This is topic Did Jane know about Beans family? in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.


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Posted by Rob McCall (Member # 13516) on :
 
I love the Novels in the Enderverse. Every couple of months I read all the Ender and Shadow books, and I try to do it in chronological order. I go Ender's Game > Ender's Shadow > Shadow of the Hegemon > Shadow Puppets > Shadow of the Giant > Ender in Exile > Investment Counselors (from First Meetings) > Shadows in Flight > Speaker for the Dead > Xenocide > Children of the Mind. I'm not that big a fan of the first formic war but love the first book of the second war.

Right now I'm reading Shadows in Flight, and thinking about how bean is keeping track of Ender and his travels. What I'm wondering is does Jane know that the descendants of Bean and his children are out there? She is supposed to live among the ansible links so she should know there is a link to an ansible that is on a planet that humans don't know about. She should be able to see it and access it and realize who these extremely intelligent people are. I understand shadows in Flight was written after the Ender novels so they won't contain information from Shadows in Flight. I'm hoping that that when OSC finally writes Shadows Alive, which is supposed to merge the two series, that he addresses this. I would live to see how Beans descendants made out. If they are all as intelligent as Bean was them they should be a powerful Allie. I'm guessing they would live on more than just the one planet they found in Flight. I can also assume they will be a big help in dealing with the new aliens found in Children of the Mind. And with the faster than light travel that Jane can do, once they find out Beans descendants are out there and get in contact with then then Jane can just bring them right there instantly. I can't wait until this book is written!
 

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Posted by Elison R. Salazar (Member # 8565) on :
 
I can easily imagine a situation where Ender simply never thinks to ask because he feels survivors guilt and doesn't think its his right to inquire.

Peter though might get curious about what happened to the greatest genius in human history and his children if he feels he needs the leg up regarding those aliens they found.
 

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Posted by Rob McCall (Member # 13516) on :
 
I would think that Ender would have even had to ask about Bean and his descendants. Since Jane has complete control over all Ansibles then she should realize there is one (more likely there are several since I would guess they would colonize more than one planet.) where humanity has never explored. She should be able to find their ansible(s) without having to even try.
 

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Posted by PanaceaSanans (Member # 13395) on :
 
I wouldn't say that Jane "has complete control over all ansibles". She dwells in them, she has enormous power to influence them, but even so she has to actively look to see, neh? (I vaguely remember her talking about how each procedure only took a tiny fraction of her attention, but a - by comparison - huge part of her consciousness had always been focused on Ender. Until he switched her off and she redistributed her focus.)

Ender himself would have believed Bean and all the other battleschoolers dead by the time he arrived to Ganges and met Achilles II, and I seem to dimly recall Graff deciding that it was not up to him to tell Ender about Bean and Petra's children being alive. (I might well be wrong here...) So by that time Jane might have been conscious yet, but she was not actively in contact with Ender, neh? He could not have asked her, and the information he would have needed was classified. The worldly archives recorded that Bean had died in Yerevan, and Petra's children (the ones who stayed with her) all lived out their lives on earth and died there, as far as we know. So if Ender did some research after he met Achilles II/Randall, he would've been led to believe that apart from Randall and very distant descendants on earth, Bean/Petra's family had died long ago. And by the time he met Jane, there was no reason for him to ask her.

BUT if I remember correctly we know that Jane knows and cares about Bean and the kids because she made/ edited the video of Petra that is shown to the kids, neh? (I definitely need a more reliable brain...) And I am sure she would've spared a fraction of her attention to monitor their lives then.
 

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Posted by Two Cents (Member # 13450) on :
 
Is it this you're trying to remember? Ender in Exile, Chapter 12:

"I'm writing to you now, however, because you were close to Bean. I have attached documentation concerning his genetic illness. We know now that Bean's real name was Julian Delphiki; he was kidnapped as a frozen embryo and was the sole survivor of an illegal genetic experiment. The alteration in his genes made him extraordinarily intelligent. Alas, it also affected his growth pattern. Very small in childhood - the Bean you knew. No growth spurt at puberty. Just a steady onward progress until death from giantism. Bean, not wishing to be hospitalized and pathetic at the end of his life, has embarked on a lightspeed voyage of exploration. He will live as long as he lives, but to all intents and purposes, he is gone from Earth and from the human race."

I believe Ender would look into it after that, at the latest...
 

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Posted by PanaceaSanans (Member # 13395) on :
 
Indeed, it is. So my point is moot. Thanks for finding it, though.


I was wrong on Jane, too. She saved the video when Petra wanted to delete it:

quote:

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Mother had never sent it at all. Instead, it was part of a message from a computer program that was managing the Giant's investment portfolio. It had been slipped in among financial reports with this notation: "Item culled from the personal computer of Petra Arkanian at the moment of deletion."

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quote:

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the computer had not deleted it. Or if it had, the deletion had been intercepted by the supposed estate-management software and then sent on to the Giant without editing at all, and without the knowledge of Petra Arkanian. [...] The Giant tried to make something out of it. From ten hours of hologram, he had put together five minutes that might be comforting to Petra's children.

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quote:

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Originally posted by PanaceaSanans:
Indeed, it is. So my point is moot. Thanks for finding it, though.


I was wrong on Jane, too. She saved the video when Petra wanted to delete it:

quote:

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Mother had never sent it at all. Instead, it was part of a message from a computer program that was managing the Giant's investment portfolio. It had been slipped in among financial reports with this notation: "Item culled from the personal computer of Petra Arkanian at the moment of deletion."

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... but for all we know (Little Carlotta believes), Bean might have been the one to actually edit it for the kids:

quote:

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the computer had not deleted it. Or if it had, the deletion had been intercepted by the supposed estate-management software and then sent on to the Giant without editing at all, and without the knowledge of Petra Arkanian. [...] The Giant tried to make something out of it. From ten hours of hologram, he had put together five minutes that might be comforting to Petra's children.

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Either way: Jane definitely knows about Bean's family.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Rob McCall:
Where are those quotes from? I don't remember ever reading them.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Rob McCall:
Also, this is off topic, but do you understand that way OSC writes the date in the statements at the beginning of the chapters in Speaker for the Dead? I'm reading it now and on chapter 3 it's written "2010-33-4-1090:40"

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Well, with the Figueira Family tree and the Os Venerados family tree at the beginning of Speaker it is specified "all dates are expressed as years after the adoption of Starways Code". Lusitania was discovered in 1886 s.c., Pipo (Joao Figueira Alvarez) died 1948 s.c. and wrote the report in question on 4/14/1948 SC. As for the numbers you refer to, I think it's not a date so much as a citation...

Chapter 3: "published posthumously in Philosophical Roots of the Lusitanian Secession, 2010-33-4-1090:40" (maybe year 2010, edition 33, fourth edition in 2010 (April?), page 1090, line 40)


Chapter 2: "published posthumously in Xenological Studies, 22:4:49:193" (edition 22, or year 2022?, April, page 49, line 193?)

Chapter 4: "in Semantics, 9/1948/15" (September 1948, page 15)

Chapter 9: "Meta-Science, the Journal of Methodology, 2001:12:12:144-45" (pages 144 to 145)

Chapter 10: "San Angelo, The Rule and Catechism of the Order of the Children of the Mind of Christ, 1511, 11, 11, 1" from the past - year 1511
 

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Posted by Rob McCall (Member # 13516) on :
 
Wow, I never even knew there was an enhanced edition. How much more stuff was in there?

Update: I actually just found the enhanced edition and read it. There wasn't all that much added, except of course the pictures which I really liked having there. I have trouble imaging things in my head as I read them so the pictures definitely help.

Are there more enhanced editions of these novels out there?

[ February 12, 2017, 10:03 AM: Message edited by: Rob McCall ]
 

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Posted by PanaceaSanans (Member # 13395) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Rob McCall:
Are there more enhanced editions of these novels out there?

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