Xenocide by Orson Scott Card - What is the best thing about it?

I am still reading the book Xenocide by Orson Scott Card. I think this might be the longest it has ever taken me to finish a book. Now don't get me wrong - I love the book, it is just that I have not had much time for reading recently. Alright, now moving on. This week I have decided to tell you all about the best thing about this book. In my not-so-humble opinion, the best thing about this book is the fact that there are essentially two stories going on at the same time. While they are connected, they are unable to really directly influence one another.

The reason that this is the best thing about the book is simple. It builds suspense. Both stories have their own characters and their own setting and their own events. The only way that they are connected is that  if the characters of what I have come to think of as the second, less important story, fail to do something, then the only character that both stories share, Jane, a super-intelligent computer program, will die. This builds suspense because the characters of the first, main story depend on and love Jane, but there is not much that they can do to influence the actions of the characters of the second story, so they are effectively helpless to help Jane. This leaves the reader feeling just as helpless, and hoping beyond hope that the characters of the second story don't screw up, effectively creating a lot of tension and also getting the reader very caught up in the book. That is why the fact that there are two different stories going on simultaneously is the best thing about this book. I hope that wasn't too complicated for you.

Xenocide by Orson Scott Card - Connections of all types!

Alright so I know that last week I said that I was really enjoying the book Xenocide by Orson Scott Card. And I am! I promise! It's just that this week I had a lot of homework and a lot of tests and a lot of stuff after school and just leave me alone OK! I just haven't had much time to read this week, OK!? Alright anyway I am still enjoying the book, I just haven't had much time to read. So that is why I decided that this week I would post about connections to the book. There may be some spoilers, so watch out. Honestly, I don't know if there will be yet since as of this point I have not typed the rest of this post, so just watch out for spoilers.

The first connection that I have made is a text to self connection. It is this; in the book, (Oh, wait, SPOILER ALERT!!) Grego has started a mob that intends to kill the pequeninos, and he is trying to stop it so that he does not have countless deaths on his conscience. I felt the same way before. Well sort of - don't take what I just said the wrong way. In the past, I have specifically tried to do things so that I did not have something bad on my conscience, just on a much smaller scale than Grego. For instance, I always do my homework to avoid the guilt of not having done it when I get to class and the teacher checks for it.

The second connection that I have made to the text is a text to text connection. In the book, Starways Congress is very angry at the people of Lusitania because they have given the pequeninos technology that they have not yet developed for themselves. The connection is that in The Doctor Who books, The Doctor is always very careful not to give the local people technology that is ahead of their time (He is a time traveller). The only difference is that Starways Congress is the antagonist while The Doctor is a protagonist.

The third and final connection is a text to world connection. In the book, they have the ability to travel in space. We also have this ability in 'real life', albeit it is to a much lesser extent, seeing as in the book they have colonized hundreds of worlds and have the ability to travel at near light speed, and in real life we have only made it as far as the moon. But yeah. Connections.

Xenocide by Orson Scott Card - What is the Most Important Line in all of chapter 9?

So I mentioned last week that I was reading Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card. Well, not anymore. I finished it. Very quickly. It was a REALLY good book. Now, I am reading the next book in the series, Xenocide, which is obviously also by Orson Scott Card. So far it is great. I would say that thus far it is not quite as good as the one that came before it, but that is still about a 9 out of 10. It is very good. But anyway, I am not here this week to discuss how good it is and why I like it. This week I am going for ANOTHER change. (Amazing, right?) This week I am discussing why the line, "'What's to stop them from declaring that Han Fei-Tzu is a traitor and making him travel to some faraway planet and never come back for sixty years?'" is the most important line in chapter 9, entitled Pinehead (Card, 214).

The reason that this is the most important line is because it starts a heated debate between that two main characters in the chapter, Wang-mu and Qing-Jao. This debate occurs because Qing-Jao, Han Fei-Tzu's daughter, believes that Han Fei-Tzu would never be declared a triator because Starways Congress (The government of all human worlds) would never do that, while Wang-mu insists that they could. Now, this may seem to be unimportant, but Han Fei-tzu is the most respected person on the planet Path, and suggesting that Starways Congress would arrest him is preposterous. However, this does expose a key weakness of the planet Path - while Starways Congress would not do that, they could do it. In fact, they could do anything that they wanted, and the people of the planet Path would be powerless to stop them. That is why this line is the most important in the chapter - it leads to this important realization.

I know that some of you will want to read the 'official' review on this book, so here you go. This website also has literally thousands of consumer reviews, so if you want a second opinion on the book feel free to check it out.