Speaker For The Dead by Orson Scott Card

"When she called for the Speaker for the Dead, she had wanted him to discover the truth about Pipo; instead, he had come and discovered the truth about her."



I remember being a massive fan of the first of the series, Ender's Game  and being particularly excited that a) a movie version was in the works and b) that there was more to read of the series. In between reading the original and this sequel I've seen a lot of information on the Internet about the author that has been less than flattering, and I feel it has somewhat tainted my enjoyment of the sequel.

I thought nothing of the aliens being called "Buggers" before reading about the author's anti-gay stance which sadly infused some really negative connotations into my reading of the sequel.

Putting that aside, because I think it is possible to appreciate a work of fiction as distinct from an appreciation of its author's sentiments and beliefs, I still enjoyed the sequel. Not as much as the original and I query whether that was due to the pacing, the awkward multi-lingual conversations, or a reflection of the impact of some of the things I'd read online.

Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula awards, this novel remains intriguing and provides a very different perspective from the coming of age of Ender in the original versus the fully grown, 35 year old Andrew Wiggin.




4 out of 5 talking trees can be deadly.