[4XJ]⋙ Libro Gratis Speaker for the Dead The Ender Quintet Orson Scott Card 9780812550757 Books

Speaker for the Dead The Ender Quintet Orson Scott Card 9780812550757 Books

Download As PDF : Speaker for the Dead The Ender Quintet Orson Scott Card 9780812550757 Books

Speaker for the Dead The Ender Quintet Orson Scott Card 9780812550757 Books

Great sequel to Enders Game but a totally different book than Enders. It's just plain good Sci Fi for those of us that like real Science Fiction and not bed time stories.


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Speaker for the Dead The Ender Quintet Orson Scott Card 9780812550757 Books Reviews

"Speaker for the Dead" by Orson Scott Card is a remarkable although windy sequel in the series. I found the narrative to be somewhat repetitious but I loved it never-the-less. The Piggies are peculiar, endearing, though cantankerous mutant humanoids that challenge the hegemony of the humans who are studying them. Ender Wiggins to the rescue and the open ending leads right into the next story "Xenocide," can't wait to read it...
I loved the second book in the Ender series. In part, it was because Card knows how to write some convincing characters and infuse conversations with deeper meaning. Also, after the first book's rather dark tone--all about using kids to defeat an enemy no matter the cost to the children's lives, not to mention the constant physical and emotional abuse of poor little Ender--this second book strikes a very optimistic and warm tone. Speaker for the Dead is about redemption, acceptance, forgiveness and family.

By way of negatives, there are a few. First, there are a whole lotta characters in this book, and it took me a bit to keep track of them all. Second, portions of the plot felt a little forced. The xenologists studying a new race decide to ignore the limitations enforced to prevent that race from learning anything new, but the scientists still don’t ask any of the demanding and reasonable questions they have (as if they're still bound by that limitation.) Two humans either volunteered or were forced to do something horrific (that remains a secret that confounds everyone for most of the book) but never argued their way out of it or alerted loved ones? And after almost 50 years of dedicated scientific research, Ender walks in and knows more in three hours?

If you can accept all that, the story is beautiful and moving, the characters rich and human and the ending both satisfying and tragic. It may be a little too neat, but I still found it a thoughtful and emotional story.
I do not understand why, with the popularity of the first book, this one has so few reviews. In my opinion, this book is much stronger. While the first book does devote time towards dealing with themes that have managed to remain relevant long after its initial publication, this book goes into more detail exploring much more compelling questions.

In "Ender's Game," most of the book is devoted to Ender's time in the Battle School. What we read about there is Ender's transition from little boy on Earth, a Third who experiences a difficult life on a planet experiencing societal difficulties, going off to train in the business of war. While it is an arduous physical journey for Ender, and he does have some difficulty with psychological issues such as separation from family, learning how to compromise his ethics in order to survive, and learning how to lead other people, those psychological issues seemed secondary for much of the book. Only at the end of the first story are we introduced with the psychological significance of what Ender was compelled to do.

That is why I do not understand the apparent lack of people making the transition over to this, the follow-up. All of the big questions seemed to hang out there, dangling like a teaser at the end. How could anyone not continue on to see how Ender would cope with his xenocide, especially since it is revealed at the end of that book that a hive queen survived and was communicating with Ender? How could they not continue on to see how his colony had turned out, how humanity had turned out after moving forward from the society Peter had left behind?

All of these important questions are explored in "Speaker for the Dead," and they are handled really well. The concept of a Speaker for the Dead is fascinating, especially in the context of Ender's story. Here is a boy who was essentially tricked into killing off an entire intelligent species, just to find that he had an opportunity for redemption. First Ender writes the Hive Queen and the Hegemon, turning his own name into an epithet. The humanity that once loved him as their savior has turned their back on him, casting him off as the personification of evil. Later this redemption continues as Ender takes on the role of Speaker, teaching people that, as is explained in the book, good and evil both exist in the same heart. He essentially primes people for understanding what he did, his actions and his motivations, hoping that one day he would earn his redemption. "Here is the good, here is the bad. No judgement. Just the truth."

At first the fast forward three thousand years into the future seems ridiculous, but as the book continues it begins to make more sense. We get to see a society that seems to have taken Ender's lessons in the Hive Queen and the Hegemon to heart, but as we learn in the book humanity only seems to have learned that lesson because it was convenient. The true test comes when they encounter another sentient species. Ender has changed, but has humanity really changed, even after three thousand years?

In this book humanity gets another chance, this time with the benefit of hindsight. Will they repeat their mistakes, or learn from them and handle things better this time around? That is one of the central questions that is answered in this book. The answer is made clear by the end of this book, so I will not spoil it in my review.

The concept of the Hierarchy of Foreignness is also fascinating. Anyone who has spent any time considering interaction with other species will be compelled by this story. I know people of my generation have seen Cosmos, and likely remember the scene where Carl Sagan discusses the problems we would face when interacting with alien intelligent life. To paraphrase "We can't even interact with the other intelligent life on our own planet." And then closer to today we have Stephen Hawking's speculation on how alien races would treat us if they encountered us first. Anyone who has seen these things and engaged in any thought experiment will be compelled by this story as they read about individuals and a society struggle with determining where the piggies and buggers fall on this hierarchy.

Maybe because we live in a time with no space operas on television, young people are not drawn to these ethical questions as much as those of us who grew up on shows like Star Trek. We watched stories about humanity struggling against its worst impulses to be the people that they wanted to be. So reading such a story seems pretty natural, and darn entertaining. That is why I find "Speaker for the Dead" so much more compelling than "Ender's Game." It is also why I find the reviews bemoaning the lack of "action" of the first book. Ender does not need to cave a Bonzo's nose into his brain in every book in order for significant, compelling action to have taken place. "Speaker for the Dead" has actions in spades, as complex characters evolve and change in response to the events that they encounter. You should not be disappointed by this book.
I prefer this book to Enders game. It is a slower, suspense driven novel.

Positives
+ Unique alien creatures and lanscape. The interactions between the creatures and various species on the planet was interesting.
+ Characters/Dilemmas Each character is given a specific plot conflict/dilemma. Each grows and is addressed throughout the book

Negatives
- The book is written at a higher level. It isn't as focused on the character level. This makes it slightly more difficult to relate too.
Great sequel to Enders Game but a totally different book than Enders. It's just plain good Sci Fi for those of us that like real Science Fiction and not bed time stories.