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A review by jessicajane
Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
3.0
Speaker for the Dead is the sequel to Ender's Game but is written in quite a different style. It explores the relationship between humans and aliens more explicitly than in Ender's Game and asks a lot of complex questions about how to navigate relations between species that have wildly different views of morality, and even what constitutes the self. OSC clearly put a lot of thought into developing the race of piggies and they have a complex relationship with humanity. The whole concept is fascinating and OSC writes such dynamic, exciting plot lines. I also found it very interesting to think about how humanity would be governed when living on 100 different planets that are light years away from one another.
I have one criticism to make: the tension between the Speaker for the Dead and Catholic authorities on Lusitania is not very believable. The Speaker's role is to give a speech about the true character of the deceased, making no pretences about their flaws but also seeking to empathise with, and ultimately love, them. In the story this becomes a whole branch of philosophy. It is described as becoming a religion, but there is no evidence that the followers are appealing to (nor denying the existence of) any higher power. It's just a new branch of humanist thought that doesn't say anything about God and doesn't go against the teachings of the Church, so it doesn't make sense that the bishop feels so threatened by it.
The story's version of Catholicism also annoyed me because it has no substance. The word Catholic and the names of the religious leaders could have been replaced with any other mainstream religion and nothing about the story would have changed. I appreciate that the Catholic Church in 3000 years on another planet with sentient aliens wouldn't look anything like how it is today but it feels like the author just made it up as an afterthought and couldn't be bothered to flesh it out. It seems to be purely a narrative device to create some tension with a powerful authority but it's not particularly well done.
Other than that, I did enjoy it. In the intervening years between books 1 and 2, Ender only ages 20 ish years (due to space travel). Humanity has come to view Ender the Xenocide as the most evil person that ever lived, and many revere the original Speaker for the Dead. Nobody knows that they are, in fact, the same person and that he is still alive. This adds an interesting element and makes Ender perhaps even more isolated than before. His character is very well developed and feels believable. The character of Jane is fascinating (she's basically a sentient AI but not intentionally made by humans) and she felt so human in some ways but also not quite there, which I think was cleverly done.
All in all it was enjoyable and got a lot better as it went on, the religion bit was just a bit weird and unnecessary and distracted me from the actual story.
I have one criticism to make: the tension between the Speaker for the Dead and Catholic authorities on Lusitania is not very believable. The Speaker's role is to give a speech about the true character of the deceased, making no pretences about their flaws but also seeking to empathise with, and ultimately love, them. In the story this becomes a whole branch of philosophy. It is described as becoming a religion, but there is no evidence that the followers are appealing to (nor denying the existence of) any higher power. It's just a new branch of humanist thought that doesn't say anything about God and doesn't go against the teachings of the Church, so it doesn't make sense that the bishop feels so threatened by it.
The story's version of Catholicism also annoyed me because it has no substance. The word Catholic and the names of the religious leaders could have been replaced with any other mainstream religion and nothing about the story would have changed. I appreciate that the Catholic Church in 3000 years on another planet with sentient aliens wouldn't look anything like how it is today but it feels like the author just made it up as an afterthought and couldn't be bothered to flesh it out. It seems to be purely a narrative device to create some tension with a powerful authority but it's not particularly well done.
Other than that, I did enjoy it. In the intervening years between books 1 and 2, Ender only ages 20 ish years (due to space travel). Humanity has come to view Ender the Xenocide as the most evil person that ever lived, and many revere the original Speaker for the Dead. Nobody knows that they are, in fact, the same person and that he is still alive. This adds an interesting element and makes Ender perhaps even more isolated than before. His character is very well developed and feels believable. The character of Jane is fascinating (she's basically a sentient AI but not intentionally made by humans) and she felt so human in some ways but also not quite there, which I think was cleverly done.
All in all it was enjoyable and got a lot better as it went on, the religion bit was just a bit weird and unnecessary and distracted me from the actual story.