Children of the Mind is a clever title. On the one hand it is an obvious reference to Card's fictional religious order the Filhos de Mente de Cristo, while on the other it is clearly referring to the thought-spawned characters left over from the end of Xenocide: Jane, reincarnated Valentine, and reincarnated Peter. And, with the exception of one chapter, it is a book that exists entirely without Ender. In his natural form anyway. Children of the Mind continues Xenocide's philosophy-heavy storyline and could probably claim to be one of the only science fiction novels on the planet that seems to draw much of its inspiration from Leibniz's Monadology.
But let's take a look at the plot. The Starways fleet is still en route to destroy the planet Lusitania, and the three alien species that live on it, even as congress is systematically shutting down Ansible networks, slowly killing the benevolent AI known as Jane. Reincarnated Peter (or is he just Ender's dark side? The book frequently ponders this question, at length) and Wang-Mu head off to the Japanese-inspired planet of Divine Wind to see if they can find Congress's seat of power. Miro, in his newly restored form, is searching the galaxy with reincarnated Valentine and Jane to find habitable planets to evacuate the Lusitanians to. And no one else really matters this time around.
And that's the book's first problem. It's entirely about new characters. Not that they are bad, of course. Peter was always an interesting supporting character, and seeing his new form leavened with some of Ender's softness makes him a somewhat more sympathetic person. Unfortunately, we don't get to see much of his touted political genius on display here, and he comes across mostly as a slightly likable jerk. The only character who is actually good is Wang-Mu, who carries over from Xenocide where she was also one of the more interesting people.
Card has stated that Xenocide was originally planned as a much longer book, but the ending got removed and expanded out into Children of the Mind. And that's obvious. It's a pretty short book, but it feels muddled and hasty. The final solution to the Lusitania Fleet, while amusing, feels anticlimactic. The whole thing feels anticlimactic, given that so many solutions are so simple, but we spend so much time and so many complicated plot threads getting to them. It feels like the book consists entirely of long-winded conversations and soap opera romance.
And having said that, I'll just say a few words about the quartet. Children of the Mind is a disappointment, but it's not a crime against sci-fi literature. It's entertaining enough to read. It's just nowhere near as good as the other books. Likewise, Xenocide could be considered the book where the whole thing starts going off the rails as it begins to shake and sag under the weight of its own philosophical machinations. Even with that said, Xenocide still has about it the flavor of greatness. But the two books before it, the first two in the series, are surely titans of the genre. If you like science fiction, and have yet to read either Ender's Game or Speaker for the Dead, you must do so as soon as possible. You can stop reading there, knowing that the plot threads that are left dangling do get resolved, and be happy, or you can keep reading. Just know that if you keep reading, you'll get into a tangled web of narrative which is nowhere near as fulfilling or exciting as the beginning. Again, it's not bad, it's just disappointing. Almost anticlimactic in and of itself.
4/10
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