One of the major problems is Card's ill-considered decision to publish "Xenocide" and "Children of the Mind" as two books rather than one cohesive unit; the fourth entry seems more an epilogue to the series--a 350-page denouement--than the climax it should have been. Card admits he originally planned the two books as one work, and this admission resonates like an apology. Well over a third of "Children of the Mind" summarizes what happened in previous volumes, and another third is riddled with endless conversations on political and metaphysical topics, many of which the characters already debated at length in "Xenocide." Only in the last 100 pages does Card finally abandon the themes that were presented more thoroughly (and competently) in the earlier books and turn his attention to resolving the many loose ends. In sum, Card would have been much wiser to have written a unified 600-page book rather than 900 needlessly repetitive pages.

The second problem is that Card's philosophical ruminations often steer awfully close to quasi-religious mumbo-jumbo. The entire section set on Pacifica, a planet governed by Samoans, feels particularly incongruous. (Peter and Wang-mu wonder aloud--twice--what they are doing on this particular world, a question that is never really fully addressed.) True--some of the philosophical questions are fascinating, but there's very little that wasn't already said better and more succinctly in "Xenocide," and the dialogue is often excruciatingly shallow. Take this conversation between Valentine and Novinha, which reads in part:

"You didn't really need him anymore." "He never needed me." "He needed you desperately," said Valentine. "He needed you so much he gave up Jane for you." "No," said Novinha, "He needed my need for him. He needed to feel like he was providing for me, protecting me." "But you don't need his providence or his protection anymore."

I wish I could tell you this bit of dizzying dialogue is an exception, but there are similar angst-ridden conversations between Miro and Val, Peter and Wang-mu--in short, between any two characters who feel the need to explain to each other their raison d'etre. In the earlier books, Card allowed metaphysical questions to arise as much from the actions of the characters and the development of the plot as from the dialogue; in "Children of the Mind," everyone seems to be in post-Freudian interplanetary counseling.

Yet the book is not a wholesale disaster; and I particularly enjoyed the page-turning final resolution, even though it relies on a melodramatic sleight of hand. If the last third of "Children of the Mind" were merged with a pared-down version of "Xenocide," the whole would probably have been equal to the excellence of the first two books in the Ender series.


ugh- what a dull end to a great series   January 13, 2000
 23 out of 33 found this review helpful

Don't bother reading this final book in the Ender series. I know, I know, the ending of Xenocide was a cliffhanger. However, you'll be more disappointed if you read Children of the Mind than if you imagine your own ending. The answers to how the fleet sent to destroy Lusitania is stopped do not merit an entire book. Children of the Mind is long and boring. All of the characters of the previous books seem like ghosts; they just fill the space. It is also very weird. Ender created young copies of Peter and Valentine, but they depend on him for life. Since they aren't their own people, they are not really Peter and Valentine at all, but Ender's personality in new bodies. Ender doesn't have the energy to keep three bodies going. The question of who will be discarded is a main focus of the book and is not satisfactorily dealt with. I found the whole idea rather stupid. Children of the Mind does not have the same feel as the other books. Almost no attention is given to alien species and several new principles are introduced that just don't seem to belong in the Ender universe. I had read Xenocide a few years before I read Children of the Mind, and I was satisfied with the end of that book. The series has been going downhill, and this book is rock bottom. It took away from the series instead of adding to it. Card should have left the series alone.


6 feet ender!   June 6, 1999
 21 out of 31 found this review helpful

You thought Ender's Game is one of the very best books written?

You thought Speaker of the Dead was a good book?

You thought Xenocide was slightly above average?

You'll think this is god awful... but you'll have to read it, because you're an Ender fan. But I'd skip this and go read 'Hyperion' by Dan Simmons or some really classic Sci-Fi like Asimov, or even ENDER'S GAME again


A fitting conclusion to one of the great series   July 18, 2000
 19 out of 24 found this review helpful

"Children of the Mind" finishes the story of EnderWiggins, as he finally reaches reconciliation with his past and present. A dazzling array of ideas and conflicts, the novel comes to a very satisfying conclusion. Starting "Children of the Mind" was a tremendous relief, because the ending of "Xenocide" had angered me with what seemed like an arbitrary escape from the plot complications. Rather, the introduction of Peter and Valentine from the combination of Ender's mind and the new mode of instantaneous travel come to fruition in this novel, and prove to be the point of Card's entire quartet. As always, this deeply religious man uses science fiction and fantasy as allegories to study the human spirit in all its facets. Essentially, Card is proposing the divine nature of the universe, and its identification with each and every mind as part of that divinity. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau proposed much the same thing, as did Robert Heinlein in "Stranger in a Strange Land." But Card takes these concepts to their broadest reaches in his recreation of the very structure of the universe, hinging the entire plot and character development of his entire series on this discovery. Like all endings should, this novel moves much faster than the previous two books; in many ways, it's the easiest to read of the series after "Ender's Game." Anybody who professes to be a science fiction fan needs to read this series; it's one of the classics of the genre