Rating: 
Summary: Not the same story as the original
Review: Card notes in a lengthy forward that this was the real story he wanted to tell, but wrote Ender's Game to set all the details first. I really enjoyed Ender's Game for what it was, albeit somewhat sad. This book is not like that. Some of the characters have remained, but the context is all different. Ender has lived another several thousand years at this point by traveling through space which slows down his actual aging. The concern is about researchers in a small Catholic colony-planet and their research on the native creatures. There are few meaningful events spurring on the reader which makes it drag along like a dying buffalo at times.
Rating: 
Summary: This is one of the best books I have ever read!
Review: I thoroghly enjoyed this book the whole time I read it! Orson Scott Card wrote a great science fiction. He wrote a book with an excellent plot that was full of detail. Constantly throughout the book, the reader can picture everything that happened in the book in his or her mind. It is an amazing work!
This book is definitately a winner and an excellent sequel to Card's award winning Ender's Game. I myself am a favorite of the science fiction/fiction genre, which may have altered my thinking. Even though my thinking may have been altered, I still think strongly and highly of this book. I think that even if your favorite genre is not science fiction/fiction, you will still greatly enjoy it. Speaker for the Dead contains awesome ideas and morals/lessons that might be able to help you or give you advice no matter your favorite genre. This book has "grip your seat" suspense and is thrilling and exciting. This book grabs you and holds you from the start, keeping you totally engaged in it until the book is over. If you really get into the book, you feel excited, happy, sad, mad, etc., as you read along through the book at certain times. That just adds to the greatness! Card designed and created the plot so intricately, it is amazing and marvelous. I am on the 3rd Ender's Game series book, Xenocide, and enjoy it even beyond Speaker for the Dead. Can you believe it or not! Anyway, I would highly recommend this book to all readers, no matter their favorite genre. This book is a masterpiece.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as "Ender's game"
Review: There's no way to write about "Speaker" without mentioning "Ender's game". Although OS Card, in his personal comments always says "Speaker" was the story he imagined as his "opera prima", and "Ender's game" was just an introduction, a short story, in my opinion those roles were reverted. "Ender's game" is science fiction at its prime, fast paced, interesting characters and situations. "Speaker for the dead", although using the same main character, is totaly different, mostly in its rhythm and in its purposal. Lusitania is the only of the 100 human-colonized worlds where Man has found another intelligent species. The "piggies" or Little Ones, as they are called, are way down in the technological scale, and the Starways Congress has a very strict set of rules to deal with the Little Ones, after the disastrous first encounter of Humans - Alien Species, described in the war against the Buggers in "Ender's game". "Speaker" is set three thousand years after "Ender's game". "Ender" is a forbidden word, related to xenocide, something humanity must avoid commiting a second time. Nobody knows that Andrew Wiggin is the original Xenocide and the original Speaker for the Dead. Traveling among the colonized worlds, he is able to live three milleniums because of Relativity. "Speaker for the dead" deals with the main families and people of Lusitania, a world colonized by catholic brazilians. There, the zenadores and xenobiologists must deal with the Little Ones, and these functions are passed through the families, father to son. But the two main families, Pipo's and Novinha's have conturbed lives. And it is in the middle of these troubled times that Ender, the Speaker for the dead, is called to speak the death of the first Zenador, Pipo, tragically murdered by the Little Ones. Ender has a new chance to combine humanity and a new sentient species. Although an interesting story, those who liked "Ender's game" will not accept at first the radical change of style Card goes through. "Speaker for the dead" has not the allucinating chapters and battles, and sometimes the story just drags on. This is, though, a very beautiful and well-though story. I will read "Xenocide", no doubt about it. I think that books should be rated by the story they contain alone, no comparison to other books. But in this case I will make an exception, and rate this one within the series (compared to "Ender's game"). That's why I gave it 4 stars. Just another thing: "Speaker for the dead" is set in Lusitania, a portuguese-speaking world. Being from Brazil, and a portuguese speaker, I know how difficul it is for an english-speaking person to learn and understand portuguese, since it's a very complex language, one of the most complex of the latin languages. Card does a good job in trying to explain the basics of portuguese in the introduction of the book, though there are some serious mistakes in pronunciation and writing. There are some mistakes in the names of some of the characters, mainly the name of the Mayor of Lusitania: Faria Lima Maria do Bosque. "Faria Lima" is a compose last name, and "Maria" a first name. I think this is not an intentional mistake; the correct name should be Maria Faria Lima do Bosque. Card is right to give nicknames to his lusitanian characters, since in Brazil and also in Portugal it is a common practice. There are other minor mistakes regarding portuguese language and brazilian culture. But the major mistake is this: in one of the first pages, Card says that the habitants of Lusitania are "brazilian by culture". Well if they are brazilian, they would NEVER name their planet after Portugal's historical name. We brazilians have strong cultural and historical bonds with our ancient colonizers, but to name a planet with such a Portugal-reminding word is something brazilians would never do. Grade 8.3/10
Rating:
Summary: Not the Same Pace as Ender's Game
Review: OSC is one of the best writers in the US today. In fact I will go so far as to say he is second only to Stephen King. This book is not a stand-alone book, it is a sequal to Ender's Game. I read this book around 1996. I heard about Ender's Shadow a month or two ago and have recently finished the series. I have read all of the Ender and Shadow series and will continue to do so as long as they keep being written. If you are not familiar with OSC, he is also the author/playright of the Abyss! Ender's Game is planned to be made into a movie by WB and the producer of a Perfect Storm. This book is about Ender's life off-planet after having saved the world. This book is very philosophical and has less action. It is a not as fast paced as Ender's Game. I would say more about the book, but I hate people giving away any information about books and movies so I won't.
Rating:
Summary: Good for certain people only
Review: So you read Ender's game and you loved it, WARNING! This book is a totaly diffrent genre. While it is a continuation of Ender's game it is written totally diffrent. It is a lot less action-packed but the setting varies a lot more than Ender's game. It does not have that militarisic style of writing where there are certain set objectives. It has a slow begginig and the climax is reached a lot latter on but if you read a book for the plot and not just for the action you will like this book
Rating:
Summary: A Story of Second Contact?
Review: I bought this novel with a little trepidation. There were, in my mind, some glaring story holes revealed in the synopsis of the book, and I just did not see that there was anything to add to the story told in Ender's Game. I was pleasantly surprised. What I found was much more than Ender's Game. Indeed, it is obvious from this story (and the foreword) that Speaker was the book Card was working on when he wrote EG. EG was the back-story necessary for the real meat of Ender Wiggins, Speaker for the Dead. The most disturbing point that drew me away from buying Speaker was that it takes place 3000 years after Ender drops the last bomb on the buggers. Surprisingly, this is resolved neatly and without too much need for suspension of disbelief. In short, thank Einstein. The story itself examines Ender's redemption of his participation in the Xenocide within the context of First Contact with the piggies. The piggies are sufficiently different, both biologically and socially, to be a fascinating mystery, and understanding their differences prompts the introspection necessary to consider why other cultures on this planet choose to do things that seem so irrational. It is a very moving story with characters that (mostly) act with 3d realism. A surprising number of characters are sketched in detail that clearly distinguishes them from each other. This is no small accomplishment for an author. One of the high points is Ender's speech as the Speaker for the Dead. In it he speaks for a deceased man who the community almost universally regards as a mean-spirited worthless drunk. However, when Ender reveals the dead man's perspective of his own life, you get the sense that we should take care in our judgments of others. With four stars its not surprising that there are some problems. The first - far too much Portuguese. All the Portuguese words and names interfere with a smooth read, and just do not seem necessary. If we were reading a story that took place in France, sure throw the French at me, but not out here where it adds nothing to feel of the book. The other problem is that a huge portion of the plot hinges on the irrational concealment of a biological discovery. The character that hides this discovery acts so out of character in doing so, that it is obviously a weak plot device the author hoped to just "slip in" without our notice. This turn does not ruin the book, in fact most of the better aspects of this novel turn on this point, but I do wish Card could have found a better way to achieve it. I especially enjoyed the forword included in the version that I read. This bit in particular is great reading for would-be writers, but should be left until after finishing the story as it reveals too many clues to the plot. All in all it is a very good read, and recommeded for any SCI/FI fan.
Rating: 
Summary: "Dead" is about right; this sequel left me unimpressed
Review: I love Orson Scott Card's fiction, but "Speaker for the Dead" really made me wish Card had gone in a different direction after the wildly popular "Ender's Game." Ender's Game, initially a short story expanded into a novel, deals with the training of military genius children who then stop an invasion of aliens. Or..do they? Andrew Wiggin ("Ender") is the perfect general because he can empathize and understand the enemy to the point of anticipating their every move. But what are the ramifications of empathy with an alien race that communicates via telepathy? Ender's empathy with the aliens hinted about at the end of "Ender's Game" and explored more deeply in "Speaker for the Dead." "Speaker for the Dead" examines the concept of the world from the Buggers' point of view. The unattractively-named insect race lost out to the more adaptive humans, but they aren't ready to give up just yet. The problem here is that Card switches style, from his snappy dialog and fast-moving military action, to a more contemplative and sympathetic plot-theme. Booooring!...Hey, we just were cheering and shouting that Ender saved the world. Now we are supposed to CARE about the Buggers? Come'on! Talk to the hand, Orson, because we aren't gonna be all teary-eyed for the vanquished Bugs. And it gets worse--the books in this sequel series are just not enjoyable, though some people do admire them. My advice? Skip this book, unless you are a real O.S. Card fan and go straight to Ender's Shadow and the following books, Shadow of the Hegemon and Shadow Puppets. MUCH better, and more action, more plot.
Rating:
Summary: Ender's Game flew by...SFTD just plods...
Review: "Speaker For The Dead" suffers from the same sophomore-outing problems M. Night Shyamalan's "Unbreakable" movie did--too much exposition of not enough plot. Whereas "Unbreakable" would have made a great 30-minute Twilight Zone episode, stretching it to fill an hour and a half was a bad idea. Same with SFTD. The big mystery isn't all that mysterious, and there aren't that many possible resolutions, yet it drags on for hundreds of pages longer than it should have. If you want more of the Ender Saga, skip the SFTD/Xenocide/Children of the Mind branch for now, and go with the much more Ender's-Game-like "Shadow" branch. THEN come back and pick up the other, and you'll be more satisfied with it.
Rating:
Summary: Maybe even better than _Ender's Game_
Review: At least I find it much more enjoyable. I'm intrigued by the review that found _Speaker_ darker than _Game_, because my impression is the reverse. Perhaps this is simply because I love the world of _Speaker_. I'm fascinated by sf that deals with religion, and _Speaker_ is in my opinion one of the best such books in existence. The tightly-knit Catholic society of Lusitania is presented in a way that avoids either sentimentalizing or condemnation. Card plays with secularist assumptions by setting us up for a conflict between the "humanist" Ender and the bigoted bishop, but then shows us the humanity of both characters and their mutual dedication to virtue, compassion, and the good of their neighbors. Indeed, in the end Ender is assimilated into the world of Lusitania, settling down on a planet for the first time after years of wandering among the stars. This is one of the central themes in Card's books--the vital importance of community, the ultimate emptiness of secular individualism. The great beauty of the book, however, is its description of the "pequenino" society. "Anthropological" science fiction is a lively sub-genre, and one of my favorites. The trope of a savage practice that turns out to have a perfectly good reason is quite common in this subgenre (Poul Anderson, for instance, wrote a story about a society that practiced cannibalism; it turned out that they had to do so in order for their young males to mature sexually). Yet Card takes this trope and turns it into an unforgettable portrayal of a race both biologically and socially unlike anything we know. The piggies are perhaps Card's greatest triumph as a sf writer. Indeed, this magnificent book is full of one triumph after another. The character portrayal is, for a sf novel, amazingly rich and lively. As usual, Card gives us large, dysfunctional families and then makes us love them. Novinha's family, of course, is important especially as the place where Ender settles down, in a sort of "Incarnation" (one _could_ write an essay on Ender as Christ figure, but I won't try). Yet they are lovable and interesting in their own right. Interstellar politics does not play as much of a role here as in the next two novels; neither does metaphysical speculation. Those elements are certainly fascinating, but in the later novels they stretch the fabric of the plot to unwieldy dimensions. _Speaker_ is close to the perfect sf novel--indeed, its major flaw is that Card is unable to wrap up the story within the covers of one sequel, leaving plenty of loose ends to be wrapped up in later, inferior novels.
Rating:
Summary: Great Story
Review: Card Knocks another one out of the park!!
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