hiddenstar13 's review for:

Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card

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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.