Finished Children of the Mind, the last book in this part of the series. Yes, other stories exist in the Enderverse, but this is the last to follow the escapades of Ender the Xenocide (that pejorative title will come in useful soon in my near one-sided conversation). This book is the slowest of all four. Not that it's a bad thing. The first two thirds were most interesting, and deal with what makes a person a person. Card's ongoing efforts to theorize LDS doctrine in the framework of science fiction continues to be fascinating.
MOLD, TOXINS, AND OTHER SPOILERS ;)
Ender is split into three persons. Yes, three. Actually, that happened at the last book, but is really explored here. The idea of a single basic entity, what is essentially the basic soul that guides each life form, through a bizarre accident in supralight travel, now controls the original Ender, plus his self-concept projected into young bodies identical to his evil brother and altruistic sister. His aiua (the soul) cannot continue to control three bodies, and ultimately lets go of the elderly Ender and the noble sister, thus completing the formerly evil incarnation of the brother and making him again a complete combination of good mastering the evil side, as the original Ender was. What happens to the other bodies? Well, the elder Ender endures no longer. The young sister instead adopts a different aiua, that of Jane, the computer entity, now filling such vast expanses that she can use computer processors, shares space with the intelligent trees of Lusitania, and occupies a human body which provides her with the greatest joy. Sound weird? It is. But I enjoyed it.
The theme of the dangers of xenocide continued. Some parts were fascinating, some dull, some unbelievable. Overall, I still liked it, again from the perspective of an older adult (actually, this is the book I remembered the least about from my last reading, and I wonder if I never completed it all those years ago--I thought I did but...). In the end, there were several questions left unanswered, particularly the nature of a planet of sentient creatures who communicate via genetic manipulation and who altered Lusitania and various other worlds in such a manner that it nearly killed the inhabitants and resulted in the truly bizarre fauna/flora (that slash means not that there is some of each, but that all the organisms can actually qualify at one point or another as either). The new incarnation of Peter, no longer merely occupied with Ender's baser nature, has a promising future ahead of him, include the potential recovery of Ender's memories and thus perhaps continuing as Ender. The relationship with the world of Lusitania and its own colonies might ease vs. the Starways' Congress is yet to be fully answered. But for years, this was supposed to be the last book. In the afterward, OSC admitted that he is planning on answering these questions and weaving the Shadow series back into the Ender line. I'm not sure how this will happen, but we'll see.
NO MORE SPOILERS
So with that, I return to the Shadow series following Bean, living in normal time, not traveling for years at near light speeds to preserve his youth, living on earth and the future of humanity. As I look back, I feel more forgiving of Xenocide at this point, and really did enjoy the moral dilemmas, in spite of a few plot nitpicks. Children of the Mind was interesting in its own way, and I look forward to reading the more earthbound part of the universe.
OKAY, MORE SPOILERS
A final thought, again preferring Ender over Bean. Ender did something terrible--he destroyed an entire sentient species. He bore guilt for it for the remainder of his life. It changed him, and in a more pacifist way, he again changed the universe. He gives up his identity as Ender, because he's become known as Ender the Xenocide. But all his crimes were done without knowing what he was doing.
And then there's Bean. Bean was nearly as culpable in the horrible act that Ender was. Bean commanded a sizeable portion of Ender's ships. Bean was the backup if Ender failed. Bean gave Ender the final idea (stupid!) about how to destroy the Formics. And Bean, with his ridiculous intelligence that surpassed even Ender's, inferred that Ender's game was really Ender's mission, that it was real, that they were really killing the buggers. And he did nothing to prevent the deaths of every living creature (except for one last hive queen). Ender bore the blame of their deaths, and suffered for it the rest of his life. Ender's nobility was supreme. Bean, with the full knowledge of that mistake, never felt an ounce of guilt for what was done. Julian Delphiki was really Bean the Xenocide. Of course, Bean's storyline is my Enderverse PT equivelent, so I guess I don't have to get too hung up on that.