Xenocide

WARNING!
This is the third book in a series, and reading this review without having read book one and two might spoil some of your fun.

The story:
Since Ender's Game, Ender has carried with him his chance of redemption. With him, he has the last egg of the Buggers. Inside, a new Hive Queen sleeps, left by the old to be given a new chance, if and when Ender could find a world for her.

And though the problem with the killed xenobiologists is solved, another problem has arisen. For Lusitania is a deadly trap. On it is a virus that kills or mutates. The piggies survived, along with a few other species, but they now live in a strange symbiosis with their world.

Against this virus, no living thing, perhaps save from the Hive Queen, is safe. If let loose on the rest of the human settlements in the universe, it could easily wipe out every being, not only humans, but animals and plants as well.

Now Ender and Valentine must do what they can to prevent the impossible from happening again; a second Xenocide, this time both the piggies, and the newly awakened Hive Queen, will be wiped out, together with the population of Lusitania, unless Ender and his loved ones can find a way to neutralize the virus.

There problem, however, is that the Piggies depend on the virus; without it, they will die.

Thoughts about the book:
This continues the discussion about Man's right to do what he sees fit. Not only is this a story about the persons in the book, it is also a story of Man. For this is what humans have done again and again; destroyed, or tried to destroy, what can be a threat against themselves, without thought for the beauty behind the threat.

Humans tend to consider themselves as the most important species in the universe. They use their own survival as an excuse to do what they like, even if this will endanger other beings, or even whole species.

About the author Orson Scott Card
About the first book, Ender's Game
About the previous book, Speaker for the Dead

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