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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
Well it took me an entire year to read this book. Mainly the first 45 pages are boring and hard to get into, but once I pushed past that (no easy feat...I read the first 45 pages 3 times I think), the book got much more interesting. I think Card did a great job of setting up this multi-generational mystery and it had a satisfying ending. I like that he tied up all but one loose end (gotta make way for the sequel).
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
After enjoying the first book in this series, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I enjoyed the second book equally as much, if not more than the first. The issues have grown along with the story and the author's exploration of human nature through his characters is thought-provoking and engaging. Beyond that, though, it's exciting and fun to read!
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
This book is hard to review, because I had a hard time reading it at first. It's the second in the Ender's Game series and continues to follow Ender Wiggins (now Andrew Wiggins) some 3000 years after the events in Enders Game.
It takes place, mainly, on a planet where only the second sentient species in the universe has been found, called The Piggies. After a member of the human colony living on the planet is killed by the Piggies, Andrew is called to speak his death. Which means, to learn about the man's life, figure out why he died and what his true story was (who he really was as a person).
The story really started, for me, once Ender arrived on the planet (some 22 years after the man's death - space travel is not instantaneous, as humans can only travel near the speed of light). The beginning of the story is basically backstory... explaining human's first contact with the piggies, and the mentality of the humans at the time. It helps to have read Ender's Game, simply so you can understand who Ender is, what he's been through in his life, and why the people decide to keep distance from the piggies (while attempting to learn about them at the same time).
I would recommend this book to anyone who's read Ender's Game, or would like to see what an alien life "could" look like. One of the nicest things for me about this story was just how different, and yet how similar, the Piggies are to humans. It's nice to read a story about aliens that hasn't made them into scary green things, or creatures just like ourselves.
It takes place, mainly, on a planet where only the second sentient species in the universe has been found, called The Piggies. After a member of the human colony living on the planet is killed by the Piggies, Andrew is called to speak his death. Which means, to learn about the man's life, figure out why he died and what his true story was (who he really was as a person).
The story really started, for me, once Ender arrived on the planet (some 22 years after the man's death - space travel is not instantaneous, as humans can only travel near the speed of light). The beginning of the story is basically backstory... explaining human's first contact with the piggies, and the mentality of the humans at the time. It helps to have read Ender's Game, simply so you can understand who Ender is, what he's been through in his life, and why the people decide to keep distance from the piggies (while attempting to learn about them at the same time).
I would recommend this book to anyone who's read Ender's Game, or would like to see what an alien life "could" look like. One of the nicest things for me about this story was just how different, and yet how similar, the Piggies are to humans. It's nice to read a story about aliens that hasn't made them into scary green things, or creatures just like ourselves.
It's been quite a while since I read Ender's game, I think 8 years or more? I really liked it, liked the military bits and the dream sequences, enjoyed the twist.
I also remember finding the sudden change of tone and pace in the ending kind of weird: the Hive queen lives on? Ender writes an extended eulogy? It felt a bit thrown in and preachy so I put off reading this, which from the title alone builds on that epilogue, until a few weeks ago when a colleague lent it to me.
And it's great! Most of the preachiness is spread out between a new-world story and a murder-mystery style romp.
The plot moves fast and the characters are likeable - except Novinha. I had a pretty hard time keeping track of all of the various children, especially the ones with the Q names (definitely thought they were the same person with different nicknames for a while), but got the general idea.
The bits that really worked for me were the murder-mystery: learning more about the piggies and the biology of Lusitania, the various alliances in the village. Most of these latter aspects are easy to guess relatively early on - but it's only near the end where you really hear all the details of how piggy society works and it's worth sticking around for.
What made this 4 instead of 5 stars for me then was the characters. They're all a little one-dimensional. They sound fleshed out on paper: Ender is making amends for both xenocide and a lost childhood, his experiences have lent him a great deal of empathy. Novinha grows up an orphan, twice over, and believes herself to be responsible for the deaths of those who love her so pulls herself and those around her into an (oddly catholic) endless loop of punishment and self-hate. But there's so little nuance to these characters: Ender is so infinitely patient that abused children overcome years of selective mutism after only a few hours in his presence! I found it hard to believe some of these characters were real people by then end.
But look, it's a minor flaw in an excellent book. This is pretty soft sci-fi, very interaction focused, immensely readable.
I think you need to read Ender's Game first to get all the little references but it feels like a different genre of book entirely and you can probably jump straight in after just reading the Ender's Game wiki synopsis if military sci-fi isn't your thing.
Recommended.
I also remember finding the sudden change of tone and pace in the ending kind of weird: the Hive queen lives on? Ender writes an extended eulogy? It felt a bit thrown in and preachy so I put off reading this, which from the title alone builds on that epilogue, until a few weeks ago when a colleague lent it to me.
And it's great! Most of the preachiness is spread out between a new-world story and a murder-mystery style romp.
The plot moves fast and the characters are likeable - except Novinha. I had a pretty hard time keeping track of all of the various children, especially the ones with the Q names (definitely thought they were the same person with different nicknames for a while), but got the general idea.
The bits that really worked for me were the murder-mystery: learning more about the piggies and the biology of Lusitania, the various alliances in the village. Most of these latter aspects are easy to guess relatively early on - but it's only near the end where you really hear all the details of how piggy society works and it's worth sticking around for.
What made this 4 instead of 5 stars for me then was the characters. They're all a little one-dimensional. They sound fleshed out on paper: Ender is making amends for both xenocide and a lost childhood, his experiences have lent him a great deal of empathy. Novinha grows up an orphan, twice over, and believes herself to be responsible for the deaths of those who love her so pulls herself and those around her into an (oddly catholic) endless loop of punishment and self-hate. But there's so little nuance to these characters: Ender is so infinitely patient that abused children overcome years of selective mutism after only a few hours in his presence! I found it hard to believe some of these characters were real people by then end.
But look, it's a minor flaw in an excellent book. This is pretty soft sci-fi, very interaction focused, immensely readable.
I think you need to read Ender's Game first to get all the little references but it feels like a different genre of book entirely and you can probably jump straight in after just reading the Ender's Game wiki synopsis if military sci-fi isn't your thing.
Recommended.
Awesome story. A lot of the reviews complain about Card getting preachy. As an Atheist I felt like he was giving me a glimpse of the ultra religious mindset. I noticed a bunch of inconsistencies but they didn't affect the flow of the story, and they were almost all minor enough to forget right away.
Orson Scott Card has said that Speaker for the Dead is the book he always "meant to write" and that the only reason he wrote Ender's Game was as a "prequel," so he felt a little baffled when Ender's Game ended up becoming his most famous and most read work. After reading Speaker for the Dead, I understand where he's coming from. The complexity of issues tackled in Speaker for the Dead are much deeper than those in Ender; likewise, the cultures and worlds explored through Speaker are much more intricate. One thing I love about Orson Scott Card -- which I somehow always end up forgetting when I'm not reading him -- is that, despite the fact that he writes fairly "hard science fiction," his stories are still completely character driven. Unlike many SF writers, he spends as much time developing his characters as he spends developing his society, and the result is a compelling book regardless of the plot. (Heck, I even enjoyed Ender's Shadow, which basically had the same plot as Ender's Game except told from a different character's perspective.)
Despite my enjoyment of the book, there were a few things that annoyed me. Although Orson Scott Card's characters are well-developed, the female characters seemed to have less complexity; in particular, the principle female character spent about 3/4 of the book wallowing in her own self-pity. This may endear her to male readers with a knight-in-shining-armor complex (as, indeed, it endeared her to Ender), but as a female reader I wanted her to just get over it already. Orson Scott Card seems to play the female moral superiority card even as he grapples with some real ambivalence about female leadership -- the female leaders in this book were either veiled tyrants (whom Ender felt compelled to put in their place) or rendered ineffective as leaders the moment Ender burst on the scene. Finally, Ender himself is a main character in this book whom you're almost tempted to despise just because the author is so clearly in love with him. But truth be told, that didn't keep me from being a little enamored with him, myself -- although the "piggies," an alien race introduced in this book -- held my heart and my attention most completely.
Despite my enjoyment of the book, there were a few things that annoyed me. Although Orson Scott Card's characters are well-developed, the female characters seemed to have less complexity; in particular, the principle female character spent about 3/4 of the book wallowing in her own self-pity. This may endear her to male readers with a knight-in-shining-armor complex (as, indeed, it endeared her to Ender), but as a female reader I wanted her to just get over it already. Orson Scott Card seems to play the female moral superiority card even as he grapples with some real ambivalence about female leadership -- the female leaders in this book were either veiled tyrants (whom Ender felt compelled to put in their place) or rendered ineffective as leaders the moment Ender burst on the scene. Finally, Ender himself is a main character in this book whom you're almost tempted to despise just because the author is so clearly in love with him. But truth be told, that didn't keep me from being a little enamored with him, myself -- although the "piggies," an alien race introduced in this book -- held my heart and my attention most completely.
2017
Listened to the audiobook, and thought it was very well narrated! I haven't been a fan in the past of multiple narrators (like a whole cast), but I thought this was done in big enough chunks and the readers were great.
My memories of this book were pretty faint, so it was fun to re-read and remember. While I understood a bit better the big topics and overall what was happening (better than when I was 16ish), I did have some problems:
- there was a bit of insta-love between Ender and pretty much everybody. I know he is supposed to be super compassionate and empathetic and that he feels that he "loves" someone as soon as he "knows" them, but it was a bit odd to read, and felt way too fast on everyone's part. The children love him in just a few sentences and are super trusting of him. He and Novhinia have like 2 conversations together in the whole book, yet they love each other and marry at the end?
- The piggies were cool, if a bit dense. I understand that the xenologers were using anthropological guidelines and following careful strict rules to not explain too much human culture and stuff to the piggies, but I felt like it was super weird to read, there were so many times when I was thinking "why didn't they ask the piggies?" To me, this felt like a plot device in the same way that some farces have everyone not quite talking to each other and it leads to hilarious misunderstandings, when two lines of dialogue and strait-talk would clear everything up.
- I liked the character of Jane quite a bit, even if believing in her is the biggest suspension of disbelief in the whole book. I was very frustrated that she was so petty and distant to Ender after he shut her off. I understand it was a betrayal, it just felt childish. And maybe it's because I've never felt such a betrayal in my life, but this was dramatic and a way to connect Jane/foist Jane off onto Miro.
Listened to the audiobook, and thought it was very well narrated! I haven't been a fan in the past of multiple narrators (like a whole cast), but I thought this was done in big enough chunks and the readers were great.
My memories of this book were pretty faint, so it was fun to re-read and remember. While I understood a bit better the big topics and overall what was happening (better than when I was 16ish), I did have some problems:
Spoiler
- there was a bit of insta-love between Ender and pretty much everybody. I know he is supposed to be super compassionate and empathetic and that he feels that he "loves" someone as soon as he "knows" them, but it was a bit odd to read, and felt way too fast on everyone's part. The children love him in just a few sentences and are super trusting of him. He and Novhinia have like 2 conversations together in the whole book, yet they love each other and marry at the end?
- The piggies were cool, if a bit dense. I understand that the xenologers were using anthropological guidelines and following careful strict rules to not explain too much human culture and stuff to the piggies, but I felt like it was super weird to read, there were so many times when I was thinking "why didn't they ask the piggies?" To me, this felt like a plot device in the same way that some farces have everyone not quite talking to each other and it leads to hilarious misunderstandings, when two lines of dialogue and strait-talk would clear everything up.
- I liked the character of Jane quite a bit, even if believing in her is the biggest suspension of disbelief in the whole book. I was very frustrated that she was so petty and distant to Ender after he shut her off. I understand it was a betrayal, it just felt childish. And maybe it's because I've never felt such a betrayal in my life, but this was dramatic and a way to connect Jane/foist Jane off onto Miro.