#102 Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card
There are big BIG spoilers in this review for previous books in the Ender Saga. I’ll keep things vague for Children of the Mind.
The end is coming. Starways Congress has sent the little doctor, a weapon that can destroy an entire planet, to the world of Lusitania, regardless of the fact that the Descolada virus has been cured. Meanwhile, they have also discovered the existence of Jane, a computer program that has grown into a being of consciousness, and is planning on destroying her due to her inconvenient interference. It will take the efforts of everyone to stop Starways Congress, save Lusitania, and keep Jane alive.
Children of the Mind is the fourth published book in the Ender Saga, and originally the final volume. Before I began this book, I had noticed a trend with the previous Ender books. I enjoyed them all, but loved each book just a little less. I came into Children of the Mind wondering if this downward trend would cease or continue. By the end of the audiobook I felt frustrated and disapointed. It’s true that Children of the Mind has times when it really shines, but there were far too many times when I wanted to chuck my mp3 player out the car window.
Let’s start out with the positive. Much how I enjoyed learning about the Chinese/Taoist inspired planet of path in Xenocide, I enjoyed seeing the Ender universe expand even further to a Japanese inspired planet, and a Samoan inspired one. I enjoyed further exploring the motivations of Young Val and Peter (created accidentally by Ender’s thoughts in Xenocide).There were also moments when the novel was heartbreakingly beautiful, reminding me why I picked up this series in the first place.
At the same time, Children of the Mind is a very uneven novel. One of the things that bothered me about Xenocide is I felt that there was too much infighting among the characters. Apparently Card did not agree with me because it felt like half of Children of the Mind was made up of fighting, from petty bickering to full on screaming matches, which seemed absolutely ridiculous considering the sensitive timelines the characters had to deal with. It also resulted in characters that had so far been interesting becoming unlikable, including Ender who up until this moment had been one of my favorite characters in sci-fi. I was also uncomfortable with how this book treated it's female characters. This can be seen with the harsh treatment of Young Val who was just expected to stop existing because she wasn’t a “real” while Peter appeared to be somehow more legitimate, if incomplete, despite the fact that their situations were identical. This can also be seen with how so many of the female characters became marked with ugly jealous, either of Jane or another female character. Is this really written by the same person who gave us such great female characters as Valentine? The book presented more problems as well. There’s really only so many times when something impossible is required to solve an issue and the characters somehow do it, before it starts to grate on ones nerves. I also felt the two romantic pairings that popped up in this book to feel shoe-horned in for convience sake.
After much grappling with my own issues surrounding Children of the Mind, I have come to the conclusion that regardless of it’s bright moments, there were just too many that made me want to tear out my hair to consider this to be a good book. It is worth noting that the audiobook production was put together quite well, despite the fact that it couldn’t seem to decide if it wanted to be a full cast or a straight recording with multiple voices. I would really only recommend reading this if you’ve enjoyed the series up until now and really want to see how it ends, and even then I wouldn’t rush out to get it.
Rating: two and half stars
Length: the print is 352 pages. the audio is 13 hours and 24 minutes
Source: Overdrive
Other books I've read by this author: Ender’s Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide
Next I will be reviewing Wolfsbane by Patricia Briggs.
xposted to temporaryworlds, bookish, and goodreads
The end is coming. Starways Congress has sent the little doctor, a weapon that can destroy an entire planet, to the world of Lusitania, regardless of the fact that the Descolada virus has been cured. Meanwhile, they have also discovered the existence of Jane, a computer program that has grown into a being of consciousness, and is planning on destroying her due to her inconvenient interference. It will take the efforts of everyone to stop Starways Congress, save Lusitania, and keep Jane alive.
Children of the Mind is the fourth published book in the Ender Saga, and originally the final volume. Before I began this book, I had noticed a trend with the previous Ender books. I enjoyed them all, but loved each book just a little less. I came into Children of the Mind wondering if this downward trend would cease or continue. By the end of the audiobook I felt frustrated and disapointed. It’s true that Children of the Mind has times when it really shines, but there were far too many times when I wanted to chuck my mp3 player out the car window.
Let’s start out with the positive. Much how I enjoyed learning about the Chinese/Taoist inspired planet of path in Xenocide, I enjoyed seeing the Ender universe expand even further to a Japanese inspired planet, and a Samoan inspired one. I enjoyed further exploring the motivations of Young Val and Peter (created accidentally by Ender’s thoughts in Xenocide).There were also moments when the novel was heartbreakingly beautiful, reminding me why I picked up this series in the first place.
At the same time, Children of the Mind is a very uneven novel. One of the things that bothered me about Xenocide is I felt that there was too much infighting among the characters. Apparently Card did not agree with me because it felt like half of Children of the Mind was made up of fighting, from petty bickering to full on screaming matches, which seemed absolutely ridiculous considering the sensitive timelines the characters had to deal with. It also resulted in characters that had so far been interesting becoming unlikable, including Ender who up until this moment had been one of my favorite characters in sci-fi. I was also uncomfortable with how this book treated it's female characters. This can be seen with the harsh treatment of Young Val who was just expected to stop existing because she wasn’t a “real” while Peter appeared to be somehow more legitimate, if incomplete, despite the fact that their situations were identical. This can also be seen with how so many of the female characters became marked with ugly jealous, either of Jane or another female character. Is this really written by the same person who gave us such great female characters as Valentine? The book presented more problems as well. There’s really only so many times when something impossible is required to solve an issue and the characters somehow do it, before it starts to grate on ones nerves. I also felt the two romantic pairings that popped up in this book to feel shoe-horned in for convience sake.
After much grappling with my own issues surrounding Children of the Mind, I have come to the conclusion that regardless of it’s bright moments, there were just too many that made me want to tear out my hair to consider this to be a good book. It is worth noting that the audiobook production was put together quite well, despite the fact that it couldn’t seem to decide if it wanted to be a full cast or a straight recording with multiple voices. I would really only recommend reading this if you’ve enjoyed the series up until now and really want to see how it ends, and even then I wouldn’t rush out to get it.
Rating: two and half stars
Length: the print is 352 pages. the audio is 13 hours and 24 minutes
Source: Overdrive
Other books I've read by this author: Ender’s Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide
Next I will be reviewing Wolfsbane by Patricia Briggs.
xposted to temporaryworlds, bookish, and goodreads