Speaker for the Dead (Ender Saga, #2)

by Orson Scott Card

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.

THE ENDER UNIVERSE

Ender series
Ender's Game / Ender in Exile / Speaker for the Dead / Xenocide / Children of the Mind

Ender's Shadow series
Ender's Shadow / Shadow of the Hegemon / Shadow Puppets / Shadow of the Giant / Shadows in Flight

Children of the Fleet

The First Formic War (with Aaron Johnston)
Earth Unaware / Earth Afire / Earth Awakens

The Second Formic War (with Aaron Johnston)
The Swarm /The Hive

Ender novellas
A War of Gifts /First Meetings

• ISBN10: 0812550757
• ISBN13: 9780812550757
• Publish Date: 15 August 1994 (first published 15 February 1987)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 13 July 2011
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Tor Books
• Edition: Revised Mass Market ed
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 382
• Language: English

Reviews

The audiobook felt a little schizophrenic. There were a number of different narrators tuning in to contribute in ways that felt disjointed for reasons I could never fully understand. I think it was due to the way different chapters were told from different points of view but without tagging hinting at the charact at a given point. Added to that, there were excerpts from legal and public records that, while interesting and insightful, were not tagged in a way that made them instantly understandable when something unusual was happening from a storytelling perspective.

That aside, this was a very different experience when compared to Ender's Game. The interview at the end of the book explains this. The author originally had this book in mind when he created the series. Ender's Game was the story that had to be told before this book could be written. Interesting that Ender's Game ended up being the smash hit of the series.

This book is well worth the read. Just don't go into expecting Ender's Game Part II.

A big departure from Ender's Game but nonetheless an enjoyable read. I'd recommend it if you're into the Ender-verse. I haven't been in it for a while so it was nice to go back.

[dokie80]

I like book #1 better. but still good.

[adamfortuna]

Just as good if not better than Enders Game. A very different story, but I can see why this won a Hugo award for best novel. I was impressed that OSC was able to draw us into a completely different world for Ender and still empathize with the characters.

[empressbrooke]

After reading [book:Ender's Game] and falling in love with everything but its last chapter, I was hesitant about reading Speaker for the Dead. After the awesomeness of Battle School, did I really want to read a whole book that was spawned from that jarringly philosophical ending? I'm glad I did, because I'm almost ready to say that Speaker totally kick Ender's Game's butt.

I abandoned all the rest of the plans I had for the evening to read this in one sitting. There aren't any armies of children or exciting battles, but Ender uses his classic get-into-everyone's-heads tactics and helps a colony unravel the mysteries of its citizens and an alien species that kills two of the colony's anthropologists.

My only regret is that I didn't read this series earlier.