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markguitar's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
This book is a bit of a letdown compared to the previous two. Ender's Game is a straight up kid's adventure, until suddenly it's not. The climax and denouement turn it into a completely different kind of book...a deeper book. This mysterious ending leads into a very fascinating read: Speaker for the Dead. Both are great...Speaker for the Dead is maybe better.
Xenocide is a lot slower. Philosophical conversations go on twice as long as they need to, as if the author is beating the reader over the head with a concept that could have been more easily explained in half the time. Sometimes these conversations get repeated in various iterations from different characters, and I felt like the author just needs to get on with the story.
The beginning of the book started with a fascinating mystery. Are the god-spoken people of Path in tune with real gods? With beings that communicate with them and control them? Are they suffering from some odd psychological condition? Is any of this real? Great concept...which is completely disconnected from the Speaker of the Dead story for a long time. But the execution was slow and boring. It was also grueling, watching the god-spoken inflict self-harm and watching the community abuse their children to see if they, too, were god-spoken. Just horrible. This is another way in which I wished the story would move a lot faster. I also think this part of the story would have been much more interesting and exciting if told from the perspective of Wang-mu, rather than from the perspective of the god-spoken of the Han house.
The story doesn't pick up steam until we get back to Ender. And the story does get better. The book gets better. There are some great issues raised about what constitutes life and whether it is ever justifiable to favor one species over another. What psychologically connects people, and what are the dangers of these connections? Great questions and they play out in a very interesting way. Everyone's stuck in a maze of contradictory decisions, none of which seem solvable. Really great build up toward the climax.
SPOILER.
Then the end...
The return of young Valentine and Peter. Why? They were patterns in Ender and Ender sort of willed them into existence? The concept is hard to buy when you think of how it might apply to creating a virus or healing a person, but it's not a huge leap. Creating new versions of people because...why? How? Perhaps Card thought the return of Peter would be scary, but I found him annoying. In Ender's Game, he was scary to Ender and Valentine as a bully older brother, and tolerable as Locke and as an adult. But among adults, he's whiny, insulting, and it's hard to believe that he will hold power over anyone. Even his influence over Wang-mu seems really contrived.
I'm going to read the next book because I want to know what happens next, but I'm not sure that I'm going to enjoy this.
Xenocide is a lot slower. Philosophical conversations go on twice as long as they need to, as if the author is beating the reader over the head with a concept that could have been more easily explained in half the time. Sometimes these conversations get repeated in various iterations from different characters, and I felt like the author just needs to get on with the story.
The beginning of the book started with a fascinating mystery. Are the god-spoken people of Path in tune with real gods? With beings that communicate with them and control them? Are they suffering from some odd psychological condition? Is any of this real? Great concept...which is completely disconnected from the Speaker of the Dead story for a long time. But the execution was slow and boring. It was also grueling, watching the god-spoken inflict self-harm and watching the community abuse their children to see if they, too, were god-spoken. Just horrible. This is another way in which I wished the story would move a lot faster. I also think this part of the story would have been much more interesting and exciting if told from the perspective of Wang-mu, rather than from the perspective of the god-spoken of the Han house.
The story doesn't pick up steam until we get back to Ender. And the story does get better. The book gets better. There are some great issues raised about what constitutes life and whether it is ever justifiable to favor one species over another. What psychologically connects people, and what are the dangers of these connections? Great questions and they play out in a very interesting way. Everyone's stuck in a maze of contradictory decisions, none of which seem solvable. Really great build up toward the climax.
SPOILER.
Then the end...
The return of young Valentine and Peter. Why? They were patterns in Ender and Ender sort of willed them into existence? The concept is hard to buy when you think of how it might apply to creating a virus or healing a person, but it's not a huge leap. Creating new versions of people because...why? How? Perhaps Card thought the return of Peter would be scary, but I found him annoying. In Ender's Game, he was scary to Ender and Valentine as a bully older brother, and tolerable as Locke and as an adult. But among adults, he's whiny, insulting, and it's hard to believe that he will hold power over anyone. Even his influence over Wang-mu seems really contrived.
I'm going to read the next book because I want to know what happens next, but I'm not sure that I'm going to enjoy this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse and Self harm
Moderate: Torture