Xenocide

Volume Three of the Ender Saga

By: Orson Scott Card

Narrated by: Scott Brick, Gabrielle de Cuir, Amanda Karr, John Rubinstein, Stefan Rudnicki

Length: 20 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

Xenocide is the third installment of the Ender series. On Lusitania, Ender found a world where humans and pequeninos and the Hive Queen could all live together; where three very different intelligent species could find common ground at last. Or so he thought. But Lusitania also harbors the descolada, a virus which kills all humans it infects, but which the pequeninos require in order to transform into adults. The Starways Congress so fears the effect of the descolada, should it escape from Lusitania, that they have ordered the destruction of the entire planet and all who live there. The Fleet is on its way and a second Xenocide seems inevitable, until the Fleet vanishes.

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©1991 Orson Scott Card (P)2000 Audio Renaissance

Critic reviews

"Thought-provoking, insightful, and powerfully written." (School Library Journal)
"As a storyteller, Card excels in portraying the quiet drama of wars fought not on battlefields but in the hearts and minds of his characters." (Library Journal)

Good book - but the performance was detracting

What made the experience of listening to Xenocide the most enjoyable?

I bought this right before a long car trip as I had just finished Speaker for the Dead, which I really enjoyed. I thought the story was good, but one of the performers did an incredibly obnoxious Asian accent when reading parts about an Asian woman during the story. Not only did she do the character's voice with the horrid accent, but even when narrating events she used the same terrible, terrible accent. There was an episode of "Modern Family" where the little girl Lily was in a commercial voiced over by two people performing overly exaggerated Asian accents - this was worse.

Orson Scott Card at his best.

In the end of the Ender's Game trilogy and the introduction to the Children of the Mind saga Mr. Card explores in a cogent and entertaining way the depths of the greatest questions of existence and its opposite.

what a read, what a performance.

The characters really came alive and it kept me listening way to long, thus diminishing the hours I've slept.

Not as good as Jim Dale who draws you in

Jim Dale draws you in and makes you listen but the story line was the only thing what kept me reading happy listening!!!!!

Great story, okay performance

I wasn't a fan of the over emphasized accent for the characters on path, it felt a little bit insulting.

Nothing but dialogue

The cheesy accents were hard to listen to and the book is 90% dialogue. Ender's Game is by far the best of the series.

Good story. Performance could have been better.

I enjoyed the story and would recommend this book. However the fake over the top Chinese accent was annoying and it was not consistent.

So much better than I remember

I read this book when I was 12. Over 20 years ago. I still have vivid mental images from this book lodged in my brain from that long ago. It was wonderful to listen to it now and see how my perception of the world has changed and grown. I enjoyed it so much more this time around.

It is a long and wordy book, but sometimes those are the best kind. If you get bored, pause it and go listen to something lighter. It will be there waiting when you're ready to come back to it.

While it does have some pretty fantastic and futuristic ideas, the humanity of it still applies.

Superb

Third book in the Ender series, so be sure you've read Ender's Game and Speaker For The Dead before reading. However, if it's been a while since you read either book, Card does a good job of reviewing key details from the other books before proceeding with the narrative.

I was surprised by several profound philosophical insights in the book that seemed to transcend the story, as if the series itself is meant to be an allegory about humanity. Card even attempts through his characters to muse about the very questions about the very origin of life itself, although the attempt to name and give it a made up physical phenomena could be the point at which some readers feel the book becomes "science-fictiony."

This book is long: at least 15 hours. And it is really a two part book, with Children of the Mind being considered to be its counter-part. Although I would consider Speaker for The Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind a trilogy in their own right. If you liked Ender's game, it cannot be assumed you will like the other ones because they're a lot different, but they are really good in their own right.

I loved this book. I can't wait to read the next one.

Both well written and read

Great addition to Speaker of the Dead. Every story sounds better when it includes Ender Wiggin.