Children of the Mind recap

With a planet-killing fleet nearing Lusitania and Starways Congress about to shut down the network that keeps the intelligence Jane alive, Ender's allies scatter to save everything at once. The newly created young Peter, a living copy of Ender's ruthless brother, travels with the clever Wang-mu to sway the philosophers and worlds whose ideas drive Congress, eventually reaching the thinker Aimaina Hikari and undermining the war policy. Jane learns to hold and move starships Outside reality, offering instant travel that could carry people to safety, but she needs somewhere to live once the network dies. As Ender's life-force is spread thin among the beings he has made, he begins to fade; when he lets go, Jane is able to take up residence in the body of young Valentine, whose own hold on life had been faltering, gaining a human form and preserving her mind. Ender's identity carries on in the young Peter. The fleet is halted before it can fire, the origins of the engineered Descolada are traced to their makers, and instant Outside travel opens the galaxy to escape and expansion. Miro and young Valentine come together, as do Peter and Wang-mu, and the three species of Lusitania are spared, their survival now bound to the new power to leap across space at will.

Previously in the Ender series: as a boy, Ender Wiggin was manipulated into commanding the fleet that annihilated an alien species, then found and vowed to save its last hive queen. Kept young by centuries of relativistic travel, he became the first Speaker for the Dead. On the colony world of Lusitania he uncovered the secrets of the pequeninos, small natives who become sentient trees when they die, made peace among humans and natives, married the scientist Novinha, and planted the hive queen so her people could return. His hidden companion, Jane, an intelligence living in the interstellar network, defied Starways Congress to protect the world, and in response Congress sent a fleet armed with a planet-killing weapon to destroy Lusitania. Racing to survive, Ender's family, the hive queen, and Jane discovered how to travel instantly by slipping Outside ordinary reality and back. On that first journey, a cure for the deadly Descolada virus was created, Ender's crippled stepson Miro was made whole, and Ender unknowingly gave living, physical form to embodiments of his long-dead brother, Peter, and sister, Valentine, drawn straight from his own mind. Now the fleet still bears down on Lusitania; Congress prepares to shut down the computer network and so kill Jane; and the newly made Peter and young Valentine, along with Miro and their allies, must find a way to stop the war, save Jane's life, and secure a future for the three intelligent species sharing one threatened world.

The series' arc closes with survival won on every front. As Starways Congress moves to shut down the computer network and so destroy Jane, and its planet-killing fleet nears Lusitania, Ender's scattered allies each carry part of the rescue. The young Peter, the living recreation of Ender's brilliant, ruthless brother, journeys with Wang-mu to the worlds and thinkers behind Congress policy, including the philosopher Aimaina Hikari, and helps turn opinion against the attack so that the fleet is stopped before it can fire. Jane, having learned to hold starships in her mind and move them Outside ordinary space and back, gains the ability to carry people instantly across the galaxy, but she must find a place to live once the network is gone. The answer comes as Ender, whose spirit is stretched too thin among the beings he has created, weakens and dies; freed by his passing, Jane settles into the body of young Valentine, whose own life had been failing, and so survives with a human form and her powers intact. Ender's own identity continues on in the young Peter. With the war averted, the makers of the Descolada virus traced at last, and instantaneous travel now possible, humanity, the pequeninos, and the hive queens are all assured a future and the freedom to spread among the stars. Miro pairs with young Valentine and Peter with Wang-mu, and the long story of Ender Wiggin ends with the three kindred species safe and a galaxy newly open to them.