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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
Another great read in the Ender's series. The story holds up surprisingly well for 30ish year old sic fi. Looking forward to the next one.
Another story of Ender Wiggin, the Xenocide. I actually preferred this book to Ender's Game. It delved a lot deeper into the philosophy of human preservation and interaction but not only with each other but with other sentient species - both ramen and varelse. This book really upped the debate with the introduction of religion both human and alien. Again very though-provoking.
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Poco da dire. Nonostante cambino molto il mood, l'ambientazione e anche i personaggi, lo stile rimane avvincente al punto giusto.
Forse l'unica critica è sul portoghese, usato dai personaggi in parecchie occasioni, e non sempre tradotto (almeno nella mia edizione) o comprensibile.
Forse l'unica critica è sul portoghese, usato dai personaggi in parecchie occasioni, e non sempre tradotto (almeno nella mia edizione) o comprensibile.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
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:
Yes
The 5 stars I give this book are for the way I felt about it just this past week. I first read the book in middle school, maybe 11-12 years old. I thought it was interesting but difficult back then. Now as I'm getting back into fiction at 24, rereading this book has been *the* highlight of my reading journey so far. Orson Scott Card is not by any means a poetic mind at the prose level. I thought that's something I would miss, but his work doesn't need it. Instead, the beauty of the writing is purely conceptual and shown to us through a still-masterful "clean window" of prose. Speaker for the Dead is a compelling exploration of the power in speaking openly and honestly and even starkly about difficult things, and the folly entailed in refusing to do so. Admittedly, the themes already agree with me. I understand that sometimes people get overly excited about competent art that communicates their own philosophies, so consider that you may not be as endeared. I won't pretend this is an airtight work of applied ethics. I don't read fiction for the reasons I read academic papers, and neither should you. But from my perspective it shows something true about truth, and it shows it beautifully.
The Mystery of the Pequenino's (the intelligent tribal alien species) is also very entertaining. If Knives Out and Glass Onion are masterful whodunnits, then Speaker for the Dead is a masterful whydunnit. Ok, to be fair I don't know the first thing about whodunnit quality, but my point is that Card crafts an intricate underlying logic for the at first baffling behavior of the Pequenino's that is de-onioned throughout the story, and you'll be racking your brain trying to come up with your own theories the whole way. And graciously, Card allows the characters to be just slow enough that we can sometimes reach insights just a step or two before our characters so we can feel smart too.
I am reading Xenocide now, So i'll review that soon
The Mystery of the Pequenino's (the intelligent tribal alien species) is also very entertaining. If Knives Out and Glass Onion are masterful whodunnits, then Speaker for the Dead is a masterful whydunnit. Ok, to be fair I don't know the first thing about whodunnit quality, but my point is that Card crafts an intricate underlying logic for the at first baffling behavior of the Pequenino's that is de-onioned throughout the story, and you'll be racking your brain trying to come up with your own theories the whole way. And graciously, Card allows the characters to be just slow enough that we can sometimes reach insights just a step or two before our characters so we can feel smart too.
I am reading Xenocide now, So i'll review that soon
Don't give up on this book just because of the slow beginning! I've never started a sequel that felt so unrelated to the first book. It is a totally different vibe, but a beautiful story once you survive the first 50 or so pages.
I remember reading Ender’s Game and enjoying it - a fun sci-fi romp for the most part with a devastating moral twist towards the end and undercurrents of political world-building. So I finally decided to embark on Speaker for the Dead, which I’ve been putting off because a) Card is a massive homophobe and that sucks and b) it didn’t look like as much fun. And it’s true, Speaker for the Dead is less fun than Ender’s Game but what it lacks in fun it makes up for in sophistication. I really enjoyed the way that the mysteries unravelled and the way that every character’s humanity was explored and uncovered (even the non-human characters). It was also interesting how religion plays a massive role throughout the novel but it never comes across as either a criticism or an endorsement of religion, at least not that stood out to me in any major way. I don’t think I’ll be pursuing the other novels in the series but I did enjoy this one. I might watch the Ender’s Game movie.
So very different from Ender's Game! While good, it didn't pull me in the same way that Ender's Game did. However, I did like that this book took on more philosophical/ethical issues than EG. My rating is 4/5, mostly because I finished it yesterday and I still find my thoughts constantly drifting back to the characters in the novel, which to me is the mark of a good book.