Genre: Fiction—Science Fiction
Completed: 10 May 2013
Summary & Review:
With the Starways Congress fleet bearing down on the colonized planet of Lusitania ready to deploy the ultimate weapon, the MD device, Ender and his family and friends must find a way to save the three sentient species on their planet. With the help of Jane, the disembodied intelligence living on the philotic web of ansibles, they begin shuttling people, pequeninos, and buggers off the planet to new colonizable worlds using instantaneous star flight. Ender, however, left with his soul fractured into three parts after the first trip Outside, must use his new selves to convince Starways Congress of the error of their decision, find the source planet of the deadly descolada virus, and salvage his broken relationship with his wife. But, with his soul split into three competing bodies, Ender cannot hold on to all three lives at the same time. Something must give.
This is the fourth and final book in the original Ender Quartet, and unless you’ve read the previous three, that plot summary probably doesn’t make much sense. Looking back, it is amazing how far the series has come since Ender’s Game. I really enjoyed this last entry in the quartet. It was still a pretty philosophical novel, but contained a lot more action than Speaker for the Dead or Xenocide. As always, Card’s prose was insightful and powerful.
Orson Scott Card has done just an excellent job creating a coherent future universe for these stories to take place within. I remember talking with my father-in-law about why he loves The Lord of the Rings Trilogy but is not a big fan of the Harry Potter series. He felt like J.R.R. Tolkien wrote a world as if this place actually existed and he had visited it, but J.K. Rowling just made up things in her world as she went along and when they were convenient for the story. Card has done what Tolkien did. He created a world so thoroughly that nothing felt forced or contrived. Rather, it seemed completely natural and believable which greatly contributed to the stories taking place within that world.
Rating: 8.5
One of these days I'll read them! They sound good! Can't wait for the movie!
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