Speaker for the Dead

by Orson Scott Card

416 pages

English language

Published Nov. 13, 1988

ISBN:: 978-0-8125-2015-6
Goodreads:: 2108074

(41 reviews)

Speaker for the Dead is a 1986 science fiction novel by American writer Orson Scott Card, an indirect sequel to the 1985 novel Ender's Game. The book takes place around the year 5270, some 3,000 years after the events in Ender's Game. However because of relativistic space travel at near-light speed Ender himself is only about 35 years old. This is the first book to describe the Starways Congress, a high standpoint legislation for the human space colonies, and the Hundred Worlds, the planets with human colonies that are tightly intertwined by Ansible technology which enables instantaneous communication across any distance. Like Ender's Game, the book won the Nebula Award in 1986 and the Hugo Award in 1987. Speaker for the Dead was published in a slightly revised edition in 1991. It was followed by Xenocide and Children of the Mind.

9 editions

bungakumi reviewed Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card

Review of 'Speaker for the Dead' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Oh, this book is so good. I didn't think it'd be possible for it to be so good when the first one is perfect. But this book is perfect, too.

Ender is so damaged. I cried a lot for him. He blames himself for everything and he feels so bad for what he did that most of the time it was heart-breaking
Every time he cried or felt lonely I was like

And I came to love Novinha's family like I never thought I would. And even liked the piggies, who knows how.

God, this book was so awesome, so deep, so sad.

But I loved it like I loved Ender's Game. I loved it so much.

This is how proud I am for Ender:

ASquareClaire reviewed Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card

Review of 'Speaker for the Dead' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

If you want to read these books along the Enderverse timeline, don't crack Speaker until you get into the Shadow series. This one is far ahead time-wise, and contains some references with spoilers for the Shadow books.

Also, this is not supposed to be children's literature. If you're looking for mindless candy-lit, try something else.

Billie Thompson reviewed Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card

Review of 'Speaker for the Dead' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

TL;DR Good setting, good plot opportunities, most of which are kind of ruined by Ender being a superhero.

Read this a few years after reading Enders Game, because people telling me I really needed to read it. It was okay, but it falls into the trap that always seems to happen after a writer creates a Hero that has succeeded over their first big adversity. We always get this superman character that can do no wrong - in this case Ender.

It had some interesting problems, like the fractured family Ender comes to speak for, but this isn't really explored as they that all instantly love him, rather him having to work for it. He leaves his sister at the beginning then at the end she just calls him up as if he hasn't been away for half her life. Even the alien little ones, rather than having Ender struggle to understand them, he instantly integrates into their society. Even have the possible exploration of the problems of love between an AI and Humans, with Ender and Jenny, reduces Jenny to a Deus Ex Machina.

On the other hand, the alien life cycles are quite interesting, the over-arching politics between the colony and the rest of the human populous are quite fun to see develop.