Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “Xenocide (Ender's Saga, #3)” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

Xenocide

(Ender's Saga #3)

Orson Scott Card,

Piotr W. Cholewa (Translator)

3.80 · Rating details · 145,811 ratings · 3,907 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

Get A Copy

Mass Market Paperback, 592 pages

Published July 15th 1996 by Tor Books (first published July 1st 1991)

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about Xenocide, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Books

7,180 books — 21,984 voters

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Best Science Fiction

3,050 books — 5,353 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 3.80 ·

Rating details

· 145,811 ratings · 3,907 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of Xenocide (Ender's Saga, #3)

Oct 27, 2010 Ezra rated it it was ok

Shelves: science-fiction, read-in-2010, author-male

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. ...more

flag 161 likes · Like · see review

Jun 28, 2009 Andrew rated it liked it

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 Tolstoy and Dickens (barely) that can justifiably write 600 or more pages of novel. Yes I'm aware I'm including Dostoyevsky in this statement (sorry Karamazov-lovers). Card could hav ...more

flag 89 likes · Like · see review

Dec 16, 2014 Will M. rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own, 2014, space, sci-fi

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The war for the survival of the planet Lusitania will be fought in the heart of a child named gloriously bright.

Says the cover. Such a misleading thing to say. This novel was 500 pages of bullshit, and 91 pages of slight enjoyment. More or less 81.8% of useless shit.

Nominated for the Hugo award? Thank heavens it didn't win.

I loved Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, but Xenocide was just bullshit. It even felt like Card didn't write this. How could he create amazing characters, and manage to The war for the survival of the planet Lusitania will be fought in the heart of a child named gloriously bright.

Says the cover. Such a misleading thing to say. This novel was 500 pages of bullshit, and 91 pages of slight enjoyment. More or less 81.8% of useless shit.

Nominated for the Hugo award? Thank heavens it didn't win.

I loved Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, but Xenocide was just bullshit. It even felt like Card didn't write this. How could he create amazing characters, and manage to make them lifeless all of a sudden? I didn't feel any kind of connection with any of the characters in this third novel. To make things worse, this novel is way too long. 591 pages, rambling on about uninteresting stuff.

The main goal of this novel I believe was to keep things interesting by introducing another possibility of a "xenocide", but all it did was introduce another set of alien species that are not even likeable. They were flat and unrelatable. I'm chinese, and I couldn't even relate to the characters. They were written that bad. I even had to check the front cover to see if Card wrote this alone. Unbelievable how much I hated this novel.

The list of annoying things does not end. Card made the characters seem like they were trying to be like Ender a lot. Miro, Grego, and Wang-mu were all pretentious in this novel. They were trying too hard to be likeable, but they seemed like losers. Especially Wang-mu, and the twist that Card wrote in the near end about her was not even good. She was not a likeable character from the start, so relentlessly trying to make her likeable is not going to work. You might ask, who could be more annoying than Wang-mu? Qing-jao. Another pretentious little bitch. All her whining from the start annoyed me already. I got it the first time, you don't want the life that you were given, so stop whining about it every fucking time you appear in a chapter.

Ender himself was fucking unbearable in this novel. I saw this coming already, but Card just made it worse.

"Ela, after you've inadvertently killed a couple of people with your bear hands, either you learn to control your temper or you lose your humanity."

You killed people with your bear hands? You fucking killed an entire species, shouldn't that be the cause of your "losing of humanity"? Terrible example given, and I thought you were supposed to be the amazing speaker of the dead/murderer of the buggers. And up to now, I still can't believe that he married Novinha. She was fucking crazy right from the start.

The plot itself ventured off a cliff. Instead of focusing on the main story, it focused on the art of whining instead. We get more of scrubbing grease off hands, Miro's paralysis, Ender's marriage, and Novinha's family problem rather than the fucking possibility of a Xenocide. Let me add the constant whining of everyone regarding Jane's "humanity". I don't give a rat's ass who created her, please talk about the fucking Xenocide instead. Based on the summary at the back, this should've been the best of the 3. Instead, I'm considering giving up on the whole series because of this being such a bullshit novel. Once I've calmed down though, I believe I'll be reading the next novel.

1.5/5 stars. I gave this 2 stars because I still have an ounce of mercy left in my system. Card could've done better, and he already proved that with the first two novels. I'm not sure what happened here, but I'm hoping the next novel wouldn't be this bad.

This novel should be called "The Art of Whining" and not "Xenocide". ...more

flag 56 likes · Like · see review

Sep 12, 2012 Stephanie rated it it was amazing

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.

Human contact with not one but t ...more

flag 52 likes · Like · see review

Jan 25, 2009 Sarah rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, fantasy, 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

flag 48 likes · Like · see review

Oct 04, 2007 Samantha Leigh rated it really liked it

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

flag 45 likes · Like · see review

Aug 11, 2008 Stephen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audiobook, 1990-1999, alien-cultures, favorite-ideas, award-nominee-hugo, multiple-award-nominee, award-nominee-locus, political-fiction, science-fiction, love-those-words

5.0 stars. I was amazed by how good this book is. Speaker for the Dead is one of my all time favorite books and this book picks up right where Speaker left off. Superb characters, amazingly orginal concepts of life and the universe and intense ethical debate (Card's strong suit) highlight this exceptional novel. Highly recommended.

Nominee: Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (1992)
Nominee: Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (1992) ...more

flag 40 likes · Like · see review

Jan 20, 2020 Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, science, 20th-century, united-states, fantasy

Xenocide (Ender's Saga #3), Orson Scott Card

Xenocide (1991) is a science fiction novel by American writer Orson Scott Card, the third book in the Ender's Game series. On Lusitania, Ender finds a world where humans and pequeninos (Portuguese for "Little Ones") and the Hive Queen could all live together. However, Lusitania also harbors the descolada, a virus that kills all humans it infects, but which the pequeninos require in order to become adults. The Starways Congress so fears the effects of t ...more

flag 43 likes · Like · see review

May 05, 2014 Kaora rated it it was ok

I can't say that I enjoyed this as much as the other two.

I found the characters bland. There wasn't one that I could connect with among them, other than Jane, and perhaps Valentine. The women were all ridiculously emotional, leading to foolish and irrational decisions that made me want to scream. (Quara, Gloriously ~~Boring~~ Bright, Novinha) The only redeeming factor was a "female" computer and Valentine, as the other women just opened their mouths and made more problems or spent the entire book ta ...more

flag 29 likes · Like · see review

Jun 18, 2012 Riku Sayuj rated it liked it

Shelves: r-r-rs, genre-fiction

Ender’s series has long been one of my favorite in the sci-fi genre and that is why I am slowly working through the series long after I have moved on from most of my childhood favorites. There was something about Ender’s world - even for a reader who was most at home with the most elaborate of high fantasy and sci-fi, the subdued world of Ender had a different sort of fascination. It did not try to sell a fancy world or any fancy technology or an advanced race of humans - none of the regular tro ...more

flag 23 likes · Like · see review

Aug 11, 2009 Spider the Doof Warrior rated it did not like it

Shelves: shun

I keep taking away stars. I am cruel. The problem with this book is the use of stereotypes and isn't it sort of, I don't know, unsettling to people how monochromatic these worlds are? A world where everyone is Chinese or Japanese or Brazilian. Where would someone like me fit in? Just because you're in a world full of people like you ethnically or religiously doesn't mean you will fit in.

This is sort of the same problem in Children of the Mind too, where you have whole worlds were most of the pe ...more

flag 22 likes · Like · see review

Apr 23, 2011 Jeremy Johnson rated it did not like it

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

flag 21 likes · Like · see review

May 13, 2019 Dave rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction-not-classic, science-fiction-classic, read-borrowed, science-fiction-all

It’s Getting Complicated

Xenocide, the third book of the Ender’s Game series, continues the story from Speaker For the Dead. It is a far more difficult story to follow as it is filled with philosophy, physics, religion, and strategy, much more than action and could perhaps have risked some editing. As it is, though some might find it obtuse, others will find its moral quandaries illuminating and rewarding.

Things are happening in the far-off planet where several intelligent species are co-existi ...more

flag 20 likes · Like · see review

Jan 27, 2020 Patrick rated it really liked it

Shelves: sci-fi

I really enjoyed this. In all honesty, stick Ender Wiggin in any book and I'll probably love it. Unlike the last book which was basically a 300+ page ethnography, Xenocide went into the looming threats of the descolada virus, the growing threat of war between piggy and human, and the survival of every race in the galaxy. On the negative side, this book could have gone through some editing, as parts seemed to be long winded and overly drawn out. But overall, I really liked it. ...more

flag 16 likes · Like · see review

Jun 18, 2007 Kelly rated it liked it

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

flag 13 likes · Like · see review

Aug 29, 2011 aPriL does feral sometimes rated it it was amazing

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

I adore the Ender series. 'Xenocide' by Orson Scott Card is really part one of a two-book set in the Ender series, and it's book 3 if reading in order. On to 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 ...more

flag 14 likes · Like · see review

Oct 28, 2011 Josh Hopping rated it did not like it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Three months ago I was introduced to Orson Scott Card through his book “Ender’s Game.” Seeing how awesome his envisioning of modern technology (a lot of which have come true since the book was published) and study of human nature was, I eagerly jumped into the second book of the series, “Speaker for the Dead.”

This book was even better!!

True, it was not as action backed as “Ender’s Game” but nonetheless it was an amazing book that dove deep into the human behavior. How does one treat an alien rac Three months ago I was introduced to Orson Scott Card through his book “Ender’s Game.” Seeing how awesome his envisioning of modern technology (a lot of which have come true since the book was published) and study of human nature was, I eagerly jumped into the second book of the series, “Speaker for the Dead.”

This book was even better!!

True, it was not as action backed as “Ender’s Game” but nonetheless it was an amazing book that dove deep into the human behavior. How does one treat an alien race that is different than one’s own? How about a human who is reacting out of guilt and secrecy? Can you learn to understand someone, even when they are ‘evil’ and do bad things?

It was with great joy that I picked up the third book in the series, “Xenocide” (especially since book two ended before everything was resolved).

Sadly enough, I have to report that “Xenocide” failed to uphold the same standard as the first two… =(

Well, kind of… the first three-fourth of the book was fairly good as Card tried hard to explore how one could live side-by-side with aliens, who by their very existence, places your life in danger. He also explores the nature of life and what it means to be alive.

I grant you that these are not easy questions/topics to explore…so some grace must be given to Card for tackling such concepts. However I must say that Card ended up backing himself into a corner with tons of major problems for his characters that could not be solved easily…

So instead of letting them die or having them fail, he jumps the shark and solves 95% of the problems with one action.

[Spoiler Alert!]

Normally I let an author get away with as there are times when something has to give…yet… when Card has his characters recreating their bodies, figuring out faster-than-light travel, bring 3,000 year old dead people to life, and developing new forms of a virus by simply wishing for it… sorry, I can’t go there… that is a tad much for me.

True, he develops a huge ‘scientific’ theory/argument for such wishing…but no…can’t buy it. =?

Sorry, Mr. Card, but you lost me. ...more

flag 12 likes · Like · see review

Mar 03, 2009 Ashley rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: political-plots-and-maneuverings, space-opera, sci-fi, virtual-worlds, the-robots-will-kill-us-all, class-gender-race

"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 "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. ...more

flag 13 likes · Like · see review

Nov 06, 2013 Darth rated it did not like it

Shelves: orson-scott-card

This was on it way to being a middle of the road - didnt love it or hate sci-fi novel, when a sermon broke out. I spent a number of hours getting preached at, and I didnt care for it.
It didnt even feel like the well-intentioned if ham fisted style of RAH trying to dole out advice / his world view - it was literally a sermon.

Jesus save the aliens, and in the end, just wishing (and a self-aware super-computer) can make miracles. It was a pretty bad excuse for fiction. And the ending resolved very ...more

flag 11 likes · Like · see review

Jun 21, 2016 Tudor Vlad rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, science-fiction

When I first started this series I was afraid that the first book would be good and then the quality would slowly start to dip, because the goodreads rating did so and you have to trust user ratings, right? I was so wrong. Not only was Speaker for the Dead so much better than Ender's Game, but now, Xenocide is EVEN BETTER than Speaker for the Dead. The character of Han Qing-jao was probably the best thing in this book, and probably the best storyline this series had to offer (I reserve the right ...more

flag 10 likes · Like · see review

Jul 03, 2020 Lancelot Schaubert rated it liked it

Ender's Game was one of the best modern novels I've ever read, especially in this genre. It surprised, delighted, and asked ethical and epistemological questions I hadn't thought to ask up until having read it (not to mention some fascinating universe-wide questions of pneumatology, psychology, and hamartiology). Speaker for the Dead was better and did the same, though in an almost entirely different genre — that book changed how I offer eulogies forever, changed the nature of funerals in my min ...more

flag 9 likes · Like · see review

Sep 13, 2007 Debbie rated it liked it

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

flag 9 likes · Like · see review

Sep 04, 2009 BJ Rose rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobooks, young-adult, fantasy, futuristic

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

flag 11 likes · Like · see review

Aug 18, 2013 Hitandmiss rated it it was ok

Short off topic review - I often wonder when someone does something legendary did they know what they were doing was going to be epic, or did they just fluke it?

After reading this, Enders game seems more of a fluke to me, then something OSC knew would be legendary. Even more so when you hear his vile homophobic remarks and his wild conspiracies about Obama. I don't know at what point OSC came to Jesus, but this level of Christianity in this book is overwhelming, and no real counter argument is e ...more

flag 8 likes · Like · see review

Mar 26, 2018 Andy rated it liked it

Shelves: 2018-read

So the first half of this book was pretty entertaining. I was enjoying the tension in the characters and plot, but in the second half I was just so over everything. All the philosophical threads were talked to death and I was so bored with it by the end. I want to know how they were going to solve the problem rather than talking about random and very obscure ideas. Also I was confused by the ending. I'm not sure if they solved all of the problems introduced in this book and it left me hanging. I ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Dec 06, 2018 Dara rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead are lucid, well-plotted novels with memorable characters, undergirded by their author's regressive politics. Xenocide, however, starts out lucid and well-plotted before its author loses control of the ship and goes belly-up into the briny deep. Sorry, did I mention I'm also reading Moby-Dick right now? You may want to get out of the splash zone if you don't want to get soaked by any further nautical metaphors.

Card sets up a doomsday scenario for his characte ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

May 10, 2013 Jessica rated it it was ok · review of another edition

The short-version review for this book comes in the form of an image I’d like to plant in your head.

Imagine yourself standing in a large, densely populated area. Think Grand Central Terminal, Times Square or the floor at Comic Con on a Saturday. You’re standing there, head tilted back, eyes squeezed shut, hands clenched into fists at your side as you scream out every ounce of anger, frustration, confusion, and disappointment that you’ve ever experienced in your lifetime, from the depths of your ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Jul 30, 2012 Duffy Pratt rated it it was ok

Shelves: science-fiction

The fleet is coming to destroy planet Lusitania! The piggies may counter by releasing the Descolada virus to destroy all humanity! No matter what Ender decides, an intelligent life form may be annihilated! Holy ethical dilemma, Batman! Let's talk freshman philosophy.

Speaker for the Dead was about what it is to be human. This one raises the stakes, and it's mostly about what it is to be a god. And here, Card basically goes a bit heavy handed on the Mormon theology. A true god would want to make p The fleet is coming to destroy planet Lusitania! The piggies may counter by releasing the Descolada virus to destroy all humanity! No matter what Ender decides, an intelligent life form may be annihilated! Holy ethical dilemma, Batman! Let's talk freshman philosophy.

Speaker for the Dead was about what it is to be human. This one raises the stakes, and it's mostly about what it is to be a god. And here, Card basically goes a bit heavy handed on the Mormon theology. A true god would want to make people just like he is. In the end, we are all gods. And there's even a hint at the end of the idea that people can make it possible for their ancestors to enter the kingdom of heaven. I don't really object to this morphing of Mormon theology into sci-fi, but I did roll my eyes a couple of times.

The philosophy that really bothered me in this book was an extensive discussion of free will/determinism. We are three thousand years into the future, and these are the smartest people who ever lived, and the discussion here basically falls into the simplest trap. Valentine says that the problem with determinism, if its true, is that it leads to a lack of responsibility. That totally misses the point. If it's true, determinism is useless. It only might lead to a lack of responsibility if its false and people believe in it and act on it. If it's true, people will simply do whatever has been determined.

Even that wasn't my big issue with the book. One of the strengths of the first two books was Card's ability to get you to care some for the characters. Here, I had the feeling at times that he was working to achieve the opposite. There were times when I thought the best way to end the book would be to have the fleet receive it's orders and wipe these insufferable people out. That would still leave the insufferable people on Path, but one can't have everything, can one?

Finally, Card thoroughly writes himself into a box in this book, and I had some curiosity as to how he was going to get himself out of the box. I didn't suspect that he was going to have a physicist "invent" a pair of ruby slippers for Ender, so that all Ender would have to do is wish very hard that "There's no place like home." With these slippers we get faster than light travel, the fountain of youth, and a Star Trek style replicator without the limitations. Pretty nifty device. It makes pretty much anything come true as long as the person using it wishes hard enough for it (holds its pattern in their mind). Too bad Card didn't actually have such a device, then he could have wished for something other than a deus ex machina machine. ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Apr 17, 2013 Sharon The Cat rated it it was ok

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

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Jul 03, 2010 Andrew rated it did not like it

This was a very weakly written book. OSC has way too much dialogue without purpose, and weak characters, which is a sad way for Ender to have developed from the first book, Ideas and discussions and plot all meander throughout the novel, then OSC tries to wrap it up with a ridiculous deus ex machina that was frustrating to be asked to believe in. OSC's concept of gaiaology was another point of frustration. If you cannot include decent science in science fiction on a consistent basis, then don't ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Aud Sweatshirts: Xenocide by Orson Scott Card	1	7	Aug 29, 2014 02:19PM
Madison Mega-Mara...: Ender's Game Book	1	5	Aug 25, 2012 07:21AM

Readers also enjoyed

See similar books…

Genres

Science Fiction

3,653 users

Fiction

1,345 users

Fantasy

433 users

Science Fiction Fantasy

354 users

Young Adult

210 users

Audiobook

113 users

Space

107 users

Science Fiction > Aliens

106 users

Novels

89 users

Space > Space Opera

75 users

See top shelves…

About Orson Scott Card

Orson Scott Card

17,401 followers

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