As good as the 1st time. ( )

Continues on from Speaker for the Dead. Valentine and her family arrive on Lusitania, even as Starways Congress' Fleet bears down on the planet with the M.D Device. Ender is struggling under the impending doom from the Fleet, the adaptable and destructive descolada, the diplomacy between the three sentient species and the problems within his own family.

Introduces Han Qing-jao, Han Fei-tzu and Si Wang-mu, who live on the Taoist Chinese world of Path. They are given a mandate to discover the whereabouts of the Lusitania fleet after Jane hid it. Raises issues of servility, as well as the nature of religion and faith when it has been engineered into you.

Orson Scott Card expands on his idea of the philotes, indivisible particles that join and create everything real. They use this idea to permit instantaneous starflight by shifting to the Outside and back In. Possible relations to string theory? The concept of an auia, the spirit philote which represents an individual - controlling a network of smaller auias in cells etc. resembles a physical soul. Provides mechanism for Jane's emergence, and for the transfer of memories in the pequenino lifecycle.

Ender ( )

A profound and complex story, but not as good as Speaker for the Dead. There seemed to be some noticeable weakening in the writing style between the two books or maybe the repetition of some large-scale themes explains the difference. Also, though the people of the Path invention was clever, it was not fun to read and a bit too critical of religious people. Either way, still a very strong science-fiction novel and I am eager to continue with the series. ( )

This is the third time I have read this book. I enjoyed it more this time than any other mostly because I did not have expectations that were incorrect concerning the type of story. With this story the paths of the hive queen, piggies and descolada gets much deeper and more entwined. And while there is clearly more to go on in the next book I felt it finished in an acceptable way and left me with a sense that some of the story was completed. ( )

Pentru mine nu a trecut testul celor 100 de pagini. In rezumat, vorbărie, ceartă, vorbărie, vorbărie și tot așa, fara nimic interesant. Extrem de plictisitoare. Chiar mai rău, mult mai rău decât Vorbitor in numele morților, altă telenovelă proastă, vag conectată cu Ender. Din partea mea, dez-recomand Xenocid. ( )