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Beyond Ender’s Game: Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind

Beyond Ender’s Game: Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind

Beyond Enders Boxed Mass Market SetContains: Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide and Children of the MindSpeaker for the Dead:In the aftermath of his terrible war, Ender Wiggin disappeared, and a powerful voice arose: The Speaker for the Dead, who told the true story of the Bugger War.Now, long years later, a second alien race has been discovered, but again the aliens’ ways are strange and frightening…again, humans die. And it is only the Speaker for the Dead, who is also Ender Wiggin the Xenocide, who has the courage to confront the mystery…and the truth.Xenocide:The war for survival of the planet Lusitania will be fought in the hearts of a child named Gloriously Bright.On Lusitania, Ender found a world where humans and pequininos and the Hive Queen could all live together; where three very different intelligent species could find common ground at last. Or so he thought.Lusitania also harbors the descolada, a virus that kills all humans it infects, but which the pequininos require in order to become adults. The Startways Congress so fears the effects of the descolada, should it escape from Lusitania, that they have ordered eh destruction of the entire planet, and all who live there. The Fleet is on its way, a second xenocide seems inevitble.Children of the Mind:The planet Lusitania is home to three sentient species: the Pequeninos; a large colony of humans; and the Hive Queen, brought there by Ender. But once against the human race has grown fearful; the Starways Congress has gathered a fleet to destroy Lusitania.Jane, the evolved computer intelligence, can save the three sentient races of Lusitania. She has learned how to move ships outside the universe, and then instantly back to a different world, abolishing the light-speed limit. But it takes all the processing power available to her, and the Starways Congress is shutting down the Net, world by world.Soon Jane will not be able to move the ships. Ender’s children must save her if they are to save themselves.

Customer Review: Speaker for the Dead & Xenocide Review
I’d read “Ender’s Game” over a year ago and thoroughly enjoyed it, but fiddly-farted about getting to “Speaker for the Dead”. What a mistake! “Speaker…” is an outstanding follow-up chronicling Ender’s life post the Bugger’s War. The introduction of the seemingly primitive, simple, and indigenous pequeninos, their mysterious evolution, their social structures, their propagation, and what seems like their murderous ritual makes for great sci-fi reading…well, as far as this newbie to sci-fi reading goes. The moral and ethical dilemmas inherent between two alien species who’ve little understanding of the other and whose ways may seem honorable to one, but abhorent to the other reflects the same complexities of human life and understanding among us. If understanding isn’t pursued, questions truthfully answered, and prejudices destroyed, conflict, death, destruction…and as ender learned as a child, xenocide likely follows. It was a fantastic read!

On the other hand, while “Xenocide” took the moral and ethical conflicts even deeper, there was an excessive amount of “tearing up” and crying for me to remain completely engrossed in the “us or them” debate. (I sided in favor of the pequeninos. They were there first. Humans came later. They were certainly sentient and intelligent. Fortunately… ;-) ) Anyway, despite successfully weaving the many complex relationships among the extremely compelling and realistic characters, the story line in “Xenocide” took on an overly sentimental tone. This may be appealing to some, but way over the top for my tastes.

Perhaps when I’ve read more sci-fi, I’ll be able to write a more technical and open-minded review devoid of my personality quirks. “Speaker…” rates a FIVE. “Xenocide” rates a THREE. “Children of the Mind” is pending…
Customer Review: Challenging good read
These books are for those who want a challenge. Possibly a little confusing at first, but keep reading and you are hooked. Good, creative author.

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