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Title: Speaker for the Dead (Ender | Book 2) |
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Review of Speaker for the Dead (Ender, Book 2)
- In the aftermath of his terrible war, Ender Wiggin disappeared, and a powerful voice arose: The Speaker for the Dead, who told the true story of the Bugger War.
Now, long years later, a second alien race has been discovered, but again the aliens' ways are strange and frightening...again, humans die. And it is only the Speaker for the Dead, who is also Ender Wiggin the Xenocide, who has the courage to confront the mystery...and the truth.
Product Description
- Ender Wiggin, the hero and scapegoat of mass alien destruction in Ender's Game, receives a chance at redemption in this novel. Ender, who proclaimed as a mistake his success in wiping out an alien race, wins the opportunity to cope better with a second race, discovered by Portuguese colonists on the planet Lusitania. Orson Scott Card infuses this long, ambitious tale with intellect by casting his characters in social, religious and cultural contexts. Like its predecessor, this book won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards.
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Comments for Speaker for the Dead (Ender | Book 2)
- Posted on 2008-06-27
4.5 stars
I had been warned that even though Speaker for the Dead continues the story of Ender's life, and is set in the same universe, that it's not that much of a sequel--that is, it's not the same kind of book. Which was a relief to me, to tell you the truth. Ender's Game was a complete story, and I'd been dreading the kind of sequel that would be Ender vs. a different kind of alien, which would just spoil the whole thing.
Instead, it's set 3000 years later, but due to a whole lot of light-speed travel, Ender's only in his 30s (I think--I'm not positive, and I'm not going to search for it. It's not that important. At any rate, he's an adult, in his prime.). He's become a Speaker for the Dead, the original Speaker for the Dead, but nobody realizes that. His purpose is to learn all about someone's life--not just the good things, like in a eulogy, but everything--their hopes, dreams, fears, and failings--and then Speak for them. It's what he did for the Buggers after destroying them, then published the book, earning for himself instead of the accolades he'd received, the title of "Ender the Xenocide," and his name is now reviled.
Humanity has learned a lesson, and now contact with alien races is strictly limited. On the planet Lusitania is the only other sentient race humanity has discovered: nicknamed the Piggies. The humans are required to stay within their fences and observe only, not give any information to the Piggies. But the Piggies learn anyway, from the questions they're asked, and then the anthropologist studying them is brutally slaughtered, and nobody knows why.
Ender is summoned to speak a death on the planet, and ends up bringing pain and healing. And, well, here's the whole point of the book: to know him is to love him that truly knowing a person, or an alien race, understanding them completely, is to love or at least care for them. The message got a little heavy-handed for me by the end, hence the half-star reduction.
Otherwise, the story was interesting, the characters compelling, the mystery intriguing. I'll be reading more. I've already got Xenocide (Ender, Book 3) (Ender Quartet) in my TBR pile.
Score: 5
- Posted on 2008-06-20
good, but less gooder than Enders game
I thought Andrew Wiggin was too much of a Jesus figure in this novel. His character was much more accessible in the first book.
It's a good book, and you really should read it after you've read the first one. I just expected more from all the reviews saying this was better than Ender's Game.
Score: 3
- Posted on 2008-06-20
Not Enders Game, but Still Good
I really enjoyed enders game, and was disapointe that the sequel was so different, but once i got used to the new writing style, I enjoyed this book very much. I found the moral issues of Human-Alien contact fascinating, and the plot kept me hooked.
the book was way to long, and it progressed much to slowly. i also found it hard to connect to Novinha, and the author made ender a bit of a god, which was anoying.
other than this ,i enjoyed it a lot, but i think the Enders Shadow series is better
Score: 4
- Posted on 2008-05-01
Aidan's book review
Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card is the sequel to Enders Game. It's about a man, Andrew Wiggin, the protagonist from Enders Game, and how he sets out on a quest to redeem himself from his sin of wiping out a race of intelligent species from another planet who meant no harm to the world. To accomplish this he believes that he should help a new species of intelligent life that has been discovered to become acquainted with other human beings but unfortunately, he has to leave his sister Valentine Wiggin behind. It definitely helps to read Enders Game first, but throughout the book Orson Scott Card explains things that happened previously.
This book is worth reading because it describes the human mind and feelings so well that readers can connect to the main character in lots of different ways. This book opens minds and makes readers imagine the future. It has very interesting concepts of how space travel effects time and other things and it makes the impossible seem real. This book is targeted towards older people who like science fiction stories but appeals to teenagers as well.
Score: 5 - Posted on 2008-05-01
Ender's Sequel
There are a number of books in the Ender Series: first was Ender's Game, a short story turned into a worthy novel by sci-fi master Orson Scott Card. Ender, battleschool graduate, has eliminated an entire race of beings (The "Buggers"--really the Hive Queen and her subjects.) Now, whispered to by the cocoon of the hive queen he has rescued, Ender is moving away from Earth, banished by the decision of his brother Peter and Colonel Graff, to live on Lusitania.
Lusitania is an odd colony living behind a palisade to avoid contaminating the aboriginal life--and also to protect the colonists from murder by the Piggies, their name for the native life form there. After a disturbing execution of first one of the Piggies then a colonist or two, Ender arrives, invited to be a Speaker for the Dead. He is not exactly welcome in this tight little community, but he persists, knowing that his role on Lusitania is far greater than any of the colonists can imagine.
The audio version of this book is far better than the written, and that applies for the others in this part of the series (Xenocide.) I thought this was an abberation, but Orson Scott Card himself said in an interview that his experiences with being a playwright lead him to write dialog-based scenes. He feels his books are meant to be read aloud. I have to concur; two books of his I didn't like in printed form I admire greatly in audio form. This is one of them.
If you find "Xenocide" or "Speaker for the Dead" hard going, I suggest you get the audio edition. As to the "Shadow" series of sequels, for some reason, these read well in printed form but are just fine as audio as well. I have to agree with the author, his books are meant to be heard!
Score: 4