A review by abdallahelfar
Xenocide by Orson Scott Card

4.0

I didn't enjoy this book. It's a good book, not very fun though. Turns into mostly philosophical, meta-physical speculative fiction. But that's not the reason I didn't enjoy it, I usually find that sort of stuff fun. It was a couple of issues: 1)

Spoiler

Jane doesn't act like a AI should, an AI that lived to 3000 years would have discreetly expanded its body, building an army of ships to colonize uninhabitable worlds. To mine the worlds and build more machine that would be her body and mind, over many planets. This is how an AI would behave and it would have prevented a big conflict in the book.

2)

Spoiler

They didn't observe and attempt to influence Han Fei-Tzu from the start, I mean come on know your enemy damnit. Would have been much simpler and avoided a number of major conflicts. Why not look closely at the person who wrote the declaration that prevented revolt that Ender wanted in the hundred worlds.

3)

Spoiler

Don't tell me that in 3000 years we don't have the technology to at least lessen the issues with Miro's body, we practically have that technology today, to assist in walking and talking at least if not out right heal him.

4)

Spoiler

In all the time Ender spoke with the hive queen she seems to have learned a lot more from him than he learned from her. Its almost as if he hadn't communicated anything worth while in all their conversations, that she had to read his mind to gain anything from him. It seems dumb that Ender who is depicted as a great communicator didn't really talk to the hive queen about anything useful in all those years until the point in this book where he does because he must and the plot calls for it.