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We love the book.We received it surprisingly quickly and in excellent condition.I recommend on all fronts.
A lot of people could benefit from such a book, as it would help them cope and heal from the psychic trauma that incest causes.And if he didn't have sex with his sister, why does he write about a world in which everyone either does or wants to. If Orson Scott Card had sex with his sister, he should write a nonfiction book about that.
but there are simply too many implausibilities in the storyline that serve no purpose other than to set up Card for a lot of philosophizing.
Due to the vagaries of interstellar travel, Ender is still alive, incognito, living a life as Speaker For the Dead, a cult like figure who has penned a scriptural work entitled The Hive Queen and the Hegemon. The status of the human colony as a licensed Catholic conclave is an interesting twist. Fast forward 3,000 years after Ender's destruction of the Bugger race.
A combination of events leads Ender to Lusitania and brings together Human, Piggy and Bugger on one planet.Much like Ursula LeGuin's award winning novel, The Left Hand of Darkness, this is very much a work focusing on anthropology and interaction between members of different species. An enjoyable piece of work, though not up to the level of the original. The lives and customs of the Piggy race are meticulously and painstakingly presented, perhaps to a greater degree than necessary.
This dual Nebula and Hugo Award winner is a sequel to the award winning Ender's Game. The Interplanetary Congress, careful not to repeat the mistakes made in the Bugger destruction, very carefully study this new race (Piggies). Also, the book leaves too many loose ends to be tied together in the third book of the series.
A world hero at the time, he is now viewed as the greatest mass murderer in history and universally abhorred. Unknown to anyone else, he also is in possession of a cocoon containing a Bugger hive queen, the genesis for reestablishing the Bugger race.Now, 3,000 years after destruction of the Bugger, another sentient race has been discovered on planet Lusitania.
As much as I enjoyed Ender's Game, I like Speaker for the Dead more because it is undefinable; and yet, it is clear as day.Orson Scott Card must be an incredible person, because when I read his introductions to both Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, I felt like he was inviting me into his home. We see many, many novels about brokenness, but rarely do we see stories of healing. While Ender's Game is an intense work, it is clearly what it is. After reading Speaker for the Dead it crystallized for me in a new way that there exists a Christian mandate to speak healing for others' hurts. "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil.
I do recommend that Ender's Game is read first, as it is the first part of the story. This is not a work for everyone, but it is a work for anyone who wants to read it. Card explained in his introduction Ender's desire to move beyond his personal adolescent stage and to step into a role of anchoring, but I think Card overachieved his goal, and gave us a glimpse into the potential that adults have as heroes in stories--as anchors. Cliches are avoided, but I recognized how completely Card was an influence on Stephenie Meyer's writing. Underneath it all, however, is the desire for healing from brokenness. The creativity is teeming over, but it never gets *weird.* It is refreshing without getting bizarre. I identified so completely with Ender in his struggles and his pain that I marvelled--I don't usually empathize with a character so completely, so wholeheartedly.I can see how a million separate, individual stories can be spun from these works--they are profoundly introspective. However, it is so much more interesting as a story, and much more fulfilling for the reader.Of course, I only touched on one small aspect of the story.
For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks." Speaker for the Dead is an unusual novel--it crosses lines back and forth between fantasy, science fiction, spirituality, psychology, philosophy, history--there is no genre for this book. I doubt there are many skilled authors capable of presenting this kind of reversal. Highly recommended. We had a fantastic conversation through these introductions as he explained to me the genesis of the works and issued me a blanket invitation to make the stories my own.Imagine my astonishment when I realized--more than 24 hours after having finished Speaker for the Dead--that I actually accepted his invitation. In some way, we are each broken, and in some capacity, our Creator has enabled us to have the ability to soothe, and through His ability, to even heal each other's brokenness.
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