Will M.'s Reviews > Xenocide
Xenocide (Ender's Saga, #3)
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by
** spoiler alert **
The war for the survival of the planet Lusitania will be fought in the heart of a child named gloriously bright.
Says the cover. Such a misleading thing to say. This novel was 500 pages of bullshit, and 91 pages of slight enjoyment. More or less 81.8% of useless shit.
Nominated for the Hugo award? Thank heavens it didn't win.
I loved Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, but Xenocide was just bullshit. It even felt like Card didn't write this. How could he create amazing characters, and manage to make them lifeless all of a sudden? I didn't feel any kind of connection with any of the characters in this third novel. To make things worse, this novel is way too long. 591 pages, rambling on about uninteresting stuff.
The main goal of this novel I believe was to keep things interesting by introducing another possibility of a "xenocide", but all it did was introduce another set of alien species that are not even likeable. They were flat and unrelatable. I'm chinese, and I couldn't even relate to the characters. They were written that bad. I even had to check the front cover to see if Card wrote this alone. Unbelievable how much I hated this novel.
The list of annoying things does not end. Card made the characters seem like they were trying to be like Ender a lot. Miro, Grego, and Wang-mu were all pretentious in this novel. They were trying too hard to be likeable, but they seemed like losers. Especially Wang-mu, and the twist that Card wrote in the near end about her was not even good. She was not a likeable character from the start, so relentlessly trying to make her likeable is not going to work. You might ask, who could be more annoying than Wang-mu? Qing-jao. Another pretentious little bitch. All her whining from the start annoyed me already. I got it the first time, you don't want the life that you were given, so stop whining about it every fucking time you appear in a chapter.
Ender himself was fucking unbearable in this novel. I saw this coming already, but Card just made it worse.
You killed people with your bear hands? You fucking killed an entire species, shouldn't that be the cause of your "losing of humanity"? Terrible example given, and I thought you were supposed to be the amazing speaker of the dead/murderer of the buggers. And up to now, I still can't believe that he married Novinha. She was fucking crazy right from the start.
The plot itself ventured off a cliff. Instead of focusing on the main story, it focused on the art of whining instead. We get more of scrubbing grease off hands, Miro's paralysis, Ender's marriage, and Novinha's family problem rather than the fucking possibility of a Xenocide. Let me add the constant whining of everyone regarding Jane's "humanity". I don't give a rat's ass who created her, please talk about the fucking Xenocide instead. Based on the summary at the back, this should've been the best of the 3. Instead, I'm considering giving up on the whole series because of this being such a bullshit novel. Once I've calmed down though, I believe I'll be reading the next novel.
1.5/5 stars. I gave this 2 stars because I still have an ounce of mercy left in my system. Card could've done better, and he already proved that with the first two novels. I'm not sure what happened here, but I'm hoping the next novel wouldn't be this bad.
This novel should be called "The Art of Whining" and not "Xenocide".
Says the cover. Such a misleading thing to say. This novel was 500 pages of bullshit, and 91 pages of slight enjoyment. More or less 81.8% of useless shit.
Nominated for the Hugo award? Thank heavens it didn't win.
I loved Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, but Xenocide was just bullshit. It even felt like Card didn't write this. How could he create amazing characters, and manage to make them lifeless all of a sudden? I didn't feel any kind of connection with any of the characters in this third novel. To make things worse, this novel is way too long. 591 pages, rambling on about uninteresting stuff.
The main goal of this novel I believe was to keep things interesting by introducing another possibility of a "xenocide", but all it did was introduce another set of alien species that are not even likeable. They were flat and unrelatable. I'm chinese, and I couldn't even relate to the characters. They were written that bad. I even had to check the front cover to see if Card wrote this alone. Unbelievable how much I hated this novel.
The list of annoying things does not end. Card made the characters seem like they were trying to be like Ender a lot. Miro, Grego, and Wang-mu were all pretentious in this novel. They were trying too hard to be likeable, but they seemed like losers. Especially Wang-mu, and the twist that Card wrote in the near end about her was not even good. She was not a likeable character from the start, so relentlessly trying to make her likeable is not going to work. You might ask, who could be more annoying than Wang-mu? Qing-jao. Another pretentious little bitch. All her whining from the start annoyed me already. I got it the first time, you don't want the life that you were given, so stop whining about it every fucking time you appear in a chapter.
Ender himself was fucking unbearable in this novel. I saw this coming already, but Card just made it worse.
"Ela, after you've inadvertently killed a couple of people with your bear hands, either you learn to control your temper or you lose your humanity."
You killed people with your bear hands? You fucking killed an entire species, shouldn't that be the cause of your "losing of humanity"? Terrible example given, and I thought you were supposed to be the amazing speaker of the dead/murderer of the buggers. And up to now, I still can't believe that he married Novinha. She was fucking crazy right from the start.
The plot itself ventured off a cliff. Instead of focusing on the main story, it focused on the art of whining instead. We get more of scrubbing grease off hands, Miro's paralysis, Ender's marriage, and Novinha's family problem rather than the fucking possibility of a Xenocide. Let me add the constant whining of everyone regarding Jane's "humanity". I don't give a rat's ass who created her, please talk about the fucking Xenocide instead. Based on the summary at the back, this should've been the best of the 3. Instead, I'm considering giving up on the whole series because of this being such a bullshit novel. Once I've calmed down though, I believe I'll be reading the next novel.
1.5/5 stars. I gave this 2 stars because I still have an ounce of mercy left in my system. Card could've done better, and he already proved that with the first two novels. I'm not sure what happened here, but I'm hoping the next novel wouldn't be this bad.
This novel should be called "The Art of Whining" and not "Xenocide".
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Reading Progress
December 16, 2014
–
Started Reading
December 16, 2014
– Shelved as:
2014
December 16, 2014
– Shelved
December 16, 2014
– Shelved as:
space
December 16, 2014
– Shelved as:
to-read
December 16, 2014
– Shelved as:
books-i-own
December 16, 2014
– Shelved as:
sci-fi
December 16, 2014
–
0.17%
"I'm Chinese and I have to correct you, Mr. Card. You don't read Jiang as Jee-eng, but rather you read it as Chiang. Not gonna be a big deal while reading the novel, but I don't want people saying Jee-eng thinking they're right."
page
1
December 17, 2014
–
30.24%
"Slowly losing interest. The plot is not as interesting anymore. Too early to give up though."
page
179
December 17, 2014
–
30.24%
"Slowly losing interest. The plot is not as interesting anymore. Too early to give up though."
page
179
December 18, 2014
–
44.09%
"I just realized that Ender is a freakin' robot. He has no emotions, and no ounce of humanity. Sure, blame it on the reason that you're the reason why an alien race got extinct. You're still a robot, and I like robots."
page
261
December 19, 2014
–
73.65%
"Bored and interested at the same time. In short, a little bit dragging."
page
436
December 20, 2014
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-20 of 20 (20 new)
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Shelby *trains flying monkeys*
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Dec 20, 2014 05:30PM
This review made me giggle. I never would have made it through it. :) Bravo Will!
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Shelby *wants some flying monkeys* wrote: "This review made me giggle. I never would have made it through it. :) Bravo Will!"
Thanks, Shelby!
Thanks, Shelby!
This book doesn't seem to get a lot of love. Can't say your review compells me to pick this series up.
Benji wrote: "This book doesn't seem to get a lot of love. Can't say your review compells me to pick this series up."
I'd suggest reading the first two novels, and stop there. If you still want to know what's going to happen next, then you could give this a try.
I'd suggest reading the first two novels, and stop there. If you still want to know what's going to happen next, then you could give this a try.
You're better off not reading anymore books in this series unless you want your head to explode. I'd enjoy large amounts of wasabi over this poxy book.
This review should be called the art of whining because you wrote a lot about a book you hated because it was too long
The story itself was good and kept me glued, but Card seems to want to justify everyone's selfish behaviour and I just found that annoying. Ender should have been the opposing view rather than the infallible soapbox he is here. I guess the speaker for the dead can only give a balanced view of a person if they are already dead.
Agreed. There are 2 character archetypes in this book, Ender (i.e. Valentine and Peter) and Novinha (i.e. Quara and Qing-Jao). No one is their own character, they all act as plot devices and everyone behaves like children. Disappointing.
Ender did kill people with his bare hands, actually. In Ender's Game, at the age of six he killed Stilson and at the age of 11? he killed Bonzo Madrid.
I agree with this completely, I felt the same way. This one was hard to get through and that ending was even fucking ridiculous. It had such a forced feeling to it.
Thank fuck I’m not the only one who hates this book. I agree that the first two are worth it, but this book is absolute rubbish. I fucking hated it. Best review ever.
Sorry for being so late to the party! Pardon my ignorance!. However, after finishing Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead in less than 3 days, I was looking to finish the entire Ender series over the weekend. That was before the reviews here and am seriously considering whether I should plough ahead or stop and let the genius of the first 2 books remain unsullied? Help please.
Somyadeep Sen wrote: "Sorry for being so late to the party! Pardon my ignorance!. However, after finishing Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead in less than 3 days, I was looking to finish the entire Ender series over ..."
Hi! Although others disagree, my personal opinion is Xenocide is the best of the bunch. You should read it and let your own opinion form.
Hi! Although others disagree, my personal opinion is Xenocide is the best of the bunch. You should read it and let your own opinion form.