Reviewed By: The Goose

I didn’t want to read it. Refused to buy it. But, that cantankerous old monkey pulled a fast one and shipped me his copy. He knew I would then read it, that I wouldn’t be able to resist. For once in his benighted life he was right. Sneaky old trickster!

I have many reasons for not wanting to read this particular novel. First, I was seriously disgruntled with Card after I read that transcript on sff.com. Secondly, the early reports I had about Ender’s Shadow filled me with misgivings. Score one for intuition!

Right now, let me warn those of you monkies out there, whom-against our better advice-have not yet read Ender’s Game: DO NOT READ THIS ONE FIRST! It will ruin Ender’s Game for you on several levels.

Despite my misgivings about Card, he is still one of the most talented writers around today. So, I quickly fell into the story, which begins, innocuously enough, in the streets of Rotterdam where Bean is a very little urchin living on the streets.

However, he quickly organizes all the street kids of Rotterdam into a semblance of civilization (as Card puts it) and thus comes to the attention of the International Fleet (I.F.). So, of course, Bean is rushed off to Battle School.

This is where Card starts to fall off of his rocker, both scientifically and story-wise.

Generally speaking, Card has always grounded his theories in some sort of scientific fact. But, let me just say this: intelligence, and especially great intelligence, requires longer gestational and juvenile periods of development. This is a biological truth. It is never the other way around. And story-wise, it’s not that he deviates from the original plot, but more that he ruins or distorts some of the central assumptions and facts of that plot.

So, other than shattering the core of Ender’s Game and stepping off the scientific deep-end, this is a good story and an excellent tale of the life of Bean. If you have read E.G., you may be offended by some of the things Card has done here, but you will agree that it is still a good story.

P.S. Look up Deus ex Machinain your dictionary before you read this - see if you can pick out what Card has disguised his as!

Hardcover - 384 pages 1 Ed edition (August 31, 1999) Tor Books; ISBN: 031286860X ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.28 x 9.55 x 6.45

Reviewed by: The Blind Monkey

Ender’s Back. And he’s so darn facinating that last week, after re-reading the Goose’s “Ender’s Game” review, I decided it was time to visit him again (Probably the 5th or 6th time I’ve read this book)!

So what keeps me coming back?? Well, there’s the interstellar politics. And the deftly described, magnificently executed twists of the plot. Or perhaps it’s the way he opens your mind and allows your simple little brain to conceive of other species in human terms. But I think it’s the fact that Card can address the most crucial of ethical and philosophical delimas, and still astound and entertain.

Xenocide finds our cast on the outmost colony of Lusitania. He’s saved the Hive Queen and helped the buggers begin the daunting task of rebuilding of their sentient race. And he’s helped billions to understand the pequininos by writing the Life of Human.

But Lusitania also harbors the devestating descolada virus. A virus that violently destroys the humans it infects, but that also enables the piggies to transform into the third life. Because of this threat, the Starways Congress has sent a fleet to use the ‘little Doctor’ to destroy Lusitania, and with it, the only two known sentient species known to man.

Xenocide will astound. It will provoke. It will beg the question - who is Ramen, and who is Varalese?

Maybe we’re the varalese. Maybe xenocide is built into the human psyche as into no other species. In Volume 4 of the Ender Quartet, Card asks if maybe the best thing that could happen for the moral good is for the descolada to get loose, spread throughout the human universe and break us down to nothing.

I highly recommend this book. Ender’s Game gave us action, and Speaker for the Dead gave us sociological exploration. But Xenocide turns a philosophical eye towards the nature of the human race and in the process, to origins of the forces that make us what we are.

It’ll make you think - I guarantee it!

The Goose Is COOKED!! 4/8/99

Well it seems as though Blind Monkey has forgotten (AHEM) a few of the most salient points in this novel. Barring some of the very fantastical and interesting theoretical physics raised. We must keep in mind two things.

FIRST: This book is the first serious journey into the mind of Ender and what he is made of.

SECOND: There are FOUR sentient species discussed here and the three already mentioned are the least interesting in this installment. I leave it to you to find the fourth and discover if I am right or wrong.

– The Goose

Mass Market Paperback Reprint edition (August 1992) Tor Books; ISBN: 0812509250 ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.34 x 6.73 x 4.24

Reviewed By: The Goose

First things first. Ender’s Game IS the best body of work Card has ever done. There are those out there that will argue one or the other of the sequels (Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind) are better. PAH! They’re good, but not THAT good. The Goose will waste no time taunting them. All I will say is that they are WRONG!

***It doesn’t make BM’s top ten list by being okay, you know***

If you want to read a book that explores the cultural, and psychological impact of War on people forget about psychology and political science, this is the book for you. Imagine that your smarter than smart, smarter even than The Goose. What if your whole life you were programmed with the horrors that an alien force inflicted on the Human Race? (The Buggers (please set aside ANY British connotations) have attacked Earth twice. Twice Humanity was very, very lucky.)

Ender Wiggin is many things to many people, up to and including himself. Foremost, however, he is a child. That is something you should never forget as you read this book and increasingly identify with him. Born Andrew he adopted the name ‘Ender’ because his sister, Valentine, could not pronounce Andrew.

…At this point I must digress. Blind Monkey gets first crack at all my prose and the Monkey was definitely UNHAPPY with the original draft. BM said that the best thing about the book is that the end is a total surprise and that I was giving too much away. So, I hacked the review in half and started again. Hopefully, the review is still intriguing enough to spark your interest. I should say that I blindly trust BM’s judgement so if you have a problem take it to the Monkey…

This story is steeped in psychological drama. There is very little action, most of which takes place ‘off stage’ reminiscent of Shakespeare. What ‘onstage’ action there is pertains to the central plot. But it is the interactions between sentients and individual minds that drive this book. Blood and gore is not where it’s at.

The RELATIONSHIPS and CHARACTERS developed throughout the book are what drive it. They create the tension, the suspense, the overall EMOTION. This book is not for the weak-minded. It WILL make you question. It WILL take you to extremes. It WILL make you RE-EVALUATE. I won’t, CAN’T tell you what. It does not require or force a specific response. A specific answer. There is no RIGHT or WRONG only questions that we will find our OWN answers for in our OWN way.

It will surprise, it might enrage, or terrify. It will make you THINK. Which is why it is on BM’s Top Ten list… which I totally agree with and I’ve read a lot more than he has…

(PAH - says the Monkey! You wish. You’re just a lowly Goose.)

Mass Market Paperback Reissue edition (April 1984) Ace Books; ISBN: 0441172717 ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.98 x 6.88 x 4.19

Reviewed by: The Goose

…Twenty years after Columbus’ Crusade. What Rome called ‘The Final Victory over the Infidel’. Europe and Asia are on fire as the Tlaxcalan Confederacy storms East. Jeruselum is raised and a Temple to Huitzilopoctli is dedicated with the blood of Europe’s royalty. It could have been…

Science Fiction is SUPPOSED to deal with the future. GOOD Science Fiction takes cultural and sociological issues of today and transposes them into an alien environment so that those issues stand out in STARK relief. Novels that deal with how things Might Have Been are called Fictional or Alternative History. So, what do you call a book that deals with two, count them TWO pasts? One of those being a very strict Historical Fiction and the other being a Wild Alternate History. Plus, THREE Futures. As if that were not enough complexity, there are at least SIX identifiable protagonists. As you can tell, Orson Scott Card’s Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus takes these disparate threads, multitude of characters, and weaves a compelling story of the struggle for Utopia.

Imagine a world just after the Cataclysm. Humanity reduced to a very small fraction of its former size. The technology needed to save the planet (read Homo Sapiens) in the Near Past (read Our Present) is now available in the Near Future. It is, of course, too late. Envision this near future with the ability to View the past and One Person who rages at the fact that it cannot be changed. What happens when these Descendants discover that they are living in a world Not entirely of their making. And what if these people discover the ONE individual who can change it all… Again.

Enough, way too much really. Read it! Decide for yourself.

Card, a consummate writer in the Science Fiction Genre, (See Monkey’s Top Ten List) thouroughly researched the historical, cultural, and scientific data presented in this…Novel. There is even an annotated bibliography. With the usual Card Flare he creates entirely believable Worlds, some past, some present, some future. With the Exception of Ender’s Game this would be his Magnum Opus. The characters are Strong, Real, and create a level of Empathy and Compassion in the reader rarely seen from this type of writer. The ‘What Ifs’ it raises are overwhelming and intriguing. The Alienism of the environment is enough to elucidate the social and cultural issues that Card wishes to explore (See Paragraph 2). Yet, Harry Turtledove would stand in Awe of the Alternate Histories raised in this story.

Go! Read! Reply!
I already know what I think. You tell me what you think!

Mass Market Paperback - 422 pages 1 Mass mkt edition (January 1999) Del Rey; ISBN: 0345424603 ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.11 x 6.85 x 4.22