Children of the Mind

Why it’s on the list: The fourth Ender book and the most explicitly metaphysical — minds without bodies, bodies made to hold minds — in which the fleet is still coming and the network-dwelling intelligence that has been Ender’s companion faces the shutdown of the system she lives in.

Where I heard about it

• The a16z infrastructure team — on the a16z Infra Reading List, in the Sci-fi — Must reads section (S tier), the last title under the Ender’s Saga entry.

About this edition

Written as the back half of Xenocide and picking up mid-crisis, it closes the Lusitania arc. It does not work as a standalone; it is the second half of one long book.

Connections

• a16z Infra Reading List — where this is listed, in the top tier.
• Orson Scott Card — the author.
• Ender’s Game — volume one.
• Speaker for the Dead — volume two, already carded.
• Xenocide — volume three, of which this is effectively the continuation.
• Artificial Intelligence — Jane, an intelligence that emerged inside a communications network and can be switched off with it.
• Science Fiction — the genre.