Reviews

Fantastic, mystical wrapping-up of Ender's journey. While Children of the Mind didn't answer all my questions from the previous three books, it does a good job of passing the torch to new characters while laying the main protagonist to rest. I think Peter and Wang-mu are especially intriguing characters, mostly because they're both very smart but in very different ways. Looking forward to reading The Last Shadow after I finish the Shadow Saga.

chriskirk's review against another edition

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1.0

Utterly mediocre, with unreasonable, sometimes unnecessary, characters that act and think spastically. Characters evade tough choices through the spontaneous discovery of loopholes, courtesy of the ambiguity of major plot points. Only a handful of things actually happen in this book; the rest of it comprises mountains of childish, trivial bickering between the characters or characters psychoanalyzing other characters to make them and the book seem profound and complex, but it just comes off as contrived.

kamkanga's review against another edition

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3.0

A good read, worth the time, but not mind-altering. There are some new concepts that are interesting, but not necessarily very inspiring If you want to read the series though, this is worth your time.

bjonassen10's review against another edition

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4.0

Great ending to the series, would have been 5 stars if the characters would’ve had better development. Annoyed that Grego and Quara were essentially exactly the same last book but only Grego got growth, Plikt never spoke and it turns out she was just obsessed with Ender for 30 years and was never a whole person, Novinha still somehow became a religious fanatic when that makes zero sense, and Valentine was severely pushed to the side as usual. It just seems like women never get great development.

basilkumquat's review against another edition

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5.0

Read this directly after finishing Xenocide and finished it in a day. Although I can see how readers who have just read Ender's Game or waited a long time after Xenocide might be disappointed in the difference in tone between the first book, or confused after time passing after the third book, for me it felt like a direct continuation from Xenocide. This makes sense in that it was originally supposed to be one book, but what I liked about Children of the Mind over Xenocide is how well rounded the characters both in narrative thought and description have become. Furthermore, there is a faster pace which made it an interesting and enjoyable read accompanied with plenty of brain candy to savor and ponder.

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