Children of the Mind (1-370)

This passage occurs when Peter and Wang-mu first arrive on Divine Wind, after having only communicated long distance previously. They are just beginning to know each other, and have yet to explore the boundaries of their relationship.

She opened her eyes again and strode out into the hip-high grass toward
home. He saw her and waited wordlessly as she approached. Bees
buzzed around her; butterflies staggered drunkly through the air, avoiding
her somehow in their seemingly random flight. At the last moment, she
reached out and gathered a bee from a blossom into her hand, into her fist, but
then quickly, before it could sting her, she lobbed it into Peter's face. [19]

In a book practically devoid of any romantic interest, this quote stands out from the rest. Card spends a paticullarly long time developing the scene, and the imagery is overwhelming. He takes great pains to paint the encounter as a playful one, pointing out the contrast between her actions, youthful and teasing, with the emphasis on the word fist, which symbolically is violent and angry.

Card, Orson. Children of the Mind. New York, NY: Tom Doherty Associates LLC, 1996.

Xenocide (1-28)

At this point in the story, two ships traveling at near-light speed, are attempting to meet and connect. This is a very delicate and precise maneuver that is also extremely dangerous.

The two starships had almost completed their vast ballet, dancing through
space in great leaps.

This excerpt is merely a sentence, yet I was moved by the metaphor. The image of two dancer was very effective in describing the encounter. I could practically see the two ships hurtling through space while time raced past them speeding and turning like two dancers. One wouldn't normally associate giant space ships with ballet, yet it worked.

Card, Orson. Xenocide. New York, NY: Tom Doherty Associates LLC, 1991.