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Title: Speaker for the Dead (Fantastic Audio) by Orson Scott Card, David Birney, Scott Brick, Gabrielle De Cuir ISBN: 1574535153 Publisher: Audio Literature Pub. Date: August, 2002 Format: Audio Cassette Volumes: 9 List Price(USD): $45.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.38
Rating: 5
Summary: Better than "Ender's Game," but also different
Comment: After reading "Ender's Game" in one afternoon, I fell in love with OSC, and quickly began reading "Speaker for the Dead." I admit the first few chapters let me down a bit. I had lived as Ender and Valentine and I expected them to quickly appear; this was a sequel, wasn't it? Unfamiliar characters such as Pipo, Libo, and Novinha bored and confused me. I skimmed until I found Ender on Trondheim, still haunted by his childhood. From then on, I was hooked, and when Ender reached Lusitania, I discovered the people weren't boring at all; they became real.
The plot of "Speaker" is fairly simple. The native pequininos on Lusitania are the only sentient species found in the thousands of years since "Ender's Game." For no apparent reason, they kill two human scientists, eerily echoing humanity's violent first contact with the Buggers. Ender arrives on Lusitania, where, with the help of Jane (a sentient computer program) he tries to understand the pequininos, Novinha's family, and the community of Milagre.
"Ender's Game" was an adventure story about a brilliant child, made sympathetic by his isolation and empathy. "Speaker" is a much more complex novel, which deals with family, community, religion, truth, and the nature of humanity; its characters and ideas are as important as the plot, if not more so. Those who loved "Ender's Game" for its action and boy-against-the-world theme may not like "Speaker." However, those who loved "Ender's Game" as much for its characters and ideas as its plot will find "Speaker" incredibly rewarding.
The first time I read "Speaker," I was thirteen. While I liked the book, I missed the faster pace of "Ender's Game." However, over the years, I have come to love "Speaker," opening chapters and all, more than the other books in this series. My one quibble is the conclusion; though tonally perfect, it leaves enough loose ends to fill....two more books!
"Speaker" belongs to the special group of books, science fiction and otherwise, that treat religious and ethical issues seriously. Whether or not you agree with OSC's conclusions (or completely believe Ender's Speaking for Marcos could occur in our universe) the book raises important questions within a moving story about characters with real problems. It also recognizes that people have families, cultures, and other community ties.
To summarize, "Speaker for the Dead" is a wonderful novel that uses believable characters to raise questions about human existence. Like "Ender's Game," it explores alienation and misunderstanding, but it is a richer and slower book, and in my opinion, better.
(If you like "Speaker," I highly recommend OSC's "Hart's Hope," a fantasy with similar themes. I also recommend anything by Ursula K. Le Guin.)
Rating: 5
Summary: The author of Ender's Game speaks up in a big way.
Comment: A thrilling follow up to Ender's game. Once again, humanity meets an alien race and is forced to either understand the other or destroy it. Again, Ender Wiggin is thrust into the center of the conflict when, after a brutal murder, he is called upon in his role as speaker of the dead.
I really enjoyed this book. I could not put it down after the first paragraph. Not only was the plot fascinating, but the characters were believable. Flawed enough to be human but hopeful enough to be inspiring they really suck you into the story lending a credability that is lacking in many other science fiction stories. However, there is more to this book then a great story. Like in Ender's game the author is exploring a facet of humanity through his work.
In Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card explored the confusing and often contradictory world of children. In Speaker for the Dead he explores a question no less deep: "What is faith really?" Unlike many of his fellow science fiction authors, he does not dismiss Christianity out of hand, but rather shows how the Church might have to deal with other life in the universe.
This book only confirmed the suspicion which began to form in my mind after reading Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card is a great writer. He can deal with heavy overarching issues without losing track of his story or characters. He made this book a great read, which I have no problem recomending to anyone.
Rating: 5
Summary: A complete work in itself
Comment: 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.
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Title: Xenocide by Orson Scott Card ISBN: 0812509250 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: August, 1992 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card ISBN: 0812550706 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: July, 1994 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card ISBN: 0812522397 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: June, 1997 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card ISBN: 0812575717 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: December, 2000 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Shadow of the Hegemon by Orson Scott Card ISBN: 0812565959 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: December, 2001 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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