I almost didn’t buy this book, after some dreadful review/ratings on Amazon, but I’m so glad I did! I think I understand the negativity aimed at the ‘rest’ of the Ender saga: Ender’s Game was sci-fi, kids in space ‘Battleschool’, fighting a buggy alien invader intent on wiping out earth. The rest, including this one, are about politics. Earth-based, full of loooong dialogue exchanges – it’s not the kind of action many people would be expecting.

Me, on the other hand – although I did have moments of wondering why I was reading a political behind-the-scenes speech, I got rather caught up in this series. The science-fiction look at where earth’s global alliances might be in a few hundred years is an intriguing ‘what if’. China against a united India, a League of Muslim Nations – super powers battling it out like a giant game of Risk.

The characters we’ve been following – Bean, Petra, Peter Wiggin, et al – seem almost of secondary importance to the global picture. Which is perhaps why I wasn’t as disappointed as I may have expected not to get conclusive endings to some of their stories.

Orson Scott Card’s Enderverse books never cease to amaze me; Most series drop off in quality after the first few books, but these have been consistently wonderful all through. I cried at the end of this one, like the sap I am, and I’m anxiously awaiting the next.