Children Of The Mind

A science fiction written by Orson Scott Card in 1996
Reviewed edition by TOR from 1997
A paperback has 370 pages
ISBN 0-812-52239-7

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Tied tightly to the previous volume. While Ender is apparently losing interest in the world around him and follows his wife Novinha into a monastery, the two beings he inadvertently spawned in his first and only faster than light space travel, Peter and Valentine are hard at work trying to save Lusitania and Jane.

Peter goes for the diplomatic approach, lobbying with people of influence in the Starways Congress to make them revoke their order to attack Lusitania. In the meantime, Valentine organizes evacuation trips to get people, Pequeninos and Hive Queens out of the way of the fleet, should Peter fail in his efforts ...

Review

The story treads onto religious grounds more than for example the previous volume did. It is as if the author was trying to convince everyone that the concept of soul has a physical background which can serve to unify all religions and explain things such as the Holy Triad in Christianity. Which is disappointing, because if I wanted a piece of religious propaganda, I could get it cheaper and more concentrated from those folks that hang on my doorstep every few Saturdays (for lack of better things to do I guess :-).

The book also shows another chilling use of religion. When the second Valentine is forced to give up her body for Jane to use, people around her use nothing but reasoning built on top of concocted beliefs to justify a murder.

Still, the story is moving ahead fast as ever, so you will most likely not be disappointed. I rated the book a hesitant good, mostly because I feel that most of the objections I have are more due to my personal bias over the way topics are presented than due to the quality of the book itself.

Rated as good by Ceres on 2000-10-08

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