Speaker for the Dead

I can fully understand why some people that loved Ender's Game were disappointed in this book. Going from a very war-driven tense book to this one that focuses on Ender trying to make up for the past and the moral issues that go with wiping out a species is a big jump. I personally loved this one and Ender's Game.

My biggest gripe with this book would be that Novinha, the main female character, fell kind of flat for me. She lost her parents at a young age after they found a cure for the disease that was wiping out their whole colony, and then isolated herself completely from everyone while following in her parent's footsteps. And this is what makes Ender fall in love with her. Other than occasional mentions of her discoveries, she's a very plain character that seems to mostly be there for Ender's story to move along.

Overall did enjoy it and will likely continue with the series until I lose interest in it.

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:

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.

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.

This was my favorite of the Ender books. Really, really good.