Reviews

Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card

ols_333's review against another edition

adventurous challenging reflective 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? Yes

4.0

brendalovesbooks's review

5.0

I'm trying to read through all my old favorites to see if they're still favorites. I still loved this one, although I'm not sure if I had read it for the first time today if it would still be a favorite. But maybe.

I still had a hard time putting it down. I love the characters, I got a bit teary, and I still think it's a meaningful book. Nothing like Ender's Game (my all-time favorite book), but still a great book for fans of Ender.

joeymcshea's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

goslin's review

4.0

No rating yet, still processing. But I did like it quite a bit for the ethnographical aspects.

haligon_ian's review

adventurous reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

dietzt23's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense 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? No

4.5

mystiktrance's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? Yes

4.5

marygeer's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring 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: Incest

badseedgirl's review

4.0

Speaker for The Dead is the second book in the Ender Wiggins Saga by Orson Scott Card. It was the 1987 Hugo winner. The voice and tone of this novel is vastly different from that of Ender’s Game, but this is to be expected. Ender’s Game was the story of a child trained and tricked into fighting a war against an enemy he did not know or understand. At the end of this first novel, Ender comes to understand the motivations of the “Buggers” and realizes that he has almost killed an entire civilization over a misunderstanding. In Speaker for The Dead, a grown up Ender must confront and come to terms with what he did. It would be only natural for the tone of the novel become more internal and introspective.

I enjoyed this novel as much or even more than Ender’s Game. The world building is wonderful. It was smart to move the storyline 3,000 years after the events of the first novel. This gave much more validity to the change in attitudes towards what Ender did in the first novel.

I am looking forward to the next novel in the series.

4 of 5 stars.

roseleaf24's review

4.0

I'm so glad I'm finally taking the chance to read more of the Ender books. This was so good. I found it slow at the beginning, but Card writes himself storylines where he has to build a completely new world or two each book, and he really does that masterfully. The exploration of space and time, as well as the possibilities on other planets, was fascinating, but above all the characters were full and the plot was rich.