Children of the Mind

Starred review from July 29, 1996
The first two volumes of Card's Ender saga, Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, each won the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel. This adept fifth volume in the series (after Xenocide, 1991) continues the story of Ender Wiggin, hero, social conscience and unwitting mass murderer. Here, however, Ender, feeling the weight of his years, plays only a limited role in the desperate attempt to avert the destruction by the Starways Congress of the planet Lusitania and its three intelligent races. Foremost among those at center stage are Peter and Young Valentine, Ender's "children of the mind," copies of his brother and sister whom he accidentally created on his trip Outside the universe in Xenocide. Also central is Jane, the prickly Artificial Intelligence whose unique ability to use the Outside to transcend the light-speed barrier is key to all attempts to save Ender's adopted world. Peter, Val, Jane and their companions must criss-cross the galaxy to find new planets for Lusitania's refugees while trying to influence the politicians and philosophers who have the power to stop the Congress's approaching war fleet. Readers unfamiliar with earlier Ender novels may have trouble picking up some plot threads. But Card's prose is powerful here, as is his consideration of mystical and quasi-religious themes, and his ability to write convincing, at times heartrending, scenes of intrafamily conflict is as strong as ever. Though billed as the final Ender novel, this story leaves enough mysteries unexplored to justify another sequel; and Card fans should find that possibility, like this novel, very welcome indeed. Major ad/promo; 200-copy limited leather-bound edition, $200, ISBN 0-312-86191-5.

April 1, 1996
In this fourth and final novel in the Nebula Award-winning series that began with Ender's Game (1985), Ender races to save his planet from destruction.

January 1, 1997
YA-This final installment in the series is also the end of Ender himself. A small child in Ender's Game (1985), a young man in Speaker for the Dead (1986), and increasingly world-weary in Xenocide (1992, all Tor), he is finally able to put down the burdens he has carried for humanity. It is this struggle to accept and resolve the problems of maturity that is at the heart of this story. All of the characters and, indeed, the worlds of the previous books, must either evolve or die. Ender, having made the longest journey, both within himself and in space and time, turns out to be the least able or willing to do so. Card writes with his usual flair. The characters give life to the thematic conflicts and the plot involves the fate of humankind, but the concerns are adult in a way that the previous books have not been. This book will not disappoint the author's adult audience; indeed, he has pulled off that most difficult of tricks, a satisfying conclusion to a great series. But YAs may find themselves at a loss to understand what all the fuss is about or dismayed by a resolution that may not meet their more idealistic needs. Buy a single copy and see how your readers respond.-Cathy Chauvette, Fairfax County Public Library, VA