With our timeline being as weird as it is, I give it a year, tops, before this becomes real
Ender’s Game shit.

I could so see them chopping up a person, spreading their entrails in the hope to grow into a tree.

Oh wait you mean the controlling the simulation thing, my bad

That only works after the war is over and you have time to reflect on your role in genocide.

Man that series went off the rails fast

Yeah such a strong start then just crazy. Still I really enjoyed the books but it certainly felt unrelated.

Kinda reminds me of the Alastair Reynolds books. Very interesting but only vaguely connected

I really enjoyed the 2nd one, but 3 and 4 were so insane I can barely remember them. IIRC one was about the planet of people with genetically engineered OCD they’d turned into a religion, and the other one I can’t recall right now. I don’t think I hated them at the time but just felt like a different series, like you said. The Bean novels didn’t go quite so far astray.

Alastair Reynolds

Looks like I missed this guy’s stuff, but he sounds interesting.