Xenocide

Xenocide is the third book in the Ender’s Game saga by Orson Scott Card. It is preceded by Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead and is followed by Children of the Mind, Ender in Exile, and The Last Shadow.

In Ender’s Game, Ender is enrolled in Battle School as a young boy; there he studies to be a soldier to fight in the war against the Formics, or “buggers.” He goes to classes, plays the Fantasy Game on his tablet, and participates in zero-gravity mock battles. He thrives at Battle School because of his open mind and creativity, and he becomes the youngest person to be given command of a squadron. He grows to resent the government attempting to control him and takes a break during which time Valentine, his older sister, is sent to encourage him to return to his training. He successfully completes his elaborate final “test” in which he destroys an entire planet using the M. D. Device. Afterward, he is told that he was actually leading real pilots in a real battle and has just defeated the Formics once and for all. Later, he discovers that the Formics’ previous violence against humans was due to a tragic misunderstanding. Devastated at the thought that he was tricked into annihilating an entire peaceful species, he finds the hidden cocoon of a hive queen and vows to bring her to a new planet on which she might hatch and rebuild her species.

In Speaker for the Dead, Ender takes on the title Speaker for the Dead and travels throughout the universe giving honest, unvarnished services for deceased people to explain the true nature of their lives, both the positive and the negative. In this capacity, he also writes a book titled The Hive Queen to share the truth that Formics are nonviolent and that the hive queen is worthy of admiration. While Ender is traveling to Lusitania, Novinha finds a cure for the descolada virus. Her father figure, Pipo, and her lover, Libo, are killed and ritualistically disemboweled by the Pequeninos. While the humans first believe this to be an act of violence, Ender later discovers upon his arrival that the Pequeninos were attempting to honor the men by turning them into fathertrees; the Pequeninos did not realize that such a metamorphosis is an impossibility for any species but themselves. Ender then quietly finds a distant location on the planet for the hive queen to establish herself.

These preceding novels establish the context for Xenocide. Because Ender was manipulated into committing xenocide as a child in Ender’s Game, he has become a pacifist and a protector of life as an adult. He also develops an appreciation for the hive queen, which later turns to love and admiration. Ender’s goal in Speaker for the Dead is to reverse his reputation as “Ender the Xenocide.” However, his work as Speaker for the Dead is contrasted by his aloofness and secrecy in Xenocide. Speaker for the Dead also established several of the primary characters in Xenocide, including Jane and the Rebeira family. The issue of relativity is also thoroughly established in Speaker for the Dead, for time is depicted as moving relatively slower for those who are traveling at light speed. Thus, many years can elapse on a particular planet while a space traveler might only experience a few months. This time dilation has profound effects on the pattern of the narrative, for while Miro’s ship is traveling to meet Valentine’s in space, Miro only has a short amount of time to process the trauma he experienced during Speaker for the Dead, while his family back on Lusitania has about 30 years to move on with their lives in his absence.

Children of the Mind begins where Xenocide stops. The events that take place in Xenocide develop the context for the fourth novel in the series. Jane begins moving inhabitants of Lusitania to planets found by Miro and young Val, while Ender joins Novinha and the Children of the Mind. The Lusitania fleet is coming with orders to destroy the planet, and Jane is still facing the existential threat posed by the ansible shutdown.