Speaker for the Dead
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4.5 • 2K Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
In the aftermath of his terrible war, Ender Wiggin disappeared, and a powerful voice arose: The Speaker for the Dead, who told the true story of the Bugger War.
Now, long years later, a second alien race has been discovered, but again the aliens' ways are strange and frightening...again, humans die. And it is only the Speaker for the Dead, who is also Ender Wiggin the Xenocide, who has the courage to confront the mystery...and the truth. Speaker for the Dead, the second novel in Orson Scott Card's Ender Quintet, is the winner of the 1986 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 1987 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
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PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Card's novel Ender's Game introduced Ender Wiggin, a young genius who used his military prowess to all but exterminate the "buggers,'' the first alien race mankind had ever encountered. Wiggin then transformed himself into the ``Speaker for the Dead,'' who claimed it had been a mistake to destroy the alien civilization. Many years later, when a new breed of intelligent life forms called the ``piggies'' is discovered, Wiggin takes the opportunity to atone for his earlier actions. This long, rich and ambitious novel views the interplay between the races from the differing perspectives of the colonists, ethnologists, biologists, clergy, politicians, a computer artificial intelligence, the lone surviving bugger and the piggies themselves. Card is very good at portraying his characters in these larger, social, religious and cultural contexts. It's unfortunate, then, that many of the book's mysteries and dilemmas seem created just to display Ender's supposedly godlike understanding. A fine, if overlong, novel nonetheless.
Customer Reviews
A great second book
Speaker for the dead, as everyone who has read Ender's Game cover to cover knows, is centered around something, that occurred at the very end of the first book, the writing of the Hive Queen and the Hegemon. Ender takes the star role once again, this time not as the xenocide, but as The Speaker for the Dead. All in all there is significantly less action in comparison to the first book, but those who didn't read it for the action will be pleased to find there is no lack of philosophic matters. (For those looking for more action in the Enderverse, Might I recommend the Ender's Shadow series), All and all its a very dedicated sequel, and I will be reading the next as soon as I can get my hands on it.
TRULY TERRIBLE
Ender’s Game was great, this was terrible. I am not going to read anymore of this Quintet. It was slow and boring. At the end - I was left with is that it!? Card should have put the foreign language in English, it made it confusing for no appaent reason, and not able to fully comprehend the dialogue. Possibly the worst book, I have ever read. I cannot understand the positive reviews for this book.
Top 5 Books Ever
As the title says this is easily in my top 5 list of all time books. Orson Scott Card's original plan for this series didn't include Ender's Game. He only wrote that books because he realized that the series would be confusing without it. This book is wonderfully written and is the right mix of action and story. In ut OSC creates an amazing storyline where all the characters connect and flow well together. My favorite book(s) by OSC. The rest of the series Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind. The evolution of Ender's character is amazing and written beautifully. Wonderful work Orson Scott Card.