Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Mowca umarlych by Orson Scott Card

14 reviews

markguitar's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Blood, Murder, Colonisation, Infidelity, Death of parent, Body horror, Child abuse, and Genocide

Minor: Incest

malloray's review against another edition

3.0

I liked this book. Ender’s Game was way better. Most of what I didn’t like was the characters. Most of the cast just didn’t interest me, which wasn’t the case in Ender’s Game. Aliens were cool, colony not as much.

So, is this book too dated to be read in modern day? I would say not necessarily. It has its issues; Ender is kind of a white saviour in an explicitly majority black Brazilian colony. Lusitania is portrayed as a little static, although I find humanity itself is portrayed as static in the Ender Saga. There is a character who experiences years of domestic abuse as ‘repentance’ for something they did and I found that a bit disrespectful to abuse survivors.

There is some ableist vibes near the end when a character sees their life as pretty much over and thinks they’re unlovable because they have become disabled.

My issue is more just that it kind of drags. The aliens are what’s interesting to me, and we spend all this time on drama in Lusitania. Ender’s tendency to walk in and just solve years of trauma and everyone’s issues is just kind of weird?

But if you like the series, press on. There is a certain vibe to the world of the Ender Saga which I will always love. Also, I love Valentine. Will probably continue reading just for Valentine.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Incest, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Domestic abuse

psydneigh's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I feel like this book perfectly describes the human condition. Only thing I dont buy is Ender and Novinha’s relationship. I don’t feel the love.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Ableism, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Grief, Infertility, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, and Death of parent

lebolt's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Ok, look. I know the author is a Mormon and that's problematic to a lot of people. But the whole point of this book is to connect with other sentient beings in a compassionate way, no matter how inconceivable their morality is to you. It's supposed to be hard to read, because it challenges you to accept people as human despite their atrocities. If that's not something you agree with, then this book definitely isn't for you.

Ok, begin actual review:

Why do we suffer? What does it mean to be human? Who deserves love? This book asks big questions; this book gives sincere answers.

I think this book Speaks into the part of me that wants to know redemption. I think this book lets me see a little bit of an author who, in a story about the stars, is himself sharing a bit of heartfelt humanity despite the divisions of the world - both around us and inside us.

Also, super rad sci fi concepts like relativistic interstellar travel, instantaneous communication, AI, genetic modification, terraforming, etc etc. Good stuff.

Beware: this sequel is a strong departure from the child-focused and relatively childish Ender's Game. As the author says in his foreword, this book was originally meant to be a standalone, and it shows. Ender's Game is basically (very well executed) exposition and backstory for this more profound work.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death of parent, Grief, Xenophobia, Domestic abuse, Murder, and Religious bigotry

bits_and_pieces_odds_and_ends's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Colonisation, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Infidelity, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Incest, Murder, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Grief, War, and Cancer

Minor: Child abuse

juliatsang's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Physical abuse

Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Incest, Infidelity, Pandemic/Epidemic, Domestic abuse, and War

jessthanthree's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Child death

Moderate: Torture, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Cultural appropriation

toast_y's review against another edition

adventurous funny reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

This was an amazing book and a great follow up to Ender’s Game. I loved it and laughed at quite a bit of the dialogue; overall I had a great time reading 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Incest, Infertility, and Xenophobia

nrogers_1030's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Child death, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Infidelity, Xenophobia, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Incest

nytephoenyx's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

To enjoy Speaker for the Dead, you have to have an interest in species and social evolution. This book is somewhat fascinating in its study of the piggie race. That's about the best thing I can say about Speaker for the Dead - it's intellectually fascinating.

Speaker of the Dead, even more than Ender's Game, makes it abundantly clear exactly how highly Orson Scott Card thinks of himself. The slow-paced erudite reflections are haughty. In addition, there are too many things within the story that are far too convenient. The characters comment on this - "Surely this cannot be the SAME Speaker who spoke the Hive Queen and the Hegemon?" and so forth. There's a sense of over-importance to Ender's character that he has survived three-thousand years to create in a few days what generations of other humans were unable to accomplish.

I'm also a little perplexed about his take on women? On one had, he has female scientists and a female leader to the alien societies. However, all these women are easily overruled by their emotions and especially by the presence of Ender himself. Novinha, in particular, was a disappointment. Valentine, too, choses love over her intellectual pursuits. Maybe I'm reading into it too much, but at times it feels like Card is building a commentary to say that women are unable to be true intellectuals because of their inability to resist emotional drives?

I dunno. On an intellectual level I liked this, even though it was really slow-paced. On an emotional level (oh the irony) I found the pretentiousness to be a bit much. I also can't see this story going anywhere exciting, so I'm done with the Ender Saga. Doubly so since Orson Scott Card is openly and aggressively homophobic and I deeply disagree with his personal views.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Violence, Domestic abuse, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Child death and Dysphoria

Minor: Infertility