111 Book Review: Xenocide
Xenocide
by Orson Scott Card
Let’s sit down and talk about things. That’s it, that’s the whole book.
If you liked Ender’s Game for its deep-dive into military strategy, and you likewise appreciated the phase shift of Speaker for the Dead for its empathy-amidst-confrontation, then you will not like this book very much.
Xenocide is a story about two people sitting down in a room — often in what feels like a contrived way — and talking about ideas. Sometimes those ideas are really interesting. Often they’re meh. Most of them could have been discussed in a more natural way.
Pluses tho? You get a glimpse at the other planets in the Hundred Worlds and whispers of another sentient species.
tl;dr: Science and religion fight, make up, fight again, have make-up sex and then fight again. They’re sorta toxic but also sometimes cute.
My rating: 8 out of 11 Unasked For Philosophical Discussions
Get it here:
- Print: Better World Books, IndieBound, Bookshop
- Electronic: Apple Books, Google Play Books
- Audio: Libro.fm, IndieBound, Google Play Books
Oh, you liked it? Well then, try: Speaker for the Dead (if you haven’t already), The Dark Forest (if you like the suspense of interstellar fleets headed your way), Frankenstein (if you like philosophy of science discussions, like me, a total nerd)
Part of the Ender Quartet: Ender’s Game | Speaker for the Dead | Xenocide | Children of the Mind
Part of the Enderverse (my suggested order): Ender’s Game | Speaker for the Dead | Xenocide | Children of the Mind | Ender’s Shadow | Shadow of the Hegemon | Shadow Puppets | Shadow of the Giant | First Meetings in the Enderverse | A War of Gifts | Ender in Exile | Shadows in Flight | Earth Unaware | Earth Afire | Earth Awakens | Children of the Fleet | The Swarm | The Hive | The Queens | The Last Shadow
