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Written: February 10, 2019.
Speaker for the Dead ended up, again, beyond my expectations.
Reading this one year after reading Ender’s Game, the story took quite a bit of effort for me to absorb, before I could fully envelop myself in the story that was being presented. The huge time jump this story does kind of puts you out of the funk. Because from what I could recall from reading Ender’s Game, it was all about young Ender and his crew, his time in the camp. His friends, Bean & Petra. Mazer Rakham, etc. So I thought that they were who would greet me once I start reading Speaker for the Dead.
Apparently, only Ender and Valentine are the recurring cast from the previous book. Everyone else might be old or probably dead by the time this story happens. Because Ender’s being space traveling like hundreds of times, that three thousand years have past, but was merely decades for Ender and his sister, Valentine.
So that really bummed me out in the beginning, because I really loved the setup the Ender Saga had provided in the first book. It was about space battles, tactical strategic thinking, and war. And of course, the damage it does to poor kids like Ender and his crew.
Here in Speaker for the Dead, it’s almost as if the author decided to look at the other end of the spectrum, and only retaining the science-fiction aspect of his universe, and turning the story into a family-centered plot. It’s almost as if you could called subtitle this book, “Family Ties in Space”.
Not that that’s a bad thing, no. It was completely amazing what Orson Scott Card was able to do here. He again focused heavily on the low-concepts rather than the highs. He generally places science fiction on a bench when he writes about a universe that should honestly be focusing on just the science fiction aspects.
But, man, does he do it so well, that I can’t hate him at all. It’s not like he’s ranting out loud through his novel, like what Robert A. Heinlein does in his book, Stranger in a Strange Land.
Card focuses on the development of each character within his story. Ender’s character arc with the Hive Queen. His AI friend Jane. Novinha and her family. And the Piggies. Everybody has a story arc.
This man is amazing at what he did with this story.
Although, personally, I feel like I want more of the Space Fleet scenery. Maybe because I enjoy watching Ender’s Game the Movie. But getting passed that, Speaker for the Dead is a very good book.
I still like Ender’s Game better, though.
Rating System:Story = 7.5
Writing Style = 8
Physical Synesthesia = 7
Time it took to finish = seventeen days= 8
Price = P45.00 = 9
Overall = 7.9 / 10
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