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A review by blanktape
Speaker for the Dead: Book 2 of the Ender Saga by Orson Scott Card
4.0
This book starts very different from Ender's Game. A new planet, new aliens. Ender's environment and thus himself have changed enough, and barely any other characters return in Speaker for the Dead. That is wonderful. Even better are the new characters, whose secrets Ender sets out to reveal. Ender's relationship with members of the Ribeira family through revealing the secrets they kept from one another is the best introduction to a cast one can wish for. Every scene is full of conflict, and still, Card convinced me that the Ribeira family needs and loves Ender. Card writing is easy to read and shows a very detailed view of his character's minds.
It would have been a five star rating, but the ending wasn't nearly as strong. After the Ribeira family came to love Ender, all resistance to him and his plan was gone. The 3 figures of the authorities of Lusitania who caused conflict up until his speaking of Marco decided Ender was a hero from there on. Even the Piggies, who were the antagonists to the humans, loved Ender before they met him.
Card so desperately wanted Ender to be the hero for this book, he didn't let Ender make any difficult decisions, left conflict out of the final third of the book, and ruined the climax.
It should have ended with at least one party opposing Ender's plan to rebel against the rest of humanity, and at least one party that would try to keep Ender from reviving the Buggers. Instead we got a stale we love Ender chant.
It would have been a five star rating, but the ending wasn't nearly as strong. After the Ribeira family came to love Ender, all resistance to him and his plan was gone. The 3 figures of the authorities of Lusitania who caused conflict up until his speaking of Marco decided Ender was a hero from there on. Even the Piggies, who were the antagonists to the humans, loved Ender before they met him.
Card so desperately wanted Ender to be the hero for this book, he didn't let Ender make any difficult decisions, left conflict out of the final third of the book, and ruined the climax.
It should have ended with at least one party opposing Ender's plan to rebel against the rest of humanity, and at least one party that would try to keep Ender from reviving the Buggers. Instead we got a stale we love Ender chant.