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Xenocide cover art

Xenocide

Written by: Orson Scott Card
Narrated by: Scott Brick, Gabrielle de Cuir, Amanda Karr, John Rubinstein, Stefan Rudnicki
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Publisher's Summary

Xenocide is the third installment of the Ender series. On Lusitania, Ender found a world where humans and pequeninos and the Hive Queen could all live together; where three very different intelligent species could find common ground at last. Or so he thought. But Lusitania also harbors the descolada, a virus which kills all humans it infects, but which the pequeninos require in order to transform into adults. The Starways Congress so fears the effect of the descolada, should it escape from Lusitania, that they have ordered the destruction of the entire planet and all who live there. The Fleet is on its way and a second Xenocide seems inevitable, until the Fleet vanishes.
©1991 Orson Scott Card (P)2000 Audio Renaissance

What the critics say

"Thought-provoking, insightful, and powerfully written." (School Library Journal)
"As a storyteller, Card excels in portraying the quiet drama of wars fought not on battlefields but in the hearts and minds of his characters." (Library Journal)

What listeners say about Xenocide

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

a let down compared to speaker for the dead.

the first two books in this trilogy are very good, but this one seems confused and covulted. it's made worse by the aweful performances. There are very annoying reverb added to parts of the book, and strange intonation choices and while I understand why they used a Chinese accent for one of the readers it only made the listening experience worse.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Family bickering.

I couldn't finish it. The story I enjoyed, but it's nothing but bickering, one long family squabble.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

I would give it 6 stars if I could

I really liked it, it gets a lot more into gods and politics then the others and the actors did splendid

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A worthy sequel to speaker for the dead

The story kept me interested the whole listen.
Great new and old characters. The novel ends in a big way! Really interested to read the sequel.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good book

I listened to this book after finishing the speaker for the dead. I enjoyed it. Good story and excellent narration.
My main problem with the story was dealing with the fact that a logical person like Ender believes so deeply in Christianity without questioning anything.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great philosophical story

Has much more deep philosophical thought than you'd expect from a sci-fi novel. first I struggled to get through the middle of it because I didn't enjoy where I felt the story was going, but the author didn't fail to surprise me in how much depth he'd put into this book. the VA switching felt arbitrary at times and took me out of it for a bit, and think that they might have slightly overacted with Bugger and Chinese parts with the accent.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Not my favorite

It's a fine book, I enjoyed it, just not like Enders Game or frankly any of the others. If you want to try this BUT haven't finished his other Ender series, don't start here.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

too much drama and crap science

I read Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead as a kid. read both books recently and watch the Ender's Game movie this audiobook is just painful. so much religious BS and science BS. pay for it and can't wait for it to end. I'm not one to quit but I'm almost done and I know my verdict. don't read this even if it's free or listen to it.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Racist performance of Chinese characters

I suppose this is a vestige of the past but the performance of the Chinese characters is rather racist and doesn't sit well with me. It does not make sense for all the Chinese characters to speak with (faked, by non-Chinese narrators nonetheless) Chinese accents. Consider Han Feizhi and Qingjao: they are educated in Stark from a young age and exposure to offworld media as often as they are, they should not have any hint of an accent whatsoever. (Or does one imagine that Chinese people who are fluent in their mother tongue cannot also speak English without an accent...) It's barely rational for Wangmu to speak with an accent. If they're conducting their lives with their own language why would there be an accent? As a comparison, the Lusos are not performed with an accent, and they are as fluent in both their mother tongue and Stark as the folks on Path. This whole accent ordeal is incredibly racist and while I understand it might've been """""acceptable""""" at the time of publication it would never stand in 2021..... It mars an otherwise great story and performance. (The Hive Queen is performed really well!!!)

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Not part of the Ender series

Story is shoe-horned into the Ender series and it shows. And it's only half the story.

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