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Summary: Speaker for the Dead
Review: Despite what people are saying, this book really isn't that great. I mean it is okay, but don't read it if you expect something like Ender's Game. Some of it is very good and interesting, but the book is boring sometimes. It is worth reading if you really want to read it. Go to the library and check it out. If you did happen to read this book, whether or not you liked it, I don't suggest reading Zenocide. I am waiting to get Children of the Mind, so I can't say anything about it.
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Summary: incredible novel about what it means to be "human"
Review: This is one of the best science fiction novels ever. Even if you didn't like Ender's Game, you must read this. Card is one of the best writers for characterization in any genre. The characters really do come alive - I had dreams about them after reading this book. It's essentially a mystery novel, with the murders of two scientists unresolved until Ender arrives at the colony. He and his AI companion, Jane, find out all the secrets kept by the dead and living by the end of the novel, and then the novel ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. Amazing work.
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Summary: Awesome book!!!
Review: After readimg Ender's Game in my Science Fiction class two weeks ago I became obsessed with finding out what happens next. Although this book shocked me at first at how different it was from Game it gradually pulled me in and towards the end I couldn't stop reading it. If you enjoyed Ender's Game you must try Speaker out, although it's a different style it's a great read and a great story. If you haven't read Game first then do so. Speaker of the Dead was what OCS wanted to write first but felt that he had to explain Enders' past in a whole novel, Ender's Game, so the reader could fully grasp the moral implications that arose from Ender's actions.
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Summary: Speaker for the Dead
Review: The name of the book is Speaker for the Dead and it was written by Orson Scott Card. It is a science fiction novel. It is about the planet Lusitania which is the home of the first sentient alien species known to man since the formics. Humans are studying the piggies, the aliens, to learn about their culture and way of life, although they can share nothing of the human knowledge and technology. The Speaker for the Dead, Ender Wiggin, also responsible for the extermination of the formics, comes to speak the death of Marcos Ribiera, and in doing so begins a sequence of events that cause the colony to rebel against Starways Congress and eventually become friends and allies with all the piggy tribes.
I thought the book was very enjoyable to read. The characters were all well developed and the plot untwisted and fit together nicely with everything that was happening. My favorite character was Ender because he was just so understanding towards other people could fix things that were seemingly unfixable. This quote shows how he has the ability to fix things,"Mother, he's not what the Bishop said. He's good." He also brought the egg of the last hive queen, of the formics, in existence. The formics had been almost wiped out by Ender when he commanded the human fleets at a very young age. They leave behind an egg for Ender to find and restore to life, which he does on Lusitania.
I definitly liked the book and would recommend it to anyone who likes science fiction. The only drawback would be because it is science fiction and science fiction isn't the most popular genre.
Rating:
Summary: 4.5 would be more exact
Review: This book is definately worthy of being the sequel of Ender's Game. Although not as good it's a good read. Most of the novel is good, but most is also slow. It takes a long time to develop the settings and characters. But twoard the end it gets really good. Some of the dialogue is hard to understand, most of that is because it's in Potugese. Although tough to understand, if you speak Italian, Spanish, or know Latin you should be able to figure out those not translated. Some people ask why did he pick Portugese. Simple really, it's because Card was a missionary in Brasil for a while. Now as far as the setting of the story. It takes place about 3000 years after the tragedy that was brough on by Ender, now also known as the Xenocide. Due to space traveling there was a large alteration in Ender's age. Making him able to be the main character of this book. But since then a lot has changed, one of the main changes is that speaking for the dead has sort of become like a religion. Now Ender was summoned by a xenologer's apprentice, Novinha, to speak for Pipo, the xenologer killed by the pepequine race (a.k.a. Piggies, the pepequino race is an alien race found on the space colony Lusitania). While Ender was on his way to the colony another died by the hands of the pepequinos, Pipo's son Libo, and Novinha's husband Marcão died as well due to a disease. Both were requested to be spoken for. Now Ender must face the whole colony of Lusitania, and later the congress. I cannot tell much more than what I did without spoiling it more than I already did. However, if you're going to read this book I suggest reading Ender's Game first. But it's optional really because this book colud stand as a completely different story, because it doesn't follow the story of the previows one. Son Akira
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Summary: Ender Rules!
Review: Orson Scott Card's Ender quartet is a brilliant analysis of the human mind. I completely identified with the characters, and was drawn into their lives. Great book.
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Summary: Possibly the century's greatest novel?
Review: I have always thought it a little ironic that both "Ender's Game" and "Speaker" both recieved the Hugo and Nebula Awards. To my mind, the only connection they have with science fiction is the fact that they take place in a time when interstellar travel is prevalent. The purpose of science fiction is to get people excited about the future of technology: to revive in our culture the scientific optimism that got us to the Moon. Neither of these books -- and I discuss them as a unit, even though they are so different, with such different scope -- comes anywhere close to that. "Speaker" especially, is a work that asks much deeper quesions about human nature than science can answer satisfactorily. "Speaker For The Dead" is my candidate for Greatest Fiction Work of the Twentieth Century. I do not say this lightly, even though I have not read all of the fiction, even that labeled "great literary fiction," that literary critics have canonized. "Speaker" transcends literary genres and prototypes. I doubt whether science fiction has ever been used to pose so many eternal questions. It is not simply a great novel: it is a work of philosophy couched in a story. This book may be fictional, but it is True! The events of Speaker may never actually happen, but the world Card has painted for us is no longer a painting, but has sprung up into a full-scale universe. It is too bad that Card could not have limited himself to "Speaker," instead of forcing himself to draw out the story into "Xenocide," and then "Children of the Mind." Neither of those two lives up to "Speaker"'s elegant simplicity and unavoidable probing questioning into the heart of every reader. These two are science fiction -- their worlds eminently don't work, and I'm not talking about the physics. His characters become stylized, form fitted; he is shaping the plot to find an ending, and finds he has to extend and distend it to make that ending satisfactory. I have a similar criticism of "Ender's Shadow" and "Shadow of the Hegemon": they do not ask the profound questions that "Ender's Game" did; they stay on the plane of events.
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Summary: Authors should study this book, to write better ones
Review: This is The best book I have ever read and I thought was better than Ender's game.
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Summary: An Extraordinary Fable
Review: Few words are needed to express what we feel about Orson Scott Card and his books. SPEAKER FOR THE DEAD only confirms this. Orson Scott Card is one of the greatest living authors and we are lucky to have him.
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Summary: nice continuation of the game
Review: a good book...just missing something that the game had, but still a very good read and any science fiction fan needs to visit the nearset book store and pick this up!
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