I've been spending less time on this series lately, as it is a bit slower and also I've just had less time for it. I finished Xenocide a few weeks ago, the third book in the Ender Quartet. Ender is now in his late 50s or early 60s. Several moral dilemmas arise and the people on the planet he occupies face several terrible decisions. Virtually any action or inaction will lead to the extinction of one sentient species or another. What to do?
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I thought several aspects of the book were interesting. The attempt at creating so many dilemmas led to an interesting plot, where I really did wonder what would happen (at least as far as I did not remember from so many years back). The Chinese world of Path was well done, I felt, and I liked the Chinese characters especially.
But there were several disappointments. At the end of the last book, Ender marries a broken woman and becomes the stepfather to several of her children. Ender, as a Speaker for the Dead, has the ability to heal the hearts of thousands. The prospects for the broken family he takes under his wing look wonderful. Now, early on this book, the children now grown are still a contentious and irrational bunch. Two in particular are complete idiots: one is a power hungry bigot; one is the sort of Green Party member that would allow humanity to die in order to save paramecia. And Ender, who has now been married for twenty something years now to the woman he emotionally healed in the last book, a woman who had been so hard-hearted that only Ender could pierce her walls, supposedly has had a wonderful time the past twenty something years. But now in this book, she goes back to being a complete bruja. What I'm saying is that we as the readers never get to know the good woman, the good marriage, or anything like that. All we ever get to see is contention, though the bulk of their relationship has supposedly been wonderful.
I'm wishing that Card would write another interquel as he did with Ender in Exile. This time I want it to take place between Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide. Get to know the characters a bit better. Only problem is, within the framework we already have, I'm not sure what sort of conflict could keep a reader's attention in that timeframe.
Another problem was the discovery of the fascinating Jane character. She could have made a million decisions to keep herself hidden, but she tipped her hand, and her efforts did not even prevent the evil that she had hoped. She made the Lusitania fleet disappear, but all the primary characters knew they were still there, just cut off, and that they would still destroy Lusitania. She could have simply offered false orders and continually devoted her extensive attention to preserving the falsehood by altering all communication. She could have even transmitted a message about fleetwide rebellion, then cut off communication, meanwhile steering the fleet elsewhere or shutting down their weaponry. Given her extensive abilities, I don't believe any excuse OSC or anyone else comes up with for why she did what she did. She really blew it, in spite of her advanced logical processing abilities.
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Anyway, when I first read Xenocide, I enjoyed it as my second favorite of the original four Ender books. This time I didn't enjoy it nearly as much. Better in theory than in execution. Nevertheless, I did like it enough that I wouldn't denounce it. It's just weaker than I'd remembered and hoped.