[ScottSF]

Hi Orion

little of topic but, what order did you read the books in? I was a bit confused but I think there was an order they were written and a chronological order within the story. I read Xenocide as the 3rd ender book: Ender's Game - Speaker for the Dead - Xenocide.

One thing I liked about Xenocide was how even though Humanity seemed morally enlightened and agreed on the awful result of the Bugger War, Congress was ready to do it all over again with the percieved piggy threat. The same duality was apparent when people were intelectually horrified about the Bugger xencide and ready to accept their "beauty" as portrayed in the Hivequeen book but when faced with an actual bugger the primal survival/fear/enemy instinct was ready to assert itself. I appreciate also how Card works on deeply developing alien minds and culture of a few species rather than populated the galaxy with a plethora of aliens that are all basically humans with one aspect exagerated. The dificulty of communication across completely different cultural contexts was well done. May be a while before I get to the next book but I look forward to it.