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The first three books were well written (as Card is skilled at doing) and gave a reader the feeling of a very personal relationship with the characters. The first gives in depth explanations of Basilica's many oddities and peoples. The next book is much the same (in its explanation of tradition and rituals), though builds up to the city's immenent destruction. At this point you became familiar with the way things work within the main characters' minds and their interactions with one another. The third book continues on with the characters' feelings toward each other, and though the city is known to be destroyed, "you can take the beast out of the jungle, but you can't take the jungle out of the beast"--the characters are still Basilicans and behave with the same manner. The fourth book begins much the same way, though now the flight to Earth is in preparation and the mysteries of what lives on Earth and the dreams of the characters are deepening. Then, in the middle of the book, they have landed on Earth and begin setting up civilization among the angels and diggers. Already, you are loosing the feeling of familiarity with the main characters, as some fade from the story altogether, and some, die. Also, new characters are being introduced (ones who used to have smaller roles) and are becoming main characters, and you know the story of their lives are coming to an end. At the climax of the book, the two brothers have their nations, and I , personally, saw the need for another book. Then, in the last section, in the last chapter, after forty years has passed since they've left Basilica, after the naxt generation has already given birth to a third, when the two brothers now have nations, much like Cain and Able, it ends with a swift passing of the centuries. The brothers' war is settled by explaining the function of humanity: we make war with and destroy ourselves. The anticipated confrontation of the two brothers never occurs; we will never know of the end of their struggle, the struggle which brought such a love and understanding for the characters; the struggle which was supposed to have a conclusion with which to end the pain and suffering of all of humanity; the struggle which was swiftly taken away by only one and a half pages. The brothers' war dissolves into humanity's war. It takes away the feeling of love and understanding. It shows you just how insignificant their struggle was, even though Nafai, who you thought to be the chosen one, not just by the Oversoul, but by the Keeper of Earth, as well. It is a very dissapointing ending. And it is an ENDING. As dissapointing as it was, there is no need for another book when the one character you cherished most of all in the series has been stripped of his dignity by being made just another failed leader. Yours truly has not yet read the fifth book, and cannot comment on whether it is worth continuing with the series after such a dissapointing ending.
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