bluejogan's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
jbojkov's review
5.0
This was a great sequel to Ender's Game. It's 3000 years after Ender destroyed the buggers and now we find him once again confronting another race of creatures, but this time in order to understand and help them to survive. Great story, reminded me of a more hopeful rendition of The Sparrow.
sparthomas's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
jjung's review
4.0
With Enders game I was not really caught by its plot, I’ve had enough of academy for science fiction or magical schools. Speaker for the dead was different in the core inspiration of the book, the actual story of a person who dies both the good and the bad. My grandma is a close member of mine that I consider her my second mother, so it brought memories of when her father died. She was more sad when her dog died then when he had. It reminded me of the complications of a death of a horrible or less than great person.
The main theme of the book would be truth, how Novinha had lied about the files that killed Libo, why Marcos was abusive, why the piggies had killed both pipo and libo, and that Andrew was Ender that committed xenocide against the buggers. Speaker displays what comes from the truth, an understanding and growth. I hated both the piggies and Marcos at the beginning, but as I grew more to understand them I did not excuse their actions but it gave me empathy. This book is a large masterclass in the importance of empathy towards another person. Why Novinha had acted cold and blamed herself for what happened with the piggies.
It lead me to an important lesson not only applies to the book, but everyone in real life. We’re complex and we have both the good and the bad, but empathy can help us not to hate someone but to understand where they’re coming from.
The main theme of the book would be truth, how Novinha had lied about the files that killed Libo, why Marcos was abusive, why the piggies had killed both pipo and libo, and that Andrew was Ender that committed xenocide against the buggers. Speaker displays what comes from the truth, an understanding and growth. I hated both the piggies and Marcos at the beginning, but as I grew more to understand them I did not excuse their actions but it gave me empathy. This book is a large masterclass in the importance of empathy towards another person. Why Novinha had acted cold and blamed herself for what happened with the piggies.
It lead me to an important lesson not only applies to the book, but everyone in real life. We’re complex and we have both the good and the bad, but empathy can help us not to hate someone but to understand where they’re coming from.
mirtlifthewise's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
mattpfarr's review against another edition
5.0
This book is certainly rivaling other great books to claim the spot of my favorite. I was amazed at how deep it was. The character work on loneliness, guilt/shame, coping behaviors, self hate was just amazing and seemed way above what I would expect in a scifi novel about alien encounters.
The story follows Ender as he goes to a planet with an alien life form to "speak the death" of a member of the human colony there. He is known as Andrew Wiggin, a speaker for the dead, which seems to be an idealogy that spawned out of his book he wrote for the buggers (anonymously of course). Ender Wiggin is renowned as a murderer who wiped out an alien race. Of course, this isn't exactly the truth but he took the role of scapegoat. The speaker for the dead idealogy has ascended to almost religous devotion which was unintended by Ender. The planet he goes to is inhabitated by an alien race which are reffered to as "piggies". Somehow this story pulls off using that term while remaining a very serious and deep tale. Which is quite impressive in itself. The "piggies" culture is truly fascinating and completely fleshed out even to the biology of the species. During this exchange we are exposed to many ideas about human culture between assumptions (which are on both sides), religious oppression both in the terms of religion being oppressive and it being oppressed, and how quickly things can escalate to militant actions. I thought the deepest part was what the purpose of the speaker for the dead was, which is that every person, no matter how horrible, has more to their story than just the evil we might see from the surface. When he spoke the death it was truly a magical experience to read. And these concepts are true for even entire races such as the buggers, piggies, and human race. When you take the time to fully understand each other, you will see much more than just the evil you assume.
I did have some issues with suspended belief with the story. Ender Wiggin is known as Andrew Wiggin, which also is his true name the whole time. Ender came from his sister's inability to say his name right as a young child. Yet this is the name he goes by despite Ender Wiggin being the most reviled name in history. Yet somehow nobody even thinks to connect them in any way. Everytime this came up, I had to suspend belief because it was ridiculous. Why didn't he just go by a different last name? That would be easy since he was essentially 3000 years old (due to how star travel works) and he already disappeared for many years anyways.
While this is technically a sequel to Ender's Game, they are completely different books. Pretty much, not even close. I really enjoyed both, but each one for different reasons. Speaker for the Dead is not an action story like Ender's Game. However, it is a gripping story with a lot of payoff and excellent themes. I am truly impressed by Scott Card's writing and character work. Highly recommend.
I listened to the audiobook and it was very high quality. The narrators switch, supposedly by view point, but sometimes it was confusing.
The story follows Ender as he goes to a planet with an alien life form to "speak the death" of a member of the human colony there. He is known as Andrew Wiggin, a speaker for the dead, which seems to be an idealogy that spawned out of his book he wrote for the buggers (anonymously of course). Ender Wiggin is renowned as a murderer who wiped out an alien race. Of course, this isn't exactly the truth but he took the role of scapegoat. The speaker for the dead idealogy has ascended to almost religous devotion which was unintended by Ender. The planet he goes to is inhabitated by an alien race which are reffered to as "piggies". Somehow this story pulls off using that term while remaining a very serious and deep tale. Which is quite impressive in itself. The "piggies" culture is truly fascinating and completely fleshed out even to the biology of the species. During this exchange we are exposed to many ideas about human culture between assumptions (which are on both sides), religious oppression both in the terms of religion being oppressive and it being oppressed, and how quickly things can escalate to militant actions. I thought the deepest part was what the purpose of the speaker for the dead was, which is that every person, no matter how horrible, has more to their story than just the evil we might see from the surface. When he spoke the death it was truly a magical experience to read. And these concepts are true for even entire races such as the buggers, piggies, and human race. When you take the time to fully understand each other, you will see much more than just the evil you assume.
I did have some issues with suspended belief with the story. Ender Wiggin is known as Andrew Wiggin, which also is his true name the whole time. Ender came from his sister's inability to say his name right as a young child. Yet this is the name he goes by despite Ender Wiggin being the most reviled name in history. Yet somehow nobody even thinks to connect them in any way. Everytime this came up, I had to suspend belief because it was ridiculous. Why didn't he just go by a different last name? That would be easy since he was essentially 3000 years old (due to how star travel works) and he already disappeared for many years anyways.
While this is technically a sequel to Ender's Game, they are completely different books. Pretty much, not even close. I really enjoyed both, but each one for different reasons. Speaker for the Dead is not an action story like Ender's Game. However, it is a gripping story with a lot of payoff and excellent themes. I am truly impressed by Scott Card's writing and character work. Highly recommend.
I listened to the audiobook and it was very high quality. The narrators switch, supposedly by view point, but sometimes it was confusing.
rebeccahk's review against another edition
4.0
The complexity unfolds in this second book of the series. When I initially read it, I felt it was rushed, skipping too far into the future, and lacked the first book's action packed story. However, after years have past and rereading this series, I finally understand the reasons why, and therefore enjoyed the more character driven story. We learn about new characters, whilst leaving the older ones behind, and also learning the complex relationships between people, species, religion and politics. Can't wait to read the next one.
anton_jernberg's review
4.0
A very solid and exciting follow-up to Ender's Game. While its predecessor was very action focused, Speaker for the dead is more focused on the people, their relationships and how to tackle xenophobia, the non-violent way.
Speaker for the dead does not reach quite the same heights as Enders game, but it is worth your time nonetheless. I believe that many people who did not like the first book might still like this one.
The reason for why Orson Scott Card wrote Ender's Game in the first place, was in order to right this book. What most people see as the original is actually intended to be a prequel, which fleshes out the main character, Andrew 'Ender' Wiggins.
Speaker for the dead does not reach quite the same heights as Enders game, but it is worth your time nonetheless. I believe that many people who did not like the first book might still like this one.
The reason for why Orson Scott Card wrote Ender's Game in the first place, was in order to right this book. What most people see as the original is actually intended to be a prequel, which fleshes out the main character, Andrew 'Ender' Wiggins.
duffypratt's review
4.0
After reading Ender's Game, I moved on to the Shadow/Bean series, and pretty quickly decided that Card was pretty much a hack who was getting every last ounce of blood out of his one good idea. I was wrong. I don't know what prompted me to pick up this book after drawing that conclusion, but I'm glad I did.
In many ways, this book is more original than Ender's Game. For the most part, that book is a re-hash of many familiar stories of the misfit in school or the military who manages to overcome his initial status and triumphs. It was very well done, but it was also pretty comfortable. Speaker for the Dead has a story in structure which was much less familiar, at least to me.
Mankind has found only one planet with intelligent life since Ender destroyed the buggers. This time, the authorities are being extra careful about how much contact is allowed with the discovered life form. So there is a human colony on the planet whose sole purpose is to study them, but only one person in the colony is allowed to have any direct contact with them. When that person gets vivisected, and staked to the ground, things heat up.
It's a very cool premise, and Card takes things in directions that I would not have expected. I especially liked the idea of the biological adaptation on the new planet, and also the idea of "Jane," who is a benign computer version of HAL from 2001, who longs to be recognized as being a person. The book works as a novel, but it is also an exploration about what it means to be human. Ultimately, I don't think its particularly profound, at least not in the basic ideas that the characters espouse, but there is some depth built into its structure, and it holds a lot of promise for the rest of this series.
My sole big complaint in this book is that Ender has become more like St. Francis of Assisi than like the Ender of the original book. In subjective time, he's only about 35 years old now. But he seems much older, and he also seems to have lost some of Ender's explosiveness and killer instinct. I don't think the character is a total miss from what Ender was in the first book, but if you had taken away then names and the references to his past history in this book, I don't think many people would have identified the adult Ender with the child.
In many ways, this book is more original than Ender's Game. For the most part, that book is a re-hash of many familiar stories of the misfit in school or the military who manages to overcome his initial status and triumphs. It was very well done, but it was also pretty comfortable. Speaker for the Dead has a story in structure which was much less familiar, at least to me.
Mankind has found only one planet with intelligent life since Ender destroyed the buggers. This time, the authorities are being extra careful about how much contact is allowed with the discovered life form. So there is a human colony on the planet whose sole purpose is to study them, but only one person in the colony is allowed to have any direct contact with them. When that person gets vivisected, and staked to the ground, things heat up.
It's a very cool premise, and Card takes things in directions that I would not have expected. I especially liked the idea of the biological adaptation on the new planet, and also the idea of "Jane," who is a benign computer version of HAL from 2001, who longs to be recognized as being a person. The book works as a novel, but it is also an exploration about what it means to be human. Ultimately, I don't think its particularly profound, at least not in the basic ideas that the characters espouse, but there is some depth built into its structure, and it holds a lot of promise for the rest of this series.
My sole big complaint in this book is that Ender has become more like St. Francis of Assisi than like the Ender of the original book. In subjective time, he's only about 35 years old now. But he seems much older, and he also seems to have lost some of Ender's explosiveness and killer instinct. I don't think the character is a total miss from what Ender was in the first book, but if you had taken away then names and the references to his past history in this book, I don't think many people would have identified the adult Ender with the child.
taseenmuhtadi's review
3.0
The Speaker For The Dead picks up more than three millennia after the end of the Bugger war that ended with the complete extinction of the Buggers. That event is now called Xenocide and Ender Wiggin is now considered a monster. However, due to relativistic nature of time during interstellar travel, Ender and his sister Valentine is still alive and only in their 30s due to visiting dozens of planets. Ender is of course carrying around the egg of a Hive Queen, which will allow the buggers to reestablish their civilization. Ender has yet to find a suitable planet for the Hive Queen, even though he has already visited many. Humanity, meanwhile has found another intelligent alien species on another planet. This species is technologically primitive and the leadership of humanity has decided to limit contact between them and humans so as not to unduly affect their civilization.
This is the mix into which we follow Ender. He is ridden with guilt at what he has done with the buggers and he is determined to ensure that such a thing is not done with the new species. This is a very different character from the one we see in book 1. Growing up with the guilt of the Xenocide has had a profound effect on him. But he has developed well into the responsibility of finding a new home for the buggers. He could easily have fallen into depression and dysfunctionality; but he avoids that path. In fact, he finds another semi-alien character along the way in the form of an AI.
The character development of the book is fantastic. All the characters in the book are complex and adult, they feel real in a tangible way. Their sorrows and secrets, their dreams and anger; those were all very well written. The human relationships and family dynamics here superbly done. This is very down-to-earth, human story. The technology is there to aid in the storytelling, not the story itself. It’s very much reminiscent of Le Guin’s writing. Card even uses Le Guin’s ansible, possibly as a tribute. Card hinted in the preface that family would be a very major part of the story, and he does make it a profound part of Ender’s tale. And Card manages to do this in a reasonably limited word count, considering how well the inter-character relationships are explored. It’s not a quick read by any stretch though, it’s a meandering and introspective book. But it never drags on for too long.
The piggies, for all their familiar names and appearance truly seem alien. That is difficult to pull off, creating an alien culture that is actually “alien”, rather than some slight variation of human. Analyzing them from a human perspective results in some gruesome images; and we are reminded that this is an alien world with an alien way of life. Some of which we may never understand.
The book deals some heavy themes. Action-packed, suspenseful thriller this is not, even though there are murder mysteries here. Religion was a big part of the book but the religious allegory was lost on me. The plot was engaging and it came to satisfying, if too easily earned, ending. Some sections felt forced, designed to bring out certain pieces of monologue and thought; it didn’t feel organic. Card may have written Ender’s Game to facilitate this book, but I could see why the first book was more popular than the second.
This is the mix into which we follow Ender. He is ridden with guilt at what he has done with the buggers and he is determined to ensure that such a thing is not done with the new species. This is a very different character from the one we see in book 1. Growing up with the guilt of the Xenocide has had a profound effect on him. But he has developed well into the responsibility of finding a new home for the buggers. He could easily have fallen into depression and dysfunctionality; but he avoids that path. In fact, he finds another semi-alien character along the way in the form of an AI.
The character development of the book is fantastic. All the characters in the book are complex and adult, they feel real in a tangible way. Their sorrows and secrets, their dreams and anger; those were all very well written. The human relationships and family dynamics here superbly done. This is very down-to-earth, human story. The technology is there to aid in the storytelling, not the story itself. It’s very much reminiscent of Le Guin’s writing. Card even uses Le Guin’s ansible, possibly as a tribute. Card hinted in the preface that family would be a very major part of the story, and he does make it a profound part of Ender’s tale. And Card manages to do this in a reasonably limited word count, considering how well the inter-character relationships are explored. It’s not a quick read by any stretch though, it’s a meandering and introspective book. But it never drags on for too long.
The piggies, for all their familiar names and appearance truly seem alien. That is difficult to pull off, creating an alien culture that is actually “alien”, rather than some slight variation of human. Analyzing them from a human perspective results in some gruesome images; and we are reminded that this is an alien world with an alien way of life. Some of which we may never understand.
The book deals some heavy themes. Action-packed, suspenseful thriller this is not, even though there are murder mysteries here. Religion was a big part of the book but the religious allegory was lost on me. The plot was engaging and it came to satisfying, if too easily earned, ending. Some sections felt forced, designed to bring out certain pieces of monologue and thought; it didn’t feel organic. Card may have written Ender’s Game to facilitate this book, but I could see why the first book was more popular than the second.