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Summary: ender wiggin never goes away!
Review: In this, OSC 2nd book in the Ender series we find ourselves on a far off planet somewhere in the galaxy. Ender Wiggin is all growd up and has become and exhile from earth. This book is a great sequel to Ender' Game. The whole series of books is fab. A must read if you liked Ender's Game.
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Summary: Brilliant Literature
Review: Orson Scott Card's riveting sequel to Ender's Game reveals the volatility of a society that has been stretched to accept a frightening species. Speaker for the Dead continues the life of Ender Wiggin to a time when he now has three names. As Ender once told the story of the Buggers, the first known alien species, he is now in search of the next story to write as the Speaker for the Dead. A second alien species arises and an extreme tension forms between them and the humans. Ender finds himself in the thick of the situation and must cover his own past lest the people who he wants to help would push him away.
Speaker for the Dead is an intense roller-coaster ride. Knowing Ender's inner torment when it comes to alien species, the reader connects with his very mind. Astounded by his unfailing power to heal the people around him with words of truth, the reader gasps for breath, because they can find the same desires in their own lives. Card convinces the reader that these characters exist and the emotions are real. You want to turn the pages faster than humanly possible, but you never want the story to end. Card is a genius of communication. The complexities of the conversations wind around a corner, to another planet, climb a tree, and ensnare irony after irony. To view a speaking from above a page is to sit in the audience and listen as Ender reveals your life story in public,
your best and worst moments. Though you feel your soul has been torn out and displayed on a pole, you have never felt more relief in your life.
Card has eclipsed pure human feeling. I can't describe how absolutely awesome this novel is, because I was not given the gift of writing as Card obviously was. By the time the reader finishes this novel they have become a different person, have questioned their opinions of reality, and have tried to grasp what initiative they would take if they had to deal with a new species of alien.
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Summary: This one takes the cake!
Review: After reading this book, all I can say is WOW!!! This one takes the cake! I think that both Orson Scott Card's novels Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead are both excellently written. The thing I love about this book is that the plot is so twisted until the very end, when everything comes together perfectly. He also had a great ending, which sets this novel up for the final book in the Ender's trilogy. All of the books in the trilogy are excellent, but this was probably my favorite of them all, although Ender's Game was thrilling. If you haven't read this book, I must say this is quite an impressive novel...I couldn't put it down. The characters are easy to fall in love with, and the setting is so impressive, but I really liked the plot. It was so ingenious! How does Card do it time after time? I strongly recommend this book if you are looking for some good reading. It was very enjoyable. So, remember...when you are looking for a book, THIS ONE TAKES THE CAKE!
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Summary: Couldn't wait to start this one
Review: After my husband read Enders Game to me, I couldn't wait to hear the next one. I had a deep attachment to the character Ender by the last story that I couldn't wait to see where life would lead him next. It was a little tough getting all the Portuguese names in order at the beginning but I eventually got used to it. In a way I liked this story better because it really made me think about how egotistical humans are and that I should try to be better than that. Again, after this I wanted more so I went to Amazon and ordered the rest of the "Ender" books and a few others by this author.
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Summary: Better than Ender's Game
Review: Orson Scott Card's Speaker for the Dead is an extraordinary sequel to his first book Ender's Game. In this novel, Ender Wiggin is depicted as a lonely worn-down man in his mid 30's. He lives as a nomad traveling from planet to planet to give the life story of people who have passed away. Ender receives a call from a young girl who wants him to speak a death on the planet Lusitania. However, once he arrives at Lusitania, he finds the circumstances have changed. Ender must strive to be accepted in his new surroundings.
Card does a remarkable job developing all the characters in this book, particularly the dysfunctional family he becomes involved with on Lusitania. Though the plot is slow in the beginning as Card sets up his story, it gradually pulls you in until you cannot put it down. Overall, I thought this book was extremely well written and I highly recommend it.
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Summary: Very different from Ender's Game but enjoyable nonetheless..
Review: The author begins this book with his reasons for writing this book. He credits this book for the novelette version of Ender's Game, which until that point was only a short story. He had to rewrite this story from scratch several times over because he kept getting stuck with what to do with Novinha's children. The very first version he wrote didn't give them any character. They were there not to advance the plot, but as stubs for a family. He later realized though that the cornerstone of the story had to be Novinha's children. I really thought that bestowing Miro, Ela, Quim, Olhado, Quara and Grego with personalities of their own would just confuse me. But it didn't! The fact that I can name them off to you without referring to the book and have some brief description of each in mind shows you how memorable the author has made them.What keeps the reader hooked on this book is the mystery of why Pipo and Libo get killed. The author slowly trickles this information to the reader with clever document excerpts from research logs, official ansible messages, etc. on top of the daily activities of the key characters. Ender, the original Speaker for the Dead and writer of the Hive Queen and the Hegemon, is called for by Novinha to speak Pipo's death. However, as far as star travel goes, 22 years will have gone by before he reaches Lusitania. In the meantime, Novinha has given birth to her 6 children and has reneged on her call for a speaker. Right before Ender arrives, Libo is killed and Marcao (Novinha's husband) dies from a genetic defect. Miro and Ela each call for a speaker as well to speak respectively for their deaths. So, in effect, Ender is there to speak for 3 deaths. How the story unfolds truly is surprising and shocking. It kept me wondering. This is a very different book from Ender's Game. Both of these books are enjoyable for entirely different reasons. Ender's game was a lot more "earthly", had more action and described the world in the eyes of a child. Speaker for the Dead starts off on another planet and leads the reader on a path of discovery through the eyes of a family. It deals heavily with emotions, human interactions and communication. This book has a very strong religious backdrop. From the whole notion of Lusitania being a Catholic-licenced settlement, to the structure of their society and customs. The three literary conflicts that can exist in a story between man vs. other men, man vs. himself and man vs. his environment are present in Speaker for the Dead. The taboo of adultery, murder and incest are also mentioned. On top of this, the author also manages to make this a work of fantasy. The author describes another alien race with their own way of life. To be able to pull all these together in a coherent and compelling story, truly is talent. I highly recommend this book if you enjoyed Ender's Game and find the concept for a Speaker of the Dead interesting.
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Summary: Similar Characters, Radically Different Direction
Review: Having read the first book in the series of which this is the second, I was quite anxious to see where the story went next. The first book, "Ender's Game" was a true sci-fi action novel which, to date, is the best I have read. Knowing this, I was more than ready to see where the hero of the story went next. Alas, the author seems to have taken a radical departure from the style of the first book. "Speaker for the Dead" is a much more slowly developed story with much deeper characters. The story seems to be more deliberately developed, with quite a large portion of the book devoted to a back-story. Once adjusted to the different style of book, I became intrigued by the newly introduced characters, and the dilemmas they face on this far away colony on a planet habitated by a completely foreign race. It is an interesting statement on how the humans react and treat the foreign race ... one that I would find entirely plausible. Eventually, the main character makes a trip to the planet to learn the story of both a recently-passed human, but also to understand the interaction of the person with the foreign race. The hero eventually tears down the barriers (literally and figuratively) between the races and essentially turns the whole coloney on its ear. The story is very well told, with outstanding character development, and scenery description. Card does a great job of capturing the emotions of the moment. He also does a great job of conveying the technology aspects of the sci-fi novel without obsessing on them or letting them get in the way of the story. It is a great balance. What I found somewhat difficult was the love-story sewn into the novel. I thought that it was rather 'convenient' and perhaps could have been more fully developed. Other than that minor nit, it was a very good read, and I look forward to continuing on the series.
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Summary: The clash of civilizations?
Review: Good fiction illuminates current human events, regardless when it was written. For example, who can deny that "Othello" or "Les Miserables" contain characters that are readily identifiable today? So, rather than hype this book and tell you what a great read it is (and it is), why not use it as a prism for the most pressing issue of the day -- terrorist Islamic fundamentalism? Some background about the book first. It's 3000 yeas after the Bugger Wars of Ender's Game. Everyone hates Ender Wiggin as a xenocide, a species killer, and lots of people love the original Speaker For the Dead, the person who wrote the humanistic "Hive Queen" and the "Hegemon," which attempts to explain Buggers to humans, and visa versa. Few people know that the original Speaker For the Dead and Ender Wiggin are the same person. Ender is called to the Brazilian colony of Milagre to "speak" or provide a frank eulogy, for scientists who were cruelly murdered by an indigenous tribe of intelligent entities that look a lot like pigs. Ender discovers that there had been a horrible misunderstanding between humans and the "Piggies," which had led to the deaths of the scientists. Ender and the people of Milagre make a treaty with the Piggies. Application to September 11, 2001. Are the people of Milagre the West, and the Piggies the Moslems? Hmmm. Card's basic theme that misunderstanding between civilizations leads to tragedy is applicable here, but you really can't go much past that. In "Speaker For the Dead," the two civilizations had no particular ill will towards each other. They simply misunderstood each others' beliefs and motives. In contrast, the September 11 crew and those who agree with them have a misunderstanding about the nature of reality, which cannot necessarily be corrected through greater cultural interchange, as "Speaker For the Dead" implies. Much more useful is Card's classification of human interaction: utlanning, framling, ramen, varelse and djur. See pages 38 and 41. Although in "Speaker" the classification applies to both inter- and intra-species relations, it is still useful here. Are fundamentalist-terrorist Moslems misguided framlings, or are they a metaphorical djur? Our policy seems to be to treat them like djur, the wild beast, until they show themselves to be framlings. Communication with them *is* possible, though difficult, so they are not varelse. Now compare September 11 and the "humanistic religion" of speaking for the dead. On page 39 Card states that "Speakers for the dead held as their only doctrine that good and evil exist entirely as human motive, and not at all in the act." Applied to September 11, 2001, the conclusion is that if the motives of the 19 highjackers were pure, if what they thought that what they were doing was for the good of their people and themselves, then the act was good. Any sane person flinches from such a conclusion. That may be a reductium ad absurdum example, but we live in a reductio ad absurdum world post-September 11. So don't buy into the moral philosophy of speaking for the dead unless you are willing to go that far. Speaking honestly about a person's life is one thing; providing indirect justification for mass murder is quite another.
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Summary: Great sequel!
Review: I read the introduction after finishing the book (introductions always seem to ruin a surprise or two in the book if you read them first) ... so I was surprised to find out that Speaker for the Dead was actually Card's original "main" story. Surprised, only because of how wonderful Ender's Game was ... it's hard to think of it as a prequel. Speaker for the Dead was much broader in scope than Ender's Game, and appealed to the mind whereas Ender's Game appealed to the heart. Religion on faroff planets, "raman" versus "varelse", Speakers for the Dead ... what it came down to is that nothing is more powerful, or more comforting, than the Truth. An idea that applies as much to Ender's world as it does to our own. My only complaint, and probably the only thing that kept me from giving Speaker for the Dead 5 stars, is that I felt like Card introduced so many characters that they all seemed a little static and stereotyped. The young Ender we laughed and cried with in Ender's Game seemed oddly stiff in SFTD (maybe living 3000 years will do that to you) ... many of the characters seemed to be filling "roles" (Pipo, Libo, and Miro as martyrs, Bishop Peregrino as "The Church", Ouanda, Ela, and Novinha as victims of fate who need to be "saved" by Ender) ... I wish Card had slowed down just a bit and fleshed out the interesting characters he created. What made Ender's Game the great read that it is was the emotion the reader feels for young, tragic Ender. I couldn't help but feel that a little of that emotional attachment was missing from SFTD, which was a little disappointing, as the plot was so absorbing. In spite of that small complaint, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I look forward to continuing on and reading Xenocide.
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Summary: This is no Ender's Game
Review: Ender's Game is one of my favorite books, but Orson S. Card totally missed the target when he wrote this book and went way off course. Instead of trying to continue with the Characters, Orson tried to write and invent a new science and new vocabular. Interesting work, but where are the characters from Ender's Game!! Don't waste you time, just re-read Ender's Game again and let the story end there!!!!
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