Rating: 
Summary: Best SF I Ever Read
Review: This was my introduction to Card. I read Ender's Game so I could read this. The mystery of the killings and the trees makes the whole story go.I have read most of Card's SF by now and some of his fantasy. I'd love to see him outdo this work but I fear he never will.
Rating:
Summary: please, Aalii, stick to what your good at...
Review: Aalii, obviosly you have not read this book to its full potential. You are ready to discredit a genius writer whom has written many a great book. You are also not afraid to use big words to frighten potential readers who might love this book! Please, do not shoot down a book which other people enjoy. You notice that other people have given this book very good reviews, but not you. So please, think before you type, and just quietly accept that this is a book which you don't like. I loved this book, and I would appreciate it if you didn't maim another one of O.S.C.'s books. Thank you. -A reader of SciFi
Rating: 
Summary: Who Cares?
Review: I was reading though the reviews and couldn't help but notice that so many people were giving this book 5 stars. I also noticed that the only people who seemed to have some sense in figuring out the obvious flaws in this book were the ones giving it lower ratings.
I, like others was completely enamored by Enders Game and rushed out to get the sequel, only to find that it was 3,000 years later with over 90% of the main characters completely different from the first book. Not only that, but the Ender Wiggin that we knew was completely different. In the first book I found myself admiring Ender for his invincible genius and insight. There's not a spark of that brillance in this book. Instead, it focuses on the empathetic side of his personality, which made me feel like OSC cut me off from a side of Ender which I came to know and respect. In a sense, Ender is a complete stranger that you have to get to know all over again. This is a serious error on OSC's part. Unless the character is a villian , the author should never transform the hero so much that loses the qualities that made the character what he is in the first place. Also, there were other characters in EG that I also liked , so to place the book so far in a future in which none of the previous characters are even alive is a bit depressing. I found that I was incapable of sypathizing with the new characters like I did with the old ones. While reading this book I found myself saying over and over again, (hence the title of my review)"Who Cares?" Sure, I can feel sorry for Battle school kids who were made to grow up way before their time, but how can OSC really expect anyone to care about pequinos or buggers? I mean, come on! This is on a planet that is God knows how many light years away and in a future so distant that I can feel absolutely nothing. OSC attempts to give these aliens a somewhat human persona but I find that it just didn't cut it. Call me cold-hearted, but I feel that the author took the whole "Ender must redeem himself act" a bit too far. Even after reading the reasons for his supposed guilt, one still feels that it really wasn't his fault. So.... what was the point of this novel? The only entertaining factor was the mystery of the pequinos but other than that, the plot was quite lacking. Many aspects like, "oh my goodness, she's my sister!" and "she had six kids with her lover!" I felt were soap opera material. Overall, this book was much too emotional for my liking. It just wasn't what I was looking for in a sequel.
I know that OSC actually made this book before EG and that EG only served to fill in a gap that was made in SFTD. But honestly, after reading EG and finding out that it was the better of the two, I feel that OSC should have trashed this book and wrote a different sequel that readers can relate to. I sympathize with the people who thought that this novel was too slow- moving and understand their dissapointment. Maybe some many people can deal with the changes that this book has brought about in the Ender series, but I am obviously not one of them. For readers who agree and feel that they were sadly cheated when reading SFTD, read The shadow series. Those books are much more like EG and redeem this poorly written novel.
Rating: 
Summary: One of Card's Best
Review: I still like "Ender's Game" best, followed by Xenocide. But this is still a very good book in the "Ender" series.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is really bad :/
Review: After the short thrill-ride that was Ender's Game, I expected another book with a similar plot, or at least as well-written, with some sort of connection. I was to be disappointed. In fact, Speaker for the Dead is so un-Ender's Game-like that it would be a misnomer to really call it a sequel.
Speaker for the Dead takes place on a stupid planet with a stupid name where a bunch of stupid people that speak a stupid language live. To even call Speaker for the Dead a novel is also a misnomer - its more of an ugly amalgam of tenuously connected, badly written prose about several matters, none of which engross the reader. The characters are dull and unlikable. The premise is horridly boring. The setting is overdeveloped and stupid. Yeah, pretty much everything about this book [stinks].
In short, if you're looking for a quality companion to Ender's Game, don't read this ... psuedointellectual attempt at blending Asimovian elements into OSC's science fiction. Get Ender's Shadow instead - OSC sticks to what he's good at writing there, and it shows.
Rating:
Summary: A complete work in itself
Review: Orson Scott Card came up with the central idea of "Speaker for the Dead" before "Ender's Game", and after you read both books you'll understand why he originally thought of "Ender's Game" as just an introduction. The two books are separate works that share only their one major character. "Speaker" is set three-thousand years later, when Ender is still alive because of the relativistic effects of space travel. He's spent the time wandering among various planets settled by humans and speaking the deaths of various people, a newly invented ritual where he attempts to tell the deceased's entire life story from an impartial perspective. On the planet of Lusitania, meanwhile, humanity has encountered a new and intelligent, but technologically primitive species known as the Pequinos. Because the destruction of the Buggers is now viewed as the worst crime in human history, this new lifeform is seen as a chance for redemption. "Speaker for the Dead" is a big, ambitious work, and its topics and goals are very different from those in "Ender's Game". While the idea of alien contact does get mentioned quite a bit, large portions of the book are also focused on the experiences of one particular family whose members work with the Pequinos. Religion plays a big role in this book, and Card has a unique vision of how authority, in terms of both church and government, will be organized in the future. Like all of the very best science fiction novels, "Speaker of the Dead" presents us with a lot of original insights about the future of human society, and raises countless questions that are relevant to us today. Card's writing is, needless to say, outstanding. While reading "Speaker for the Dead", I was constantly stunned by his accurate dialogue, and by the way that he is able to bring a huge and diverse cast of characters to life. It's interesting to note that Card spends almost no time on descriptions, yet he still effectively communicates the look and feel of almost every location in the book. "Speaker for the Dead" shows us one of the greatest authors of a generation at the top of his game; it's a book that nobody should miss.
Rating:
Summary: Better Than the First!
Review: When I first picked up Speaker for the Dead I thought it was going to another one of those disappointing sequels, but i was wrong. Speaker surpasses Ender's Game by miles. After three thousand years of colonization another alien race has been discovered, the pequeninos.Ender, now a speaker for the dead, is called to speak the death of a xenologer murdered by them. But in his search for the truth about the dead, he finds out much more about the pequeninos than any had before him.
Rating:
Summary: Philisophical science fiction
Review: This was an interesting follow up to Ender's Game. Three-thousand years later, Ender, the hero of the world, is now the most despised person in human history. Often, he is referred to simply as the Xenocide. Ender has now spent his life travelling the stars and has left his infamous past behind. Now he is known as Speaker for the Dead, and goes throughout the Hundred Worlds, speaking the lives of those who have died. But he carries a secret, the last remaining Hive Queen of the world he destroyed. A call from a planet with a life form that seems almost human sends Ender on a mission to prevent the next Xenocide, and to undo the past Xenocide. This made for an interesting read. A lot of the book was taken up discussing philisophical issues, especially Ender's Xenocide 3000 years earlier. Space travel has allowed him to stay young and see civilization change around him. The "piggies", the race of beings on Lusitania that humans are trying to study, are interesting, but in the end, their way of life and planet seem a little far fetched and the last few chapters require you to suspend disbelief. Still, if you are a fan of Ender, then I would suggest getting this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty Good
Review: It's a pretty good story on its own merits. Ender's still the same old Ender, but older and mature. Don't go expecting this to be another "Ender's Game" though. You'll be wrongly mistaken. This is the "aftermath" of the Bugger War, so there isn't too much military action going on, but plenty of new characters and problems arise. I recommend this to the really avid fans of the series.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book! Great Audio Experience!
Review: I listen to audio books everyday while I drive to and from work. Some readers are better than others but the "team reading" done on Speaker for the Dead is phenomenal. This book is a complex and entirely engrossing story of Ender Wiggins (and the sequel to Ender's Game). Ender is not longer a boy, but a man who has travelled from world to world in search of a place to settle and allow the rebirth of the "buggers". He ends up on a strange plant inhabited by the only other alien species known - the piggies. This book is layer upon layer of social impacts based on culture, religion, family, love, science... very deep in places, very imaginative in its sci-fi appeal. An excellent reading/listening experience.
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