Speaker for the Dead

Ender's Saga, #2

by Orson Scott Card

415 pages

English language

Published Aug. 14, 1991 by TOR.

ISBN:: 978-0-312-93738-6

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(29 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

KnitAFett reviewed Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card (Ender's Saga, #2)

Very different from Ender's Game

4 stars

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 …

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

sculpin reviewed Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card (Ender (2))

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

3 stars

After reading Ender's Game, I wasn't quite sure what to expect with Card's second novel. Speaker for the Dead certainly wasn't what I expected–occurring thousands of years in the future after the previous novel, and in a completely different setting–but it was nonetheless a very enjoyable read. Evaluated just as a sci-fi read, SFTD was quick-paced and creative, but on another level, Card also provided commentary of surprising depth (for the genre) on dead and grief. I'm very curious to see where he takes this in the next novel as well!