Xenocide really picked up in the last half. There were a ton of things going on, but they were clear-cut enough to not get confusing.
Orson Scott Card's philosophical arc raised exponentially over the course of the first three books of the Ender Quartet. Xenocide almost screamed its themes. I really liked how it was done, although the endless dialogue was a little risky. It didn't perturb me as much as it felt it should. My general rule is no more than five lines of dialogue per character (and a max of twelve or so) before I need to get to the plot-moving description. (Granted, I'm extremely brief.)
By the end I was perfectly fine with the mix of Chinese and Portugese societies. I see now that the religious themes worked better from a character on Path than possibly anywhere else.
The oddities of the book started to pack on at the end. The whole "faster-than-light travel" solution seemed a little like a deus ex machina (especially funny with Jane being said to be possibly a god), yet it was pretty brilliantly done, so I'll let it slide. The book gets a 4/5. The Child of the Mind will come eventually.
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