Rating: 
Summary: Excellent followup, first 50 pages hard reading
Review: Much more complex then EG, more plot twists, more intrigue, clever forshadowing, and the whole nine yards. This sequel adds an element of redemption for our poor misunderstood Ender, and begins the foundation for the first peaceful co-existance of four alien races. The first 50 pages or so took me nearly two years to get the motivation to finish; the last several hundred took less than a week. Get Speaker and stick with it... it's more than worth it.
Rating:
Summary: This book is something completely different
Review: When I read Speaker for the Dead, I was astonished. I understood that I had found something totally new. If I should describe the book with one word, it would be "miracle". After I had read Ender's game, I thought that it was the best book in the world. But then I got to know SftD. I still haven't found any book like it. I've read a great many tales after SftD, but everyone of them is a far cry from this masterpiece. Every time I read Speaker for the Dead I cry for Ender. Ender's game was just a prologue for SftD. This book tells about the inner world. It's actually impossible to describe, because if you don't understand the book, there's nothing to do about it. There's so deep philosophy in SftD that many people find themselves struggling within. This book is hard to describe to a person, who hasn't read it. But I believe that there never has been or never will be so marvellous book as Speaker for the Dead.
Rating:
Summary: Great, but I'd give a 3 compared to Ender's Game
Review: This book is fantastic, I can't say enough about it. Speaker left you wanting page after page to find out the secrets behind the piggies and just all the residents of Lusitania. Speaker had much more twists than Ender's Game considering the only "twist" in EG was the end. As a standalone story this is one of the best but compared to Ender's Game and as a sequel it's only about average. I don't think it did a tremendous job as a sequel to be honest. There was almost no..."continuation" from Ender's Game. I personally would have liked to have seen more Valentine and Jane even though I know they will play larger parts in the next 2. Even though it's not a fantastic sequel, read Ender's Game first, then buy this!
Rating:
Summary: Breathtaking
Review: It's amazing after reading all the reviews how different people react to OSC's Ender books. Lots of people were expecting Ender's Game II and were duly disappointed, others just read it because it won awards... still others read it with an open mind, wanting to know about Ender's Redemption. I for one, am glad I decided to buy Speaker for the Dead, it's a book I will cherish forever along with other "misunderstood" books (The Hollow Man and Phases of Gravity by Dan Simmons come to mind). I wish I could tell everyone what makes this book so great to me. It made me laugh, it made me cry.... Five *'s aren't even enough.
Rating:
Summary: compassionate masterpiece
Review: This is without a doubt the best novel Mr.Card ever written and certainly one of the top five of all times. Congratulation on a job extremly well done.
Rating:
Summary: Words cannot describe...
Review: Those who read Ender's Game for the war and action and violence are going to be disappointed with Speaker For The Dead. I don't think Orson Scott Card intended Ender's Quartet to be about war, so much as it is about the way humans react to someone or something they don't understand. If there is a fat kid in a class, the kids' automatic reaction is to shut him/her out, separate him from the pack in order to hurt him the easier. Anyone who has the misfortune to befriend this outcast is just as awful and ugly, etc. as he is. This is a metaphor for the way humans reacted to the piggies in Speaker. They were strange, new, obscure, unclear, and they must be studied, but don't let them get any smarter or they might try to fight back. And any xenologer who tries to help them is incarcerated. I have not yet read Xenocide or Children of the Mind, but I am sure they will continue in the grand Card tradition, as a commentary on humans and their attitudes. In its way, this is an enormously critical novel as it grabs the reader by the wrist, spins her/him around and says, "Hey! Look at this! Isn't there something wrong with the way we're acting? Bet you never thought about this before!" It's like a slap in the face for a dozy human who sticks his head in the sand and says, "Well, that's the way it is. Everything looks great from my point of view!" But his point of view is in the sand, he can't see a thing and doesn't want to try. Card is one of two of the greatest science fiction writers of all time, on par with Ray Bradbury and his fantastic imagery and taste for the dark side of things. This book, and its predecessor, is one of the greatest books of all time. Wake up and read it, people. Otherwise you're just another stupid ostrich with your head in the sand, appraising what you can't see.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as Ender's Game
Review: After reading Ender's Game, I was left waanting to know what happened with Ender and the baby hive queen. So I read Speaker for The Dead. I thought that this book was good but was too long and kind of a let down after Ender's Game. The book had no action and had weird names that made it hard to read. The only cool thing about this book was the piggies, Jane, and Ender. Time travel was a good idea and the only way that this book is possible, but the fact that it would take 50 years outside the space ship made time travel a little pointless. Even though I didn't think this book was very good i still recommend it to anyone who has read Ender's Game and is left wanting more. Now, I'm going to start reading Xenocide to find out how it ends, and hopefully it will be better than Speaker for the Dead.
Rating:
Summary: First annoyed, then captivated!
Review: The first 50 pages I found really hard-going and kind of preachy. I hated the way Card was always finding the pure, good core in every character. I don't think everybody is fundamentally good. At that point I would have given the book three stars top!But suddently, the sun came out and it was good: The story pushed ahead, breathtaking revelations about the pequeninos, very good characters, real suspense!! It's not at all like 'Ender's Game', but that doesn't make 'The Speaker For The Dead' inferior! I just finished 'Xenocide' and was disappointed!
Rating:
Summary: Deeper, more heart-wrenching dilemmas than EG
Review: SFTD is Card's greatest novel, eclipsing even EG, which I loved. It is more powerful, with greater character development, especially Valentine, who is one of the more intriguing characters in literature. The shock of reading it for the first time and discovering how history treated Ender is indescribable - an incredibly twist, with parallel examples in our history. Those who describe it as religious or preachy are really missing the point. Card adresses religion because it a dominant force in the lives, and in the THINKING, of so many people, even in the face of great scientific advances. It influences the way people make decisions, and that is why Ender must deal with it. He needs to understand religion to understand people. Religion is tenacious, and Card thinks it will pass the test of time. (I'm not so sure of this, but certainly it's interesting) The dilemmas he creates are wonderfully intricate, and not at all preachy - his seemingly infallible hero is, after all, an atheist. If anything, I find that this book endorses that view, even romanticizes it; I was greatly surprised to discover that OSC is a Mormon. But it made me respect him even more as an artist. He is able to capture the spirit of so many different types of people that we feel like we know them, and sometimes, that we ARE them. He is a crafstman on par with the greats, and he deserves praise and recognition far beyond what he has already received.
Rating:
Summary: A thinker
Review: EG was truly a wonderful book, but mostly fun. SoTD however, brought out an ethical side that had me thinking. Once again there's the issue of other "ramen" species. Two in fact. The atrocious acts of the Pequeninos are misunderstood as much as the Buggers were. Ender also made a point of coming around and redeeming himself in this book. What truly made me dissapointed in a way was how Jane disconnected herself from Ender. I really wished that she had returned to normal instead of straying. The book adds on to EG very well, and I dove right into Xenocide right after finishing SoTD. A great book that makes you think.
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