Children of the Mind characters

Also known as Andrew Wiggin, The Speaker

Appears from the start

The man once known as Ender Wiggin, the aging Speaker for the Dead, settled on Lusitania. His attention and life-force are stretched thin among the people and the two living beings he unknowingly created out of his own mind, and he grows frail as the crisis over the planet reaches its peak. He remains the quiet center of the effort to save three intelligent species from destruction.

Appears from the start

The network intelligence bonded to Ender, now facing execution as Starways Congress moves to shut down the computer network she inhabits. She has learned to carry starships Outside ordinary reality and back, offering instant travel, and she searches urgently for a way to survive the coming purge and go on living.

Also known as Demosthenes

Appears from the start

Ender's sister, on Lusitania, aiding the effort to stop the war fleet and preserve the fragile peace among humans, pequeninos, and hive queens. Wise and steadfast, she is a source of counsel as the crisis comes to a head.

Appears from the start

Novinha's son, restored to a whole body after a journey Outside reality remade him. Able to act again after years of being crippled, he throws himself into the mission to save Jane and to stop the fleet bearing down on his homeworld.

Also known as Young Valentine

Appears from the start

A young woman brought into being Outside from Ender's own cherished image of his sister, now a living, independent person. Gentle and thoughtful, she struggles to understand her strange origin and to claim her own right to exist apart from the memory that shaped her.

Also known as Young Peter

Appears from the start

A young man likewise created Outside from Ender's memory of his ruthless, brilliant older brother, given independent life. Sardonic, sharp, and driven, he sets out across the settled worlds to stop the fleet from destroying Lusitania, wrestling all the while with what he is and who he is meant to be.

Appears from the start

The clever former servant girl from the world of Path, who joins Peter on his mission across the settled worlds. Quick-witted and fearless, she matches him in argument and insight and becomes indispensable to his errand.

Appears from the start

The last Formic queen on Lusitania, whose people help anchor the strange travel Outside ordinary reality. Threatened with extinction by the approaching fleet, she shares in the effort to survive and lends her ancient, group-minded mind to the search for salvation.

Also known as piggies, Little Ones

Appears from the start

The tree-linked natives of Lusitania, likewise threatened with extinction by the planet-killing fleet and partners in the search for a way to survive. Their forest network of fathers-trees proves vital to the new means of crossing space.

First appears in chapter 2

A revered philosopher on a Japanese-influenced world whose ideas quietly helped shape the Congress policy driving the fleet toward Lusitania. Peter and Wang-mu seek him out, hoping that changing his mind can change the course of events.

First appears in chapter 2

The honored statesman of the world of Path who, after his daughter's estrangement, lends his influence to the effort to halt the fleet and to free his world from the engineered mental compulsion that has bound its people in servitude.