peregrinette 's review for:

Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card

1.0

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genre-wise, this is entirely different from ender’s game so i get why it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but as someone who once seriously considered a sociology/anthropology major, this was fun. i’m really impressed with card’s ability to juggle so many characters and their respective arcs, clearly and empathetically showing how their stories intertwine but also keeping each character distinct—the Ribiera family in particular is great here, though the same sentiment also applies to his writing on the piggies. i do think card sacrificed some of the (honestly devastating) emotional depth of the first book in exchange for a wider cast of characters, narrators, and generally more fleshed out world building, so this one—while still highly intelligent and beautifully tragic at times—still didn’t hit quite so hard as EG. which was fine! it’s a trade off that worked for me.

also, it is genuinely astonishing to me that card wrote an entire book about the practice of understanding, empathy, and love and is somehow still a raging bigot. make it make sense!!

4 stars for the book and no stars for OSC.