Finally, the story itself was a bit too bland for me. While I am by no means complaining that the story should've been filled with swashbuckling action and adventure, I found it a little disappointed that although Ender's Game was filled with edge-of-your-seat action, its sequels have so far contained little to no action. It seems very much like Orson Scott-Card was targeting a different audience with his sequels than he was for the original Ender's Game, which is very odd. In addition to all this, I found some of the plot points in Xenocide to work a bit too well. Specifically, I felt the "Outside" was a bit cheesy. It seemed to solve all the problems in the book in one fell swoop, and that, to me, is lazy story-telling.

All in all, I didn't hate Xenocide. Much like Ender's Game, it was a compelling story that I finished relatively fast. However, in comparison to Ender's Game, it was a disappointment in almost every regard; the characters, the story, and even the way in which the story was told. I think Ender's Game itself would have been better off as a stand-alone novel, just as its direct sequels would have been better off as a stand-alone trilogy. (less)

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About Orson Scott Card

Orson Scott Card is the author of the novels Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, and Speaker for the Dead, which are widely read by adults and younger readers, and are increasingly used in schools.
Besides these and other science fiction novels, Card writes contemporary fantasy (Magic Street, Enchantment, Lost Boys), biblical novels (Stone Tables, Rachel and Leah), the American frontier fantasy series Th...more

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“The wise are not wise because they make no mistakes. They are wise because they correct their mistakes as soon as they recognize them.” — 120 people liked it

“Madness, and then illumination.” — 96 people liked it

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Xenocide (Ender's Saga (Publication Order) #3)

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