 Cover of first edition (hardcover) |
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| Author | Orson Scott Card |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Ender's Game series |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Tor Books |
| Publication date | 1991 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| Pages | 592 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-312-85056-5 |
| Preceded by | Speaker for the Dead |
| Followed by | Children of the Mind |
- For the open source X-COM remake, see Project Xenocide.
Xenocide (1991) is the third novel in the Ender's Game series of books by Orson Scott Card. It was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1992.
Contents |
Plot summary
Following the events of Speaker for the Dead, we find Ender living as a member of a Portuguese human colony on the planet Lusitania, a planet which is unique in human space in that it is inhabited by two other sentient species: the Pequeninos and the Hive Queen (transplanted to this world by Ender partly in penance for his near-total destruction of their species in Ender's Game). Unfortunately, the Lusitanian ecosystem is pervaded by a virus, named 'descolada' by the humans. The virus is incredibly adaptable, and potentially fatal to all living things. However, the native pequeninos and other life that survived on Lusitania are adapted to it. This also means that the Lusitanian ecosystem is very limited, and it takes all the efforts of the Hive Queen and the human scientists in Milagre to stay alive, since they are not adapted to the descolada. Meanwhile, Jane, the AI who lives among the ansible nets, has shut off communication to the Lusitania fleet that was sent to destroy the home planet of the Pequeninos. This was done to ensure that the Lusitania fleet would not receive any signals to use the Molecular Disruption Device, a weapon that, when used, would completely obliterate the planet. Congress would send this signal to prevent the descolada from spreading to other worlds and eventually killing off humanity. However, the consequence of this action was to risk her eventual discovery and termination. On Lusitania itself, Ender marshals his forces, which consist almost entirely of the Ribeira family, including his wife Novinha and her children, whom he has since adopted. Novinha and Elanora, the mother-daughter team responsible for most of the biological advances countering the descolada, are undecided on whether they can manufacture a replacement virus and unsure whether they should use it if they could, since the descolada itself may be intrinsically related to pequenino sentience. Grego, Lusitania's leading physicist, scoffs at the idea of faster-than-light travel, but is persuaded by Ender to investigate it anyway. Quara, the third biologista of the colony, is convinced that the descolada itself is sentient and deserves to be treated as a sentient race. And Quim, Father Estevão, is determined to head off pequenino-inspired xenocide (via their starship) with faith and theology. Whether any of this can be accomplished remains to be seen. Starways Congress, the interstellar governing body, wants its fleet back. It places the dilemma before superhumanly-intelligent citizens of the world Path, a cultural planetary enclave modeled on early China. Path's culture centers on the godspoken, those who hear the voices of the gods in the form of irresistible compulsions. It later becomes clear that the godspoken of Path are victims of a cruel government project: granted great intelligence by genetic modification, they were also shackled with a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder out of fear. It is possible that the people of Path have a form of Anton's Key, substituting giantism and a nearly unlimited brain capacity for the OCD symptoms. The siting of this experiment in a culture bound by four dictates - obey the gods, honor the ancestors, love the people, and serve the rulers - is a further safeguard against rebellion, especially since the godspoken are considered the most devout and holy of all citizens. The most respected godspoken on Path is Han Fei-Tzu, and great things are expected of his daughter and potential successor, Han Qing-jao. The two of them are tasked with deciphering the disappearance of the Lusitania Fleet. Han Qing-jao's secret maid, Si Wang-Mu, aids her in this task, her incredible intelligence (partially) unfettered by the rigid caste system. Qing-jao eventually traces the identity of Demosthenes, the pen name of an essayist who has revealed and been arguing against the planned destruction of Lusitania. Discovering that Demosthenes is Valentine Wiggin, Ender's sister, but that Valentine has been on a starship, en route to Lusitania, for the last thirty years, Qing-Jao infers that a sentient computer program (Jane) closely tied to the ansible network must be responsible for hiding Demosthenes and publishing her work while she is in transit. All but discovered, Jane reveals herself to Han Fei-tzu, Han Qing-jao and Si Wang-mu, telling them about their genetic slavery and begging forbearance on their report to the Starways Congress. Han Fei-tzu, already harboring suspicions about their condition, accepts the news, as does Si Wang-mu, but Han Qing-jao clings to her traditionalism. Betrayed by her father, she reports the presence of Jane to Congress and tells them that, if all ansibles are shut down simultaneously, Jane will be destroyed. Luckily for Jane, this will take some thirty or forty weeks to accomplish, but her fate is sealed. Remorseful about his daughter's act, Han Fei-tzu assists Jane and Elanora Ribeira, a biologist on Lusitania, in solving the problems of faster-than-the-speed-of-light travel and the descolada. Eventually, Ela is able to come up with a model for a "recolada," or a model of the descolada that lets the pequeninos survive, but that doesn't seek to kill all other life forms. The only problem with this is that the recolada would be impossibly hard to make, and they are running out of time against the impending Lusitania fleet. Finally - a breakthrough is made. Jane and the Ribera family discover the "outside," or a spaceless place where all the aiúas, or individual lives of all sentient life, exist. Jane is able to envision simple starships (which for their purposes are really just boxes) with their passengers, and take them outside, then bring them back "inside" at a completely different spot. Instantaneous starflight has been discovered. As a plus, while Ela is outside, she is able to create the recolada, Miro is healed, and Ender creates a new "Valentine" and a new "Peter," the two halves of his personality. The stage has now been set for the final book of the Series, Children of the Mind.
Meaning of "Xenocide"
Since the publication of this book in 1991 its title has come to be used as a science fiction neologism. It now means an act of genocide towards an alien species.
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
