Lectura del 2019. Este es el ter libro publicado el 1991 y todavía mantiene parte de la calidad de las otras dos obras anteriores (el juego de Ender 1985 y La voz de los muertos, 1986) Cuando yo la leí el 2019, fue mi cuarto volumen porque yo lo leí en orden cronológico y no de publicación, que implica, en segundo lugar ,leer Ender en el Exilio que completa los años de viaje. (publicado en 2008).

En este libro, vemos el proceso de colonización de diferentes mundo. Cada comunidad en su nuevo planeta de alguna forma mantiene rasgos de la cultura y religión de los países de origen. Lo mas interesante del libro es que te plantea una serie de problemáticas al momento de salir a colonizar el universo, principalmente referido a la vida que se encuentran en cada planeta. La descolada es una forma de virus que pone en riesgo la vida en todos los otros planetas y hay mucho cuestionamiento a si el hombre debe eliminarla, controlarla o simplemente adaptarse a ella.

Audiobook (20 hours) narrated by:
Scott Brick
Gabrielle de Cuir
Amanda Karr
John Rubinstein
Stefan Rudnicki

The audio and narration of the part of the book that I read (I DND, did not finish) was fine, without any issues).

This is where I get off the train.

Ender’s Game is a completely different book than the rest of the series. That's fine, as there is a connecting thread and I am in for the series, if it's good. This book is just so flat with a lot of 2D characters.

I think part of the issue is that I love to read Octavia E. Butler, who does a fantastic job of writing alien species and their interactions with humans, as in her Xenogenesis series that starts with Dawn. It feels like Xenocide is trying to have a similar feel as a book like Octavia's Dawn and it isn't even in the same state, never mind the ballpark.

I was going to continue on but after poking around some of the reviews, it seems that the novel doesn't get better as it goes on. I have a lot of great books on my shelf this month, so I don't need to spend time in a world that is potentially still here as a cash grab rather than because there's more story to be told. I don't normally mention the cash grab, but that seems to be a running theme for other reviewers stating that the series was doing well so more was added on.

I have a review to write for Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology that has some new authors to me that I want to explore, as well as a ghost story that I totally devoured, The Haunting of Ashburn House, so I'm good. although disappointed that Card didn't move on to another exciting story in a new world rather than trying to force something meh in the exciting world he created, leaving me with a bad experience and feeling not so good about the author.

Happy Reading!

I adore the Ender series. 'Xenocide' by Orson Scott Card is really part one of a two-book set in the Ender series, and it's book 3 if reading in order. On to Children of the Mind next which will finish what was started in Xenocide. There are a lot of ideas in the story as everything related to the psychology and philosophy of prejudice is explored in a dramatic speculative fiction setting. Religion and politics, as well as basic species survival imperatives come into play throughout the complete Ender series.

Generally the book is very realistic and true to human nature, with the additional bonus of well imagined two other sentient species involved. I love it. That super smart people would be driving the story forward is a plus as well, but I find myself wishing that intelligence really was behind more real-life politics than it appears in this series.

Esté libro ha sido como un viaje en el que he disfrutado mucho el trayecto pero que al llegar al destino me he decepcionado.
La figura de Ender que me fascinaba de los demás libros aquí pierde mucho encanto, esperaba toparme con una figura más sabia y experimentada pero no.
La continuación de los conflictos de La voz de los Muertos fue muy interesante, me emocionaba saber en qué iba a terminar todo, pero creo que el autor complicó tanto las cosas que al darles una resolución no supo como hacerlo y terminó sacándose algo de la manga para seguir sacando libros y dar fin a este, pero de una forma poco convincente.
Me quedo con las primeras 400 páginas.

*listened to audiobook, except audiobook expired right before the end, and I didn't want to wait eight weeks for the last three pages, so I finished with an ebook*

Every book in tbis series leaves one satisfied and thinking, why would I need to read the next book?

Yet the next book proves its worth.

This book was lovely, with interesting dialogue breaks between the hive queen and one of the father trees and the introduction of new characters who trace lines on the floor to purify themselves when they've offended the gods.

I loved seeing more of Mino and of learning more about Jane. Lots of questions that I didn't realize were questions were answered in this book.

As usual it's bittersweet, jarring, and thought provoking, not to mention a fad scandalous and humorous at different times. The ending is a mixture of sad, brilliant, and perfect.

CONTENT: I can't remember to be honest, but knowing the rest of his books if probably had at least some sexual content.

Great book. Lots of interesting ideas about how everything in the universe works and how it came to happen...

Knowing that a lot of people dislike this book compared with the first two in the series, I went into this one with pretty low expectations. I feel like it started off really well, but as it got closer to the end it got to be really complicated, strange, and the solutions were a bit too convenient. It was a decent read and I was still drawn in by Card's writing style, but unfortunately it was not as strong as its predecessors.

Este libro cae estrepitosamente a causa de la avaricia del autor en querer alargar la saga.
Convirtió una buena saga en una telenovela con algunos puntos rescatables.

Dear Mr Card, you're great (not as a person, you're dubious as a person), but cut.the.damn.words!

I've loved this series from the beginning and I've enjoyed to follow Ender, Valentine and their adventures over the course of 3000 years. It's imaginative (for the most part) and it is a complex novel with many philosophical, ethical, and psychological implications. But I'm contemplating whether it's worth continuing with it, given the ending. This third installment is the weakest of the series so far. Card continues the story of Ender Wiggin and his family as they face moral dilemmas and existential threats in a universe where human, alien and artificial intelligences coexist.

Plot. The novel picks up where "Speaker for the Dead" left off. Ender Wiggin, now living on the planet Lusitania, is caught between the three sentient species: humans, the Pequeninos and the "resurrected" Formics. The inhabitants of Lusitania face a dire threat: the descolada virus, a lifeform that plays a crucial role in the ecosystem but is also deadly to humans and other species. Meanwhile, the Starways Congress sees Lusitania as a threat due to its rebellious nature and the potential danger of the descolada spreading beyond the planet and, as such, plans to destroy Lusitania. Outside help may be gained from the planet Path, where a brilliant and devout girl named Qing-jao is tasked with uncovering the mystery of the "disappeared" Lusitania fleet.

Card addresses many themes in this novel and I definitely enjoyed following them all and confronting my own philosophical dilemmas surrounding the survival of the human and alien races. At the heart of "Xenocide" is the conflict between survival and morality. The central moral dilemma is whether to eradicate the virus, which would save the humans but doom the Pequeninos, or to find a way to neutralize its harmful effects without destroying the entire ecosystem.

There's a sub-plot related to the planet Path and the ethics of the Congress involvement in "enhancing" the people on Path through genetic manipulation. Card includes this faith vs. free will theme which I'm conflicted about. On the one hand, I appreciate the involvement of outside forces in the resolution of the Lusitania plot - it would have been unrealistic to have a handful of scientists who had never left the planet resolve the situation. On the other hand, I found the entire Qing-jao issue pointless and repetitive. The author was unable to make me care about any of the people on Path or about their destiny.

My main issue with the plot is the way Card seemed to drag it out endlessly. The book is simply way too long and there are side stories that were absolutely not needed and don't contribute to anything. I hated the deus ex-machina ending, how he tightly wrapped it all up with a pink bow, not to mention Ender bringing back Peter from the void. Just whyyyyy? Nothing about that ending made sense for me.

Characters. "Xenocide" features a diverse cast of characters, each of whom deals with moral, philosophical and emotional dilemmas.

However, except for Miro (although he was annoyingly pretentious and whiny) and Valentine, the characters did nothing for me. And Jane - except for her "origin" story. She faces her own existential crisis as the Congress discovers her existence and views her as a threat, planning to shut her down. Her development is centered around her increasing sense of self and fear of death.

We are being told, over and over again that Ender healed the Ribeira family, but what we have here is a bunch of characters with unhealed trauma and internal squabbling. No one gets along with anyone. Novinha and Ela are competing with each other instead of collaborating to resolve the damn issues, Quara has mommy issues and screws everyone up because she wants revenge on her family? And it takes a Pequenino to figure that out?, Novinha gets mad at Ender for being the voice of reason and spends the entire book being jealous of Jane and Valentine, Grego is a freaking psychopath... And, although I have loved Ender, he is sort of meek in this book, it's like he lost his spark and leadership skills.

The introduction of new characters on Path, although in theory they were an interesting addition and a break of pace - also a trigger for exposing the Starways Congress' manipulative politics - didn't particularly tickled me.

I liked the mayor, though. He was the only sane one in the bunch.

Writing. Card's writing is dense and philosophical, often diving into intricate discussions about science and ethics. He is a great storyteller, but he felt the need to explain everything through a metaphysical rant and have Ender constantly psychoanalyze his family, which got old really fast and gave unrealisting vibes. It felt like he was over-explaining things, treating the reader like he would a child.

The novel feels bogged down by all these philosophical discussions, which often slow the momentum. It's definitely not a fast-paced book. Also, as I already said, some plot resolutions feel too convenient, particularly towards the end. There's also the issue of Card's love for stereotypes (a purely Chinese planet? Where people act medieval?)

It's clear this novel was an afterthought. He wrote it based on a novella he had already written and it shows. I had fun with the story, overall, and would recommend it to people who read for pure enjoyment, but I'm debating whether to continue the series. That ending does not give me hopes.

When I first started this series I was afraid that the first book would be good and then the quality would slowly start to dip, because the goodreads rating did so and you have to trust user ratings, right? I was so wrong. Not only was Speaker for the Dead so much better than Ender's Game, but now, Xenocide is EVEN BETTER than Speaker for the Dead. The character of Han Qing-jao was probably the best thing in this book, and probably the best storyline this series had to offer (I reserve the right to change my mind once I start and finish Children of the Mind).

n  “Mother. Father. Did I do it right?”n

Don’t we all want to believe in the myth of the free artist? If only we break the chains of record labels and publishing companies! A truly great author doesn’t need a pest of an editor. Their glorious minds just spill diamonds on the page. Really, this is an attractive fantasy. It means we can just write whatever the hell comes to our heads and it might be brilliant. We don’t have to actively seek criticism and feedback, since that will soil our purity.

For every brilliant album like The Fragile, you get a book like Xenocide. Actually, Dr. Dre was invovled in “Even Deeper” so maybe even that album isn’t a product of a single, untamed genius. Human beings are flawd and social animals. Without feedback or criticism, our ideas don’t improve. Becoming intelligent is no different than working out. You have to practice. You have to up the ante and you have to try new things and hear the words people different than you.

Card is clearly intelligent or else he wouldn’t be able to write the two previous novels. They were vastly different in style and were self-contained. There was an overarching story but the books weren’t separated just so it would be easier to sell them. They had a beginning and an end, different prose styles and different structures. That’s all before you get into how Card explores his ideas, how he focuses on characters and refuses to demonize everyone. These things are here too, only Card has no one to restrain him.

Lack of an editor doesn’t mean Card’s good habits can flow freely. It means he sinks to the sin of overwriting, joining the ranks of authors like King and R. R. Martin. He rambles on for most of the books, talking to himself and writing down notes. There so many passages that fit more a stream-of-consciousness narrative but this clearly isn’t one. The narrator is omniscient and the stream of thoughts don’tm provide any psychological insight. It’s a reptition of things we already know.

He’s similar to R. R. Martin not just in the rambling style, but in how the rambling holds the book back. When ramblings aren’t poetic or insightful, all they do is fill up the page and cause build-up. Build-up isn’t a good thing. There’s no reason to tease the readers with ‘something will happen!’ when it’s possible to write interesting things that are happening right now.

Only in the last 100 pages things are actually happening. Until then, people mostly speculate. Although there are many characters, the speculations aren’t patricularly varied. People mostly think about what happened, what may happen and what are the odds of something happening. It’s an author not sure how to move his story, so he writes neutral, meaningless things.

It’s tempting to write these paragraphs. Looking at how many words you wrote brings a feelings of satisfaction, of having done a work. Lying bricks in an order doesn’t automatically lead to a house. Writing a lot of sentences doesn’t automatically lead to a story or an essay or insightful philosophical musings. Card’s prose is more nimble and easy to read than other ramblers, but making it more pleasant doesn’t make it any less of a ramble.

The worst sin Card commits is lacking any purpose to his story. What’s Xenocide about, in the end? What does it add to the world of Ender? We shouldn’t judge other people too hastily. People may seem immoral to us but perhaps their value system is vastly different and we need to find a bridge. There’s no progression of ideas here from the previous novels. For all of its philosophical musings, the novel is empty. The only thing that happens is that the characters confront a virus, discover faster-than-light travel and start to rise against Starways Congress. Does that sound like a story that needs 600 pages?

The novel was apparently meant to go hand-in-hand with Children of the Mind but they were split in two. Whenever a book needs to split up because it’s too long a red flag rises. That’s a sign the story doesn’t actually end in the book itself (Here, it hardly concludes) and that the author found themselves writing a little too much.

The usual strengths are here. Although Starways Congress are the first actual antagonist in the series, Card generally refuses to paint people as wholly evil or wholly good. Characters are conflicted. People do horrible stuff and later Card makes us understand them without justifying it. The idea of ‘varlese’ is pretty brilliant – accepting that sometimes we have to kill a different species because we fail to communicate but not because they’re evil. The novel never develops these. We don’t get anything like the piggies’ radical view of death.

There’s also more techno-babble this time around. Expect a lot of ramblings in the last 100 pages about Outspace and Inspace. It’s good he doesn’t pretend this is hard science and the philotes are more of a philosophical concept than a scientific one. But Card spends more time telling us how it works and none of it is barely cool enough for Stoner Rock lyrics. Again, it’s an author whose pen are getting away from them. No editor was here to cut off the fat and leave the substance.

Normally these are the worst flaws a book can commit. Offend the reader, but at least be interesting. Boredom cannot be forgiven. Boredom merely kills the reader’s time and no one lives forever. Yet Xenocide is, overall, a bearable book. It’s not very enjoyable, but it’s never offensively boring. The rambling prose fattens the novel, but it never becomes a struggle to read. When things do happen, they’re interesting.

That’s thanks to Card’s great foundation. He always comes off as a compassionate, wise person in his novels instead of a homophobic conservative. The world is still dominated by concepts and ideas, rather than trying to predict hard science. There is still no main character, but a wide cast. Some get more focus than others, but each is given a rational basis for their actions (Although Quara is a bit dramatic). Card never demonizes anyone.

Such tiny merits manage to make the book fairly pleasant, if not great. It’s a huge step-down from Speaker for the Dead and makes me wonder if this is where the series ran out of steam. Still, Card manages to ramble and focus too much about build-up and avoid writing a horrible book. That takes some skill. There’s nothing here unless you really loved the first books, but if youd did the ride may be pleasant. Hopefully the sequel is worth it.

2.5 xenocides out of 5

Also posted on my blog:
https://brainweapons.wordpress.com/20...

This was a deep, contemplative novel about religious fervor, the multiverse, sentience, and the nature of life. It was... a lot. I'm not saying I didn't like it, but I can't say I really enjoyed it, either. I'm mostly glad it's over.

On top of that, Xenocide was only middle book filler: the problem that needed solving at the start is still on its way to the planet of Lusitania, bringing death to the Hive Queen, the pequeninos, and the Portuguese colonists. They're targeting Jane and the virus too, but those are moot points now.

It was very interesting of OSC to bring back Peter and Valentine as children! I'm glad Miro got the chance to be whole again, too. With such an old wild card back in play, I'm curious to see where Children of the Mind goes from here!