Children of the Mind

By: Orson Scott Card

Narrated by: Gabrielle de Cuir, John Rubinstein

Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

The planet Lusitania is home to three sentient species: the Pequeninos, a large colony of humans, and the Hive Queen, who was brought there by Ender Wiggin. But now, once again, the human race has grown fearful; the Starways Congress has gathered a fleet to destroy Lusitania. Ender's oldest friend, Jane, an evolved computer intelligence, can save the three sentient species of Lusitania. She has learned how to move ships outside the universe, and then instantly back to a different world, abolishing the light-speed limit. But it takes all the processing power available to her, and the Starways Congress is shutting down the network of computers in which she lives, world by world.

Soon Jane will not be able to move the ships. Ender's children must save her if they are to save themselves.

Children of the Mind is the fourth book in Orson Scott Card's The Ender Saga.

Browse more titles in the Ender Wiggin series.

©1996 Orson Scott Card (P)2004 Audio Renaissance

Critic reviews

"This is a worthy ending to what might be styled a saga of the ethical evolution of humanity, a concept seldom attempted before and never realized with the success Card achieves here." (Booklist)

"Card's prose is powerful." (Publishers Weekly)

Weakest of the core series

I found this book to be the weakest so far of the core series (Ender’s Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide). If you haven’t finished Xenocide yet, stop reading this review now as I’ll discuss things that happen in Xenocide.

...

This book focuses on the storyline of Ender’s Val and Peter alter-egos that we’re created at the end of Xenocide — that’s pretty much 90% if what’s going on in this book. I personally didn’t find these characters interesting, and I feel like the storylines created for them turned them into flat, two-dimensional plot devices rather than rich characters.

If you really absolutely must know how the main storyline of Ender wraps up, then get this book. If you find the concept of Val and Peter’s alter egos interesting and want to get to know them as much as possible, get this book. Otherwise, there’s not a lot here, and the ending left me feeling very cheated in the way it wrapped up all the unresolved storylines. Whereas I was excited to continue my journey into the other books of the Ender-verse before this book, I definitely have second thoughts now and will take a break for awhile.

the P's and S's

good book definatly worth the time to listen. but.......
the narration has so many loud popping p sounds and sharp long s sounds that when some narrator's read it's almost painfull to listen too. get a new mic or something? otherwise it's a great listen with lots of good narration being done. lots of variation and emotion in the reading. just dont turn it up too loud or your ears might regret it🙄

Held me in suspense

What made the experience of listening to Children of the Mind the most enjoyable?

Story was riveting. This Ender story was full of ideas and a deep storyline.

What did you like best about this story?

Multiple threads of converging stories.

A splash of Fantasy and Expanded Locations

Don't stop now this one's more fun than the last book and let's you enjoy new fantasy worlds and concepts. But the change to Peter's voice is odd, from a sharp razor to a walking stick a bit too dull compared to earlier book readings of his lines.

Weakish finish to a powerhouse series

This was easily the weakest entry the series. There were a lot of plot holes and the story straight up lagged through the middle. I understand that Card wanted to have a conversation about self, but he through logic and believability out the window to get there... Which resulted in this "if we want something to happen it will just magically happen" feeling to finally get to the conclusion. Still, a lot of interesting philosophical conversations and worth reading to conclude the series- even if he did wrap it up a little too fairy-tale-esk in my opinion.

Performances were all good aside from the constant switching that was jarring in parts. Same as in xenecide's recording- the broken English Asian accents are CRINGY AND RACIST... No thank you.

Fantastic journeys

Love love love the whole series this is a must listen to… you will not be disappointed

Great Story, some word salad

I loved this whole Ender series. What an incredible journey.
The only criticism is the lengthy pontification at times. Some of it was insightful, much of it was just blathering on like an overlong freshman essay on philosophy or comparative religion.
But overall it was a spectacular journey and highly recommended.

Eh... My least favorite OSC novel so far

This was a struggle. Not a bad read, but hard to stay engaged. The narrators in this series are excellent, but their pacing varies widely. While in keeping with the character profiles, the slow-read characters tend to bog bog things down. Adjusting playback speed would be effective, if not for the fast-talking characters becoming chipmunks.
Also some of the plot convolusions seemed a bit too arbitrary.
Still, the story was a fitting penultimate conclusion to the Ender series.

Favorite book of the series!

This book and this audio book in particular is my absolute favorite book by Orson Scott Card! Just buy and listen to it!
You will be glad you did!
I’m on my 3rd listen… in about 3 years.

Made me rethink space travel and reality.

It is so well written in the end your brain hurts some with how much he downloads into your head but when it finally makes sense they attempt the idea and it works. Makes you believe your actually in the book.