Children of the Mind
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| Author | Orson Scott Card |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Ender's Game |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Tor Books |
| Released | 1996 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 349 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-312-85395-5 |
| Preceded by | Xenocide |
| Followed by | Shadows in Flight |
Children of the Mind is the fourth book of Orson Scott Card's popular Ender's Game series, a series of four science fiction novels that focus on Ender Wiggin himself. Despite tying up the loose ends from Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide, as well as exploring various related philosophical avenues, it was criticized by both critics and fans for being too much of a departure from what was expected of the Ender sequence.
[edit] Plot summary
At the start of Children of the Mind, Jane is using her newly discovered abilities to take the formics, humans and pequeninos to distant habitable planets to colonize them, but she is losing her memories and concentration as the vast computer network connected to the ansible is being shut down. If she is to live, she must find a way to transfer her aiúa to a human body.
Ender's wife has joined a religious order, the Children of the Mind of Christ, and Ender insists on joining with her. His own aiúa now controls his own body as well as young Valentine's and Peter's, but his own body suffers as most of his attention is devoted to the efforts of Peter and Valentine, diverting much of the aiúa of his own body into his other two. Peter (joined by Wang-mu, an intelligent servant girl from Path, introduced in the third book) goes off to distant worlds attempting manipulate the political arena to ultimately sway enough members of Starways Congress to vote against the destruction of Lusitania. Meanwhile, Miro and young Valentine are spending all available time looking for additional habitable planets (or so they think). Eventually it is revealed that they are in fact searching for the home planet of the aliens who created the devastating descolada virus. This planet is discovered and Miro dubs the inhabitants descoladores. However, the Lusitania Fleet is expected to arrive outside Lusitania and destroy it within a few weeks.
Peter and Wang-Mu travel to the worlds of Divine Wind and Pacicfica to convince the Japanese-led swing group of the Starways Congress to revoke their order to destroy Lusitania. They succeed, but the admiral at the head of the Lusitania fleet disobeys their order and does what he believes Ender Wiggin, the first Xenocide, would have done: he fires the MD device to protect the world from (the now harmless, though he doesn't realize it) descolada, regardless of the political implications.
However, not is all as awful as it may seem. Jane is granted possession of Val's body, so she is not destroyed by the ansible shutdown. She is then able to continue transporting starships instantaneously by putting part of her aiúa in the infinitely large pequenino mothertrees. She is then able to get Peter and Wang-Mu close enough to the MD device so that she can transport the Molecular Disruption Device itself back to Lusitania fleet, where it is then disabled.
So, in the end, Ender's aiúa leaves his broken, old body and previous life behind to live in Peter, Jane falls in love with Miro, and Peter with Si Wang-mu. Peter's efforts finally come to fruition, and the destruction of Lusitania is averted.
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| Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game series | |
|---|---|
| Ender Quartet | Ender's Game | Speaker for the Dead | Xenocide | Children of the Mind |
| Bean Quartet | Ender's Shadow | Shadow of the Hegemon | Shadow Puppets | Shadow of the Giant |
| Additional books | Shadows in Flight | Ender in Exile: Ganges (working title) |
| Short stories | First Meetings: "The Polish Boy" | "Teacher's Pest" | "Investment Counselor"
Intergalactic Medicine Show: "Mazer in Prison" | "Pretty Boy" | "Cheater" |
| Books | Characters | Concepts | |
