Review: Children of the Mind

Children of the Mind
Orson Scott Card

This is the fourth book in the "Ender" series written by Orson Scott Card, but the first I've reviewed here. This book was written as the second half of the story begun in Xenocide. The forward makes it clear that Card intended to include the full Xenocide-CotM story in one book, but split it after realizing this second part of the story required a full volume itself.

When I read Xenocide, in fact, I knew that there was potential for the story to continue, but I did not immediately jump to Children of the Mind. In my view, Xenocide had a good, self-contained story -- there was no cliff-hanger.

Now that I've read Children of the Mind, I realize how much was yet to be resolved. I'm certainly glad to have read it.

This novel is quite different from the first three, however, in that there is very little action. And by "action" I don't mean "blowing things up" or "car chases and laser fights." I mean that, in the first three books, and particularly in Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide, people went from place to place and did things. In that sense, the stories had "action."

Most of Children of the Mind, however, takes place in dialog. You see, in Xenocide, Card introduced the idea that, when a person is born (or probably conceived, but this is not dwelt upon) the "soul" (he calls it an aiua) comes from somewhere else (Outside) and inhabits the body. This is an oversimplification, and the concept is much more intricate and elegant than that, but the point of my comment is that Children of the Mind deals with questions of the soul. As such, action is not very required, but dialog is. Card asks us to examine what it means to be who we are - how much of what we are is our soul, how much is our body, how much is our memories?

Card is a Mormon, so I wonder if any of the concepts driving his "aiua" definition of the soul are informed by that theology. If they are, it's certainly not his intent to proselytize. I tend to think, instead, that he created these really cool ideas and drove them hard to see where they could go.

I hope the next books get back to more action, because I can only take so much philosophy, and having recently read a non-fiction book, I want to immerse myself in some good old idea-based action. But Children of the Mind was well worth the read, and is definitely a worthy book, once Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide have thrilled a reader.