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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
I remember reading this (or maybe the next book in the series) back in high school and thinking it was dreadfully boring. I don't understand that opinion at all. Sure, it's not as overtly conflict-heavy as Ender's Game, but it is so much deeper. Ender's Game grapples with pew-pew space lasers. Speaker grapples with what it means to be a person. It's a genius move that the central conflict of the book boils down to "do we put these aliens in the category of strangerhood that includes people or doesn't?" It means that learning about them is learning about us and it's great
Not nearly as gripping as Ender's Game, The Speaker for the Dead does, however, show you what happens to Ender after his "victory" over the Buggers: history labels Ender a "genocide" while The Speaker for the Dead spawns a secular religion, one that the very-much-alive-thanks-to-faster-than-light-travel Ender is an itinerant speaker for. Having entered into an unprecedented period of peace, humanity quickly devolves into a potential genocidal state when faced with a challenge infinitely smaller than the buggers represented, and so Ender must once again step in to save humanity--this time from itself. There are some good musings on the nature of violence, religion, and The Other, but for those people captivated by the psychology of child genius found in Ender's Game (which he wrote so that he could have a background for this book), well, you may be disappointed.
Not quite as riveting as Ender's Game, this is still a very good book again illustrating Card's strengths in examining the gray areas between right and wrong that inevitably (and often tragically) surface between different cultures.
This was amazing. Cool postcolonial exploration of encountering the other, but in space. Kant and Levinas would be proud. My only problem with this book was that Novinha was a character in the first part of the book, but became less of a character and more of a plot point as the book went on. I hope that she resumes her character status as the series progresses. I guess I'll see. Highly recommended. By me.
Would've been a 5 if there isn't so much suffering.
Ender’s Game provided a flooring insight into human desire for survival and power, as well as military strategy, relationships between enemies (perceived or real), and child exploitation. Speaker for the Dead is such a departure in that it focuses on the very concept of culture, how biology affects culture, and how— through genuine desire for understanding— one group may come to love and grow with their enemies. Anyone with an interest in biology, anthropology, linguistics, or just amazing story-telling should read this book.
More like 3.5 stars. Is no Ender's Game, but is still really good, and much better than when I read it for the first time 12 years ago. Is a very different type of plot from Ender's Game and is more character focused, but I enjoyed it immensely.
My favorite of the series. The idea of speaking truth for those who have passed on is so compelling to me. After I read it I decided I wanted a speaker at my funeral.
Same disclaimer as before: Orson Scott Card is a jerk. I choose not to benefit him monetarily. I got the audiobook from the library.
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Speaker for the Dead is probably in my top 10 favorite books. When I first read it in high school, it was not so much that it informed my concept of humanity, but resonated with it. I wish that OSC's own character could confront him and Speak him, even before his death, so that he could see himself as completely as he saw his characters when he wrote this book in 1986.
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Speaker for the Dead is probably in my top 10 favorite books. When I first read it in high school, it was not so much that it informed my concept of humanity, but resonated with it. I wish that OSC's own character could confront him and Speak him, even before his death, so that he could see himself as completely as he saw his characters when he wrote this book in 1986.