- Children of the Mind
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Children of the Mind 
Author(s) Orson Scott Card Country United States Language English Series Ender's Game series Genre(s) Science fiction Publisher Tor Books Publication date 1996 Media type Print (Hardcover & Paperback) Pages 349 pp ISBN 0-312-85395-5 OCLC Number 33971186 Dewey Decimal 813/.54 20 LC Classification PS3553.A655 C48 1996 Preceded by Xenocide Followed by A War of Gifts Children of the Mind (1996) is the fourth book of Orson Scott Card's popular Ender's Game series of science fiction novels that focus on the character Ender Wiggin. This book was originally the second half of Xenocide, before that book was split into two novels.
Plot summary
At the start of Children of the Mind, Jane, the evolved computer intelligence, is using her newly discovered abilities to take the races of buggers, humans and pequeninos outside the universe and back In instantaneously. She uses these powers to move them to distant habitable planets for colonization. She is losing her memories and concentration as the vast computer network connected to the ansible is being shut down. If she is to survive, she must find a way to transfer her aiúa (or soul) to a human body.
Peter and Wang-Mu travel to the worlds of Divine Wind and Pacifica to convince the Japanese-led swing group of the Starways Congress to revoke their order to destroy Lusitania. By tracing the decision making trail backwards, they are able to show a philosopher his influence on the Starways Congress. After some complications, the philosopher convinces the Starways Congress to stop the Lusitania fleet. The admiral at the head of the Lusitania fleet disobeys their order and does what he believes Ender Wiggin, the first Xenocide, would have done, and fires the Molecular Disruption Device (MDD).
Jane is granted possession of Young Val's body, and thus is not destroyed when the ansible shuts down. She is then able to continue transporting starships instantaneously by borrowing the vast mental capacity of the simple-minded Pequenino mother-trees. She gets Peter and Wang-Mu close enough to the MDD to find her way back and transport the MDD itself to the Lusitania fleet, where it is then disarmed and disabled.
Ender's aiúa had left his body (which then deteriorated) to live in Peter. Jane falls in love with Miro, and Peter with Si Wang-mu. Both couples get married under one of the mother-trees of the pequeninos on the same day as Ender's funeral. Peter's efforts finally come to fruition, and the destruction of Lusitania is averted. The story ends with the two new couples being taken Outside by Jane herself and back In to an unknown destination.
See also
- List of characters in the Ender's Game series
- Concepts in the Ender's Game series
- List of works by Orson Scott Card
External links
- About the novel Children of the Mind from Card's website
- Children of the Mind publication history at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
Categories:- 1996 novels
- Novels by Orson Scott Card
- 1990s science fiction novels
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