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Title: Beyond Ender's Game: Speaker for the Dead ( Xenocide) |
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Review of Beyond Ender's Game: Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind
- Beyond Enders Boxed Mass Market SetContains: Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide and Children of the MindSpeaker for the Dead: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.Xenocide:The war for survival of the planet Lusitania will be fought in the hearts of a child named Gloriously Bright.On Lusitania, Ender found a world where humans and pequininos and the Hive Queen could all live together; where three very different intelligent species could find common ground at last. Or so he thought.Lusitania also harbors the descolada, a virus that kills all humans it infects, but which the pequininos require in order to become adults. The Startways Congress so fears the effects of the descolada, should it escape from Lusitania, that they have ordered eh destruction of the entire planet, and all who live there. The Fleet is on its way, a second xenocide seems inevitble.Children of the Mind:The planet Lusitania is home to three sentient species: the Pequeninos; a large colony of humans; and the Hive Queen, brought there by Ender. But once against the human race has grown fearful; the Starways Congress has gathered a fleet to destroy Lusitania.Jane, the evolved computer intelligence, can save the three sentient races of Lusitania. She has learned how to move ships outside the universe, and then instantly back to a different world, abolishing the light-speed limit. But it takes all the processing power available to her, and the Starways Congress is shutting down the Net, world by world.Soon Jane will not be able to move the ships. Ender's children must save her if they are to save themselves.
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Comments for Beyond Ender's Game: Speaker for the Dead ( Xenocide)
- Posted on 2008-06-30
Speaker for the Dead & Xenocide Review
I'd read "Ender's Game" over a year ago and thoroughly enjoyed it, but fiddly-farted about getting to "Speaker for the Dead". What a mistake! "Speaker..." is an outstanding follow-up chronicling Ender's life post the Bugger's War. The introduction of the seemingly primitive, simple, and indigenous pequeninos, their mysterious evolution, their social structures, their propagation, and what seems like their murderous ritual makes for great sci-fi reading...well, as far as this newbie to sci-fi reading goes. The moral and ethical dilemmas inherent between two alien species who've little understanding of the other and whose ways may seem honorable to one, but abhorent to the other reflects the same complexities of human life and understanding among us. If understanding isn't pursued, questions truthfully answered, and prejudices destroyed, conflict, death, destruction...and as ender learned as a child, xenocide likely follows. It was a fantastic read!
On the other hand, while "Xenocide" took the moral and ethical conflicts even deeper, there was an excessive amount of "tearing up" and crying for me to remain completely engrossed in the "us or them" debate. (I sided in favor of the pequeninos. They were there first. Humans came later. They were certainly sentient and intelligent. Fortunately... ;-) ) Anyway, despite successfully weaving the many complex relationships among the extremely compelling and realistic characters, the story line in "Xenocide" took on an overly sentimental tone. This may be appealing to some, but way over the top for my tastes.
Perhaps when I've read more sci-fi, I'll be able to write a more technical and open-minded review devoid of my personality quirks. "Speaker..." rates a FIVE. "Xenocide" rates a THREE. "Children of the Mind" is pending...
Score: 4
- Posted on 2008-01-07
Challenging good read
These books are for those who want a challenge. Possibly a little confusing at first, but keep reading and you are hooked. Good, creative author.
Score: 4 - Posted on 2007-08-24
Beyond Ender's Game (3 books)
Read them! Kids and adults alike! You will love them. Be sure you read "Ender's Game" first. One of my all-time favorites! (I'm 68 years old.)
H. in Texas
Score: 5
- Posted on 2007-05-15
Not worth the purchase
By the end of Ender's Game, the Ender story feels complete. Author Card may have agreed, as the following stories take Ender and his tale in an entirely new direction. If you just stick to Ender's Game, you won't feel at a loss. These stories feel extraneous and the characters are too certain of their own righteousness to be believable.
Score: 2
- Posted on 2007-02-28
More in Sci-fi, but less in strategy (sometimes brilliant but sometimes...)
I have read the whole ender series, but with a strange sequence which may have affected the way I view the different books in the series. The first book I have read was the Shadow of the Hegemon, thanks to a tourist that had left it in the library of a hotel in Skiathos island. This book got me hooked, but it confused me also as I didn't know if I should start reading the next books or the previous ones.
The general pattern in the whole series is:
The beginning book is Ender's Game. Then we have two subcategories, one the Shadow series (which, with the exception of the first book, take place on earth and are more within military strategy) and one the Ender series (which take place in space and are more into new sci-fi ideas). Shadow series probably can be read from everyone, while I guess that the Ender series (especially from Speaker for the Dead onwards) would be read mainly from sci-fi fans.
Below are my comments for the books of the series, in the order I have read them and a marking (10 is the highest mark):
Shadow of the Hegemon: The first book I have read, and which I could not leave from my hands. I finished it in 2 days. It was fast paced action, very smart plot and after reading it I believed that Orson Scot Card (OSC) has invented/re-invented a new genre of literature. That of military strategy and adventure combined with brilliance/mind games and hidden portions of romance. Such books always existed but this seemed to be THE book. It was like the way Dan Brown re-invented books with trivials and puzzles, together with fast paced adventure. I strongly recommend it to everybody that likes such type of books. (mark: 10)
Shadow puppets: The sequel to the above. I found it interesting but somehow boring as the above story developed little and the focus was on the characters (maybe too much focus so that it seemed to me that it was slightly mumbling jumbling. Strategy, brilliance and adventure seemed to be very low here. I would not recommend it for anybody to read it in isolate, unfortunately you have to read it if you want to go to the next book. I really believe that OSC made a mistake here (deliberately or not) as this book should have been told in 50-60 pages and be included in the previous or the next book. (mark: 6 but you will read it because you will want to read Shadow of the Giant)
Shadow of the Giant: (see below)
Ender's game: A really great book to read, probably the best of the series, however, as I had read its sequels first, when I reached the 80% of this book, I had predicted the end. However, it's at the highest standards of sci-fi, military strategy, adventure, brilliant mind games and very good depth in the human aspect of the characters. In comparison to the shadow series, it is more "space" sci-fi, while shadow series have much lesser sci-fi elements and are more down to earth. (mark: 10)
Speaker for the dead: Another great book, but different style. Less adventure, more human aspect, more maturity. Brilliance yes, but not military, sci-fi yes (some great ideas) but not spaceship style. (Mark: 9)
Xenocide: A good sequel of the previous novel. In certain points more brilliant, in other sections more boring, however is again a very good sci-fi book. The only flaw in these series (Speker for the dead, Xenocide, Children of the mind) is the idea behind one of the alien species described which I found outrageously extreme, however if you ignore it becomes first class reading. (Mark: 9)
Children of the mind: I think that OSC has wrapped up his case pretty badly in that one. It's a fair book except the fact that I felt that OSC mumbles jumbles for one third of the novel not having decided how to end it. In other critiques I have found it described as nice approach to moral dilemmas, however, moral dilemma is when you describe it once and make your choice, while here the dilemma is repeated and repeated... I felt like I was watching a movie worth 10 oscars and the end did not worth to be included even in a cheap video movie. And again, many open ends at the end (for possible sequels). (Mark: 7 but you will read it as you will be hooked from the previous ones).
Ender's shadow: Having read Enders Game and Shadow of the Hegemon, I found this book probably the best of the series, which of course is my subjective preference. I could characterize it as probably the best book I have read ever! Not to repeat myself, it has all that Shadow of the Hegemon and Ender's Game have, and even more...(Mark: the absolute 10).
Shadow of the Giant: When I read shadow puppets, I said, "that's it, OSC has lost either his talent or his appetite for good writing...", so I was pretty unwilling to read it. Fortunately I decided to, as it proved to be a good one, were I believe that OSC has nicely wrapped up his story, with two small flaws.
* The one is described below (its end needed to be slightly more complete) and,
* The other is the fact that although he describes certain smart battles, he does not focus enough on them as it seems that he is in a hurry to wrap all things up. It had all elements to become a masterpiece but it ended up being a good to read book (Mark: 9)
In general, both series have three categories of good stuff:
1) Some great sci-fi ideas (battle room, battle games, fantasy game, ansible, aia, Jane, in/out travel, raman varelse etc)
2) Great military strategy, mind games etc combined with adventure
3) In certain books, depth of characters, moral dilemmas etc
And two main bad stuff:
1) Mumbling jumbling in certain books which was completely unnecessary (either OSC wanted just to produce and sell another title - see shadow puppets- or he could not decide how the story will continue-see last book of Ender series).
2) One of the alien species described in the Ender series was so too outrageous even for sci-fi that made it look ridiculous. The idea behind it was brilliant in sci-fi terms, but he could try a different living organism...
Finally, OSC has left open ends in both series (probably for next sequels), however I believe that there are two things missing. a) the story of the Hive Queen and the Hegemon, told in a metaphorical manner so it means much for humanity. b) In ancient theatre, a story should end in a way that brings "katharsis" to the story, and the souls of the readers. I believe that the end of the shadow of the giant may be smart for commercial purposes but it was very unfair to the reader as it did not bring full "katharsis".
Score: 4