‘There is always, always more to learn.’

The Starways Congress is shutting down the net, world by world, and has gathered a fleet to destroy the planet Lusitania. Jane, the evolved computer intelligence, can save the sentient races (humans, buggers and pequeninos ) but only for a while. Once enough of the net is closed down, Jane will not have access to sufficient processing power to move the ships.

In the meantime, Ender is failing and his children must save Jane if they are to save themselves. Jane is losing her memories and concentration as the net is shut down. If Jane is to survive, she must find a way to transfer her aiúa (or soul) to a human body – and who better than Young Val or Peter? But which one, and what will be the consequences of the choice? And what about Ender himself?

‘To light a candle of truth where there was no truth to be found. That was Ender’s gift to us, to free us from the illusion that any one explanation will ever contain the final answer for all time, for all hearers.’

I have very mixed feelings about this instalment of the Ender saga. I enjoyed the first three books more: the story moved at a different pace and the solutions posed to dilemmas were not always so neat. In this instalment, I found elements of the worlds created irritating, and the Jane that was saved was not the Jane I had come to admire over the course of the series. At the end of ‘Xenocide’ I cared enough about the characters and their worlds to keep reading in order to see how the various elements were resolved. For the sake of completeness, I’m glad I finished but it really didn’t work for me. I am dissatisfied: by the neatness of the happy ending, and by elements of the transformation of Jane.

‘And then it was over.’

Jennifer Cameron-Smith