Children of the Mind (1996)
Children of the Mind is a 1996 science fiction book written by Orson Scott Card.
The planet Lusitania shelters three thinking species: the piglike pequeninos, a human colony, and the Hive Queen that Ender Wiggin once carried across the stars to a new home. Fear has taken hold of humankind again, and Starways Congress has sent a fleet to burn the world clean. Jane, the vast intelligence woven through the interstellar Net, has learned to slip ships outside the universe and back, breaking the light-speed limit. The trick costs nearly all of her, and Congress is shutting the Net down world by world. Ender's children must save her before she runs out of room to think. Fourth in the Ender series.
Quick answers
What is Children of the Mind about?
The planet Lusitania shelters three thinking species: the piglike pequeninos, a human colony, and the Hive Queen that Ender Wiggin once carried across the stars to a new home. Fear has taken hold of humankind again, and Starways Congress has sent a fleet to burn the world clean. Jane, the vast intelligence woven through the interstellar Net, has learned to slip ships outside the universe and back, breaking the light-speed limit. The trick costs nearly all of her, and Congress is shutting the Net down world by world. Ender's children must save her before she runs out of room to think. Fourth in the Ender series.
When was Children of the Mind published?
Children of the Mind was published in 1996.
Who made Children of the Mind?
Children of the Mind was written by Orson Scott Card.
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A few thoughts on Children of the Mind
Readers drawn to Jane and to alien minds straining to understand one another should try Mass Effect 2, a space opera built on species diplomacy, moral weight, and an AI companion you come to love. For first contact framed as an act of empathy rather than war, Arrival is the closest cinematic cousin.
Stories where humanity has to share the galaxy with someone else
Children of the Mind puts three sentient species on one fragile planet and asks humanity to actually get past its fear of what's different. The Expanse and Stargate SG-1 spread that same test across whole star systems, Arrival slows it down to one first contact, and Avatar: Fire and Ash and Project Hail Mary both make peaceful coexistence the entire point.
A vast digital intelligence trying to outlast the machine trying to kill it
Jane is a mind built out of the interstellar Net, running out of room to exist as Congress shuts her down world by world, and this pool leans into intelligences like her: Portal and Portal 2 give a computer a voice and a grudge, Thunderhead imagines a benevolent AI actually running things well, and Interstellar and The Matrix both put a thinking machine at the center of the crisis.