Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card

5 reviews

kat_ml's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Genocide, Grief, Death of parent, Colonisation, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Incest, Infertility, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Pregnancy

nrogers_1030's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Incest

nytephoenyx's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

To enjoy Speaker for the Dead, you have to have an interest in species and social evolution. This book is somewhat fascinating in its study of the piggie race. That's about the best thing I can say about Speaker for the Dead - it's intellectually fascinating.

Speaker of the Dead, even more than Ender's Game, makes it abundantly clear exactly how highly Orson Scott Card thinks of himself. The slow-paced erudite reflections are haughty. In addition, there are too many things within the story that are far too convenient. The characters comment on this - "Surely this cannot be the SAME Speaker who spoke the Hive Queen and the Hegemon?" and so forth. There's a sense of over-importance to Ender's character that he has survived three-thousand years to create in a few days what generations of other humans were unable to accomplish.

I'm also a little perplexed about his take on women? On one had, he has female scientists and a female leader to the alien societies. However, all these women are easily overruled by their emotions and especially by the presence of Ender himself. Novinha, in particular, was a disappointment. Valentine, too, choses love over her intellectual pursuits. Maybe I'm reading into it too much, but at times it feels like Card is building a commentary to say that women are unable to be true intellectuals because of their inability to resist emotional drives?

I dunno. On an intellectual level I liked this, even though it was really slow-paced. On an emotional level (oh the irony) I found the pretentiousness to be a bit much. I also can't see this story going anywhere exciting, so I'm done with the Ender Saga. Doubly so since Orson Scott Card is openly and aggressively homophobic and I deeply disagree with his personal views.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Violence, Xenophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death and Dysphoria

Minor: Infertility

bencaroline's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

This book's author is a bigot. The book is extremely influential in the sci-fi genre, for good reason, but it MUST be discussed within the context of a hateful author.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Sexism, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Medical content, Religious bigotry, and Murder

Minor: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Genocide, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

nerdyllamas's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness and Medical content