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malloray's review
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.
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Incest, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Domestic abuse
storyorc's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-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
5.0
As with Paul Atreides, you haven't done Ender justice until you've read his sequel. Speaker for the Dead differs in setting, cast, and pace, but it retains the human heart and takes its time to reckon with a version of humanity that survived - thrived - off of technology won from xenocide. The narrative doesn't pull punches or excuse Ender, despite how he was manipulated, but nor does it leave him to wriggle on the hook of his own guilt. This reckoning is mournful, but productive, much like the duties of a Speaker.
Over everything, Speaker is an ode to empathy. It stands unashamed in its endorsement of the Saturday morning cartoon friendship-is-magic style of empathy, but also extends and deepens that to acknowledge how painful and difficult it can be to reveal truth and still choose understanding over hatred. Perhaps it's not realistic, but it's optimistic enough to suggest it could be. If nothing else, every chapter makes it more irreconcilable that this attitude of relentless, courageous kindness was penned by someone who campaigned against gay marriage.
The appetite for sci-fi is also well and truly filled by the mystery of a new alien species, the 'piggies', who kick off the plot with ritualistic murder of a human, putting humanity's lofty ideas of remorse for their xenocide to the test as well as calling into question how moral a Prime Directive-esque policy of non-intervention actually is. Card has obviously devoted great thought to their species and culture, and doles out hints as well as any murder-mystery author.
Of course, none of us are perfect. Orson Scott Card remains one of the worst namers in SFF, adding "piggy" and "ramen" aliens to a lexicon already burdened with "bugger".
Over everything, Speaker is an ode to empathy. It stands unashamed in its endorsement of the Saturday morning cartoon friendship-is-magic style of empathy, but also extends and deepens that to acknowledge how painful and difficult it can be to reveal truth and still choose understanding over hatred. Perhaps it's not realistic, but it's optimistic enough to suggest it could be. If nothing else, every chapter makes it more irreconcilable that this attitude of relentless, courageous kindness was penned by someone who campaigned against gay marriage.
The appetite for sci-fi is also well and truly filled by the mystery of a new alien species, the 'piggies', who kick off the plot with ritualistic murder of a human, putting humanity's lofty ideas of remorse for their xenocide to the test as well as calling into question how moral a Prime Directive-esque policy of non-intervention actually is. Card has obviously devoted great thought to their species and culture, and doles out hints as well as any murder-mystery author.
Of course, none of us are perfect. Orson Scott Card remains one of the worst namers in SFF, adding "piggy" and "ramen" aliens to a lexicon already burdened with "bugger".
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Incest
Minor: Religious bigotry and Homophobia
Outside the general theme of love, Christian doctrine is very prevalent - the setting is a Catholic colony - and many Christians are shown to be wise or correct, but equally they have faults and there are upstanding atheists too. || At one point homosexuality is dismissed uncritically as ridiculous. || Plenty of strong women characters but also yet another classic sci-fi book where the females of the alien race arelebolt's review
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death of parent, Grief, Xenophobia, Domestic abuse, Murder, and Religious bigotry
kbkbkbkbkb's review
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
0.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism
Moderate: Religious bigotry
Lots of sexism.jessthanthree's review
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent and Child death
Moderate: Torture, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, and Domestic abuse
Minor: Cultural appropriation
nrogers_1030's review
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
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
bookcaptivated's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Death, Death of parent, Infidelity, Blood, and Grief
Moderate: Colonisation, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Alcoholism
Minor: Infertility, War, Religious bigotry, and Body horror
runitsthepopo's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
This book was so beautiful. I picked it up because I loved Ender's Game, I stayed for the mystery of the piggies, but I cried for the beautiful relationship between the piggies and the humans.
Speaker for the Dead: 4.75/5 stars
My few criticisms are that it took a long while for things to pick up, and I still don't understand why Miro was given the story that he was, unless there's a sequel involving him that I'm not aware of. At the end, it seemed everyone was given a happy ending aside from him.
Speaker for the Dead: 4.75/5 stars
My few criticisms are that it took a long while for things to pick up, and I still don't understand why Miro was given the story that he was, unless there's a sequel involving him that I'm not aware of. At the end, it seemed everyone was given a happy ending aside from him.
"They're afraid of the same thing you fear, when you look up and see the stars fill up with humans They're afraid that someday they'll come to a world and find that you have got there first."
"We don't want to be there first," said Human. We want to be there too."
And that's when I stared at the page for a good half-minute, struck by how much I was feeling. It didn't stop there. I continued tearing up when the piggies learned that Libo and Pipo were in pain as they died, when they cried out in grief because they realized that their honored friends had spent their last moments in fear, when Ender is told that he'll have to kill again, that he'll have to kill Human, when Human embraces the gift Ender gives him, consoling Ender with the fact that he'll be living his third life, the life of light. When Ender admits to himself that Human will still be dead to him, no matter the facts.
The piggies are so undoubtedly alien. The mystery of their culture and biology was the biggest driving force for my reading the early parts of the book. But during their first meeting with Ender, they come alive. They are still alien, but so painfully human too.
And that's the point, I suppose. The narrative keeps coming at you with the Hierarchy of Foreignness, with the question of "Are the piggies ramen or varelse?" You continue to ask yourself, at what point do the piggies become sentient, mature creatures? But in one chapter, you realize that it was never a question of how advanced their society was, but a question of "At what point will humans see themselves in the piggies?"
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death and Colonisation
Moderate: Abandonment, Ableism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Incest, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, and Xenophobia
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Blood, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Genocide, Infertility, Pregnancy, Racism, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship
bencaroline's review
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
This book's author is a bigot. The book is extremely influential in the sci-fi genre, for good reason, but it MUST be discussed within the context of a hateful author.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore and Death of parent
Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Infertility, Medical content, Murder, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Sexism, and Xenophobia
Minor: Sexual violence, Ableism, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Animal cruelty, and Genocide
beachbuddy's review
hopeful
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? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse
Moderate: Body horror, Death, and Genocide
Minor: Religious bigotry
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