Rating: 
Summary: Will leave you questioning all that you are.
Review: The reader from Feb. 10 eloquently summarizes this experience. The very nature of the human thought process is shown fabulously here, for better or for worse. The tendency to understand everything in our own frame of reference creates real problems with the aliens. A great example is described when a human sets off alone for a meeting with a group of the aliens. He is later discovered dead and horribly mutilated. There is never a question of the aliens' involvement. The conclusion is immediately reached that the man was ambushed and murdered. When the very different reality is discovered, anger is instantly replaced with confusion and absolute uncertainty. And that uncertainty is created over and over in this book, as every notion of understanding, friendship, tolerance and acceptance are broken down and rebuilt. Reader responses to the various incidents may vary, but I doubt that any reader will complete this journey untouched. Indeed, the writing is too powerful to be contained in the box we call science fiction. It lays open to everyone and hides nothing.
Rating:
Summary: What Are We?
Review: I can't emphasize enough the strength of this book. Sci-fi is merely a backdrop for issues that are firmly rooted in the human condition. Issues like otherness, truth, good, evil and the daunting implications of embracing our humanity. Card wisely casts his narrative's light on our capabilities rather than our virtues/foibles. In that way, he is better able to convey our human complexion in its totality. Blemishes and all. By confronting us with this wide range of possibilities in this manner, we are forced to reconsider many of the conventions that we've clung to in trying to make sense of our world. That exercise triggers profound, sometimes disturbing, questions. Overall though I found the exercise to have a clarifying, cleansing essence. This is a fascinating, intriguing read.
Rating:
Summary: Better than Ender's Game
Review: This book was so much fun to read! I enjoyed it for many reasons, including its many novelties: the concept of hard-core Catholics thriving in a distant world 4,000 years from now, the way the far-off planet of Trondheim sounds an awful lot like Greenland, and the notion that light-speed travel between such places allows characters to "live" for millenia. But for me the really appealing part of the book was the character of Ender, who is far more interesting as an adult than he was as a child in Ender's Game. Because he lives a dual identity - as the hated Ender the Xenocide and the revered Speaker for the Dead - he is both a wise, sad and, ultimately, an admirable figure. To me, Ender's well-crafted character easily carries a story that might have seemed too high-minded or sentimental with a less compelling lead figure. As it is, both the plight of the pequeninos and the tragedy of the human deaths on Lusitania are conveyed with a real sense of pathos. Similarly, the interplay between Ender and the people of Lusitania was, for the most part, deftly handled. There were some scenes near the end that I thought were a bit overwritten, but for the most part I found the book suspenseful, honest and surprisingly moving.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice book, but not as good as the first one.
Review: I first read Ender's game at 7th grade, and then began looking for every Card book I could get. Speaker for the dead is quite a book , but I couldn't feel it was a letdown compared to the original Ender's game. Still, if you liked Ender's game, I think you need to read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Different than Ender's Game, but better
Review: Speaker for the Dead is not meant for hard core sci-fi readers. They might find it boring, as I did when I first tried reading it as a 12 year old who only wanted to read something like Star Wars. As I got older, though and I began understanding exactly what Speaker for the Dead was about, it quickly became one of my favorite novels, and now I have to say only Les Miserables beats it on my all-time great novels list. The novel deals with complex issues such as racism, discrimination, guilt, redemption, compassion, understanding, and the power of truth. Thankfully the book doesn't preach, but it simply show what happens in a clear and straight foreward way, and then it allows the reader to make his or her own conclusions. Card allows us to understand the conflicting emotions and desires of the characters extremely well, which helps the reader gain interest in the plot and the lives of the characters. I was impressed with how Card was able to develop so many characters so well and deeply, that they felt more like people than characters in a novel. I felt like I understood Ender, Valentine, Ela, Miro, and Novinha. I was also impressed with how much I felt I understood Pipo, Libo, and Marcao, who appear in the book either very shortly or not at all. The novel forced me to deeply think about my own attitudes about the various themes in the story very closely, and it even inspired me to change the way I thought about many issues the book presents. The alien pequeninos were masterfully devleloped as both an alien race, but also a race that is remarkably human. The symbolism was obvious, which is how I feel symbolism should be. I don't like playing the deep overdisection of a novel game so many of my former English teachers felt were necessary. Speaker doesn't demand nor inspire that. It simply tells the story in a clear manner, and lets the reader understand what is going on beneath the black and white. If you like fast paced shoot em up sci-fi space operas, I would not recommend Speaker to you. But if you like a well thought out, well developed novel with rich characterization and a thought provoking story, Speaker for the Dead is a great novel to read. If you don't like sci-fi because the characters are often too flat, and the plot line excessively fast paced, without inspiring any thought on the reader's part, Speaker for the Dead is also highly recommended to you. I have always felt it had much more in common with Les Miz, Great Expectations, Scarlet Letter, and Shakespeare, than traditional science fiction. But make sure you read Ender's Game first (also a fantastic novel that is more traditional sci-fi, but still very enjoyable to those who don't). HIGHLY RECOMMENDED--but only if thinking too much doesn't give you a headache.
Rating:
Summary: Very good writing helps this story
Review: I'll admit that I preferred the story line of the first book compared with this one. "Speaker for the Dead" seemed to take on a few "Fantasy" qualities that weren't present in "Ender's Game". I still found the book entertaining, and this is mostly due to how Card tells a story. He has kept the story entertaining enough that I very much look forward to the remaining books in the series.
Rating:
Summary: Storytelling at its finest
Review: Card's characters are perfectly distinctive. You'll swear you could pick them out in a crowd. He blends them all together with such a feel for their personalities that you can't help but believe they're real. Hard science fiction is not his strongest suit, but he tells stories like nobody's business! I'd love to see him team up with a more hard-core SF writer in the future.
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Summary: Vivisection of xenophoby, the root of hate!
Review: The story, the plot it self is astonishing, but the real value is the Message: What we don't know, makes us affraid, and when we are affraid then we hate. When we hate, we can not understend. If we don't try to understend we will never learn. And if we never learn the cultural differences we can harm millions, whole species just becouse they are different. Definetlly shows that the root of the evil is ignorance!
Rating:
Summary: Card is a great story teller!!!!!
Review: Card's ability to show us who his characters are in a few pages of text is astonishing. We intimately know his principles as soon as they are introduced so we care about what happens to them. I personally wished many times while reading this book that there was such a person as the speaker for the dead. Someone who would tell the truth no matter how it hurt in order to create greater understanding. However, in Card's world Ender knows that his speaches will heal and they do, in the real world the reaction to the truth would be unknown and most likely would have hurt those who hide what needs to be hidden.
Rating:
Summary: Just as good as Ender's Game
Review: I enjoyed this book just as much as I enjoyed Ender's Game, but don't even think of trying to read Speaker for the Dead if you haven't Ender's Game. The beginning of the book started out boring, but it was necessary for the end to run as smoothly as it did. The end was great. It kept you thinking and on you toes with unpredictable twists and emotional turns. It is a great book and if you liked Ender's Game, stick with this book, it will be one of the best you have ever written.
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