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Children of the Mind (Ender, Book 4) | 
 enlarge | Author: Orson Scott Card
Publisher: Tor Science Fiction
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
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Rating:  202 reviews
Sales Rank: 6628
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Pages: 384
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.3
ISBN: 0812522397
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780812522396
ASIN: 0812522397
Publication Date: June 15, 1997
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Amazon.com
Children of the Mind, fourth in the Ender series, is the conclusion of the story begun in the third book, Xenocide. The author unravels Ender's life and reweaves the threads into unexpected new patterns, including an apparent reincarnation of his threatening older brother, Peter, not to mention another "sister" Valentine. Multiple storylines entwine, as the threat of the Lusitania-bound fleet looms ever nearer. The self-aware computer, Jane, who has always been more than she seemed, faces death at human hands even as she approaches godhood. At the same time, the characters hurry to investigate the origins of the descolada virus before they lose their ability to travel instantaneously between the stars. There is plenty of action and romance to season the text's analyses of Japanese culture and the flux and ebb of civilizations. But does the author really mean to imply that Ender's wife literally bores him to death? --Brooks Peck
Product Description
The planet Lusitania is home to three sentient species: the Pequeninos; a large colony of humans; and the Hive Queen, brought there by Ender. But once against the human race has grown fearful; the Starways Congress has gathered a fleet to destroy Lusitania.
Jane, the evolved computer intelligence, can save the three sentient races of Lusitania. She has learned how to move ships outside the universe, and then instantly back to a different world, abolishing the light-speed limit. But it takes all the processing power available to her, and the Starways Congress is shutting down the Net, world by world.
Soon Jane will not be able to move the ships. Ender's children must save her if they are to save themselves.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 197 more reviews...
 A Not So Fitting End... May 21, 2008
C. Mendoza-tolentino (New York, NY)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Before reading this, I already knew what to expect having already ingested the previous three books in this series - Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, and Xenocide, so I'm not sure what exactly about this book was a disappointment. Card finally gives us a kind of end to Ender's 3000 year life and many plot points that arguably should have already taken place in Xenocide. Unlike the ending to the Harry Potter series, we are not left feeling a sense of sadness and loss at losing a character we have already followed for a thousand pages. Instead, we get another failed attempt at a philosophical science fiction novel. The dialogue is almost endless, one of my major criticisms of the last two books, but here, the religious and spiritual debates reach a crescendo, for me, it was almost too much and almost forced me to stop reading the book. But alas, having loved Ender's story, maybe only in the beginning to be honest with you, I had to see how everything played out.
I cannot decide whether Card's note at the end of the book, where he tries explain what it is he was and is trying to do and where he discusses the work of Oe and Endo (both authors I adore), was a good idea or a bad one. For those having read the previous two volumes and presumably this one since you see the note at the end, you already figured that he had an intense interest both in Asian culture and writing and in creating some kind of moral pedagogy in his work. Unfortunately, his finished project does not stand up as well to other writers who have successfully done it--Endo, Oe, C.S. Lewis to name a few--because the philosophy and religion and other spiritual aspects of the novel are so in-your-face and all-consuming that the plot and the storylines disappear.
Anyways, at least I can say that I'm done with this book series...
Interesting Quotes:
"Life is a suicide mission."
"Do the dead tips of fingernails feel bad when you pare them away?"
"It's all fictions anyway. We do what we do and then we make up reasons for it afterward, but they're never the true reasons, the truth is always just out of reach."
 Only book that has made me cry March 22, 2008
Steve D. Stackhouse Kaelble
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is the only book that has made me cry. I cried when Ender died, (although he didn't die his aiua passed on to Peter) the character of Ender died. Through the series I have gotten so attatched to his character unlike any other character in any series. Through his guilt of xenocide, and hard life it was hard to read sometimess. Especially, when he had problems with Novinha in Xenocide, losing her for the time being but gaining her back in COTM. His funeral was very touching, and probably the best part in the book. The whole book was good, and had a satisfying ending. The philotes were a bit confusing, but oh well. Ender's Game is being made into a movie, and I doubt it's going to be very good, but they can make it good if they go into the emotions of the characters, not just the battles. The thing that I liked best about the series was the characterization, especially the character of Ender. After a life full of guilt he can live a new life. Farewell, Ender Wiggin "the candle burned out long before the legend ever did."
 This is above average but not the best February 27, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"She worked her toes into the sand, feeling the tiny delicious pain of the friction of tiny chips of silicon against the tender flesh between her toes. That's life. It hurts, it's dirty, and it feels very, very good."
"Children of the Mind", by Orson Scott Card, is a science-fiction novel that takes place in Lusitania during the year 5040.
The planet Lusitania is home to three sentient species: the Pequeninos; a large colony of humans; and the Hive Queen, brought there by Ender. But once again the human race has grown fearful; the Stairways Congress has gathered a fleet to destroy Lusitania. Jane, the evolved computer intelligence, can save the three sentient races of Lusitania. The Stairways Congress is shutting down the Net, world by world. Soon Jane will not be able to move the ships. Ender's children must save her if they are to save themselves.
The theme of this book is the life and death of civilization. "If the purpose of life was just to continue into the future, then none of it would have meaning, because it would be all anticipation and preparation. There's the happiness we've already had. The happiness of each moment. The end of our lives, even if there's no forward continuation, no progeny at all, the end of our lives doesn't erase the beginning."
The important charactors in this book are Peter and Wang Mu who grow closer together as the book progresses, Jane who takes control of a human body and experiences human feelings for the first time, Ender, who loses interest in himself and literally crumbles into dust and then re-appears in Peter's body, and Malu, who develops a crush on "Young Valentine" and then has to say that she is worthless so that she will give up her body so that Jane can live in the body.
As for what I think of this book, I actually think this was the weakest in the series. I have read "Ender's Game", "Ender's Shadow", and "The Speaker of the Dead" and I think this is has the weakest plot. Probably more then half the book is drama rather then science fiction. An example of a spar conversation is "So that's power to you", said Quara. "A chance to push other people around and act like the queen". "You really can't do it can you?" said Jane. "Can't what?", said Quara. "Can't bow down and kiss your feet?" "Can't shut up to save you own life." Pgs. 270-271. This goes on for about five pages.
I recommend that everyone should read Ender's Game before reading this book.
If you are a fan of the Ender's series, you have to read this book!
More soap opera than science fiction December 6, 2007
Grimmy (MD USA)
There is wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy too much dialogue - both inner and outer - in this book. A planet with its inhabitants is about to be destroyed and we are misguidedly treated to endless useless and boring details about the love lives and inner demons of many characters. And pointless verbal sparring and pedantry.
The stuff about the aiuas was interesting at first, but it doesn't seem to make any sense. Why can't young Valentine hold herself together? She has her own self inhabiting her body, no matter the forced ruminations about the topic. This should have been an obvious flaw from the outset. And that Jane cannot seem to find better solutions to being shut down by Congress is hard to believe.
Yes!! August 18, 2007
R. Johnson
This novel, the fourth in the Ender's Game series, is just as exceptional as the other three. Unlike many other authors, the series just gets even better with each novel. And this is just a truly wonderfully strange tale. One to read over and over again.
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