Listen free for 30 days
-
Speaker for the Dead
- Narrated by: David Birney, Stefan Rudnicki
- Series: The Enderverse, Book 11, Ender's Game, Book 2
- Length: 14 hrs and 8 mins
- Categories: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Science Fiction
People who bought this also bought...
-
Ender's Game
- Special 20th Anniversary Edition
- By: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Harlan Ellison, Gabrielle de Cuir
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Andrew "Ender" Wiggin thinks he is playing computer-simulated war games at the Battle School; he is, in fact, engaged in something far more desperate. Ender is the result of decades of genetic experimentation, Earth's attempt to make the military genius that the planet needs in its all-out war with an alien enemy. Ender Wiggin is six-years-old when it begins. He will grow up fast. This, the special 20th Anniversary Edition, includes an original postscript written and recorded by Orson Scott Card himself.
-
-
You've go to read this!
- By V. S. on 17-06-05
-
Ender's Shadow
- By: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: Scott Brick, Gabrielle de Cuir, full cast
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Andrew "Ender" Wiggin was not the only child in the Battle School; he was just the best of the best. In this book, Card tells the story of another of those precocious generals, the one they called Bean, the one who became Ender's right hand, part of his team, in the final battle against the Buggers. Bean's past was a battle just to survive. His success brought him to the attention of the Battle School's recruiters.
-
-
A Return to Battle School.
- By Sara on 21-07-09
-
Ready Player One
- By: Ernest Cline
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 15 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's the year 2044, and the real world has become an ugly place.
-
-
This Book Changed My Life 💙 New Hobbies Found 💜
- By Amazon Customer on 05-04-18
-
We Are Legion (We Are Bob)
- Bobiverse, Book 1
- By: Dennis E. Taylor
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There's a reason We Are Legion was named Audible's Best Science Fiction Book of 2016: Its irresistibly irreverent wit! Bob Johansson has just sold his software company for a small fortune and is looking forward to a life of leisure. The first item on his to-do list: Spending his newfound windfall. On an urge to splurge, he signs up to have his head cryogenically preserved in case of death. Then he gets himself killed crossing the street. Waking up 117 years later, Bob discovers his mind has been uploaded into a sentient space probe with the ability to replicate itself.
-
-
An unexpected gem
- By Andrew on 29-01-17
-
The Memory of Earth
- Homecoming, Volume 1
- By: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
High above the planet Harmony, the Oversoul watches. Its task, programmed so many millennia ago, is to guard the human settlement on this planet, to protect this fragile remnant of Earth from all threats...to protect them, most of all, from themselves.
-
-
Great book - dull reading
- By Ian on 21-12-08
-
The Forever War
- By: Joe Haldeman
- Narrated by: George Wilson
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
William Mandella is a soldier in Earth's elite brigade. As the war against the Taurans sends him from galaxy to galaxy, he learns to use protective body shells and sophisticated weapons. He adapts to the cultures and terrains of distant outposts. But with each month in space, years are passing on Earth. Where will he call home when (and if) the Forever War ends?
-
-
Loved it.
- By Sara on 07-01-09
-
Ender's Game
- Special 20th Anniversary Edition
- By: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Harlan Ellison, Gabrielle de Cuir
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Andrew "Ender" Wiggin thinks he is playing computer-simulated war games at the Battle School; he is, in fact, engaged in something far more desperate. Ender is the result of decades of genetic experimentation, Earth's attempt to make the military genius that the planet needs in its all-out war with an alien enemy. Ender Wiggin is six-years-old when it begins. He will grow up fast. This, the special 20th Anniversary Edition, includes an original postscript written and recorded by Orson Scott Card himself.
-
-
You've go to read this!
- By V. S. on 17-06-05
-
Ender's Shadow
- By: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: Scott Brick, Gabrielle de Cuir, full cast
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Andrew "Ender" Wiggin was not the only child in the Battle School; he was just the best of the best. In this book, Card tells the story of another of those precocious generals, the one they called Bean, the one who became Ender's right hand, part of his team, in the final battle against the Buggers. Bean's past was a battle just to survive. His success brought him to the attention of the Battle School's recruiters.
-
-
A Return to Battle School.
- By Sara on 21-07-09
-
Ready Player One
- By: Ernest Cline
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 15 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's the year 2044, and the real world has become an ugly place.
-
-
This Book Changed My Life 💙 New Hobbies Found 💜
- By Amazon Customer on 05-04-18
-
We Are Legion (We Are Bob)
- Bobiverse, Book 1
- By: Dennis E. Taylor
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There's a reason We Are Legion was named Audible's Best Science Fiction Book of 2016: Its irresistibly irreverent wit! Bob Johansson has just sold his software company for a small fortune and is looking forward to a life of leisure. The first item on his to-do list: Spending his newfound windfall. On an urge to splurge, he signs up to have his head cryogenically preserved in case of death. Then he gets himself killed crossing the street. Waking up 117 years later, Bob discovers his mind has been uploaded into a sentient space probe with the ability to replicate itself.
-
-
An unexpected gem
- By Andrew on 29-01-17
-
The Memory of Earth
- Homecoming, Volume 1
- By: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
High above the planet Harmony, the Oversoul watches. Its task, programmed so many millennia ago, is to guard the human settlement on this planet, to protect this fragile remnant of Earth from all threats...to protect them, most of all, from themselves.
-
-
Great book - dull reading
- By Ian on 21-12-08
-
The Forever War
- By: Joe Haldeman
- Narrated by: George Wilson
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
William Mandella is a soldier in Earth's elite brigade. As the war against the Taurans sends him from galaxy to galaxy, he learns to use protective body shells and sophisticated weapons. He adapts to the cultures and terrains of distant outposts. But with each month in space, years are passing on Earth. Where will he call home when (and if) the Forever War ends?
-
-
Loved it.
- By Sara on 07-01-09
-
Old Man's War
- Old Man's War, Book 1
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: William Dufris
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At 75 years old, John Perry is after a fresh start - so, naturally, he joins the army. Earth's military machine can transform elderly recruits, restoring their lost youth. But in return, its Colonial Defence Force demands two years of hazardous service in space. This is how Perry finds himself in a new body crafted from his original DNA. A genetically enhanced and upgraded new body, ready for battle. But upgrades alone won't keep Perry safe. He'll be fighting for his life on the front line as he defends humanity's colonies.
-
-
Unnexpectedly funny, new take on Sci Fi Cliche
- By Andy on 26-10-17
-
Leviathan Wakes
- The Expanse, Book 1
- By: James S. A. Corey
- Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
- Length: 19 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Humanity has colonized the planets - interstellar travel is still beyond our reach, but the solar system has become a dense network of colonies. But there are tensions - the mineral-rich outer planets resent their dependence on Earth and Mars and the political and military clout they wield over the Belt and beyond. Now, when Captain Jim Holden's ice miner stumbles across a derelict, abandoned ship, he uncovers a secret that threatens to throw the entire system into war.
-
-
brilliant
- By Kindle Customer on 12-11-17
-
The Martian
- By: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive - and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. But Mark isn't ready to give up yet.
-
-
Just not as dynamic as the original release.
- By C. Fletcher on 04-01-20
-
Hyperion
- By: Dan Simmons
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor, Allyson Johnson, Kevin Pariseau, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all.
-
-
Inspired Sci-fi
- By Peter on 02-12-09
-
Foundation
- By: Isaac Asimov
- Narrated by: William Hope
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Galactic Empire has prospered for 12,000 years. Nobody suspects that the heart of the thriving Empire is rotten, until psychohistorian Hari Seldon uses his new science to foresee its terrible fate. Exiled to the desolate planet Terminus, Seldon establishes a colony of the greatest minds in the Empire, a Foundation which holds the key to changing the fate of the galaxy.
-
-
foundation. classic golden age sci fi
- By john COZ WE CAN on 27-10-19
-
Armada
- By: Ernest Cline
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Zack Lightman is a dreamer. He fills his days with wishful thoughts of life on other planets and spends hours playing videogames, neither of which have helped him make friends or find a girlfriend. His refuge from the daily disappointments of life is Armada - an online space-fighter simulator based on defending Earth from an alien invasion. It’s when he’s playing that he feels closest to his father, a champion gamer who died when Zack was a baby.
-
-
Enjoyable, geeky, a little bit silly but good fun!
- By Stephen on 21-11-16
-
Dune
- By: Frank Herbert
- Narrated by: Scott Brick, Orlagh Cassidy, Euan Morton, and others
- Length: 21 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Shortlisted for the Audiobook Download of the Year, 2007.
Here is the novel that will be forever considered a triumph of the imagination. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who would become the mysterious man known as Maud'dib. He would avenge the traitorous plot against his noble family and would bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream.
-
-
A superb production of a sci fi classic!
- By Peter on 21-07-07
-
Iron Prince
- Warformed: Stormweaver, Book 1
- By: Bryce O'Connor, Luke Chmilenko
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 33 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Reidon Ward will become a god. He doesn't know it yet, of course. Reidon was born weak, sickly, and small. Afflicted with a painful disease and abandoned by his parents because of it, he has had to fight tooth and nail for every minor advantage life has allowed him. However, his perseverance has not gone unnoticed, and when the most powerful artificial intelligence in human history takes an interest in him, things began to change quickly.
-
-
I can't believe I bought this book...
- By M Fowler on 16-04-21
-
Columbus Day
- Expeditionary Force, Book 1
- By: Craig Alanson
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 16 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Ruhar hit us on Columbus Day. There we were, innocently drifting along the cosmos on our little blue marble, like the Native Americans in 1492. Over the horizon came ships of a technologically advanced, aggressive culture, and BAM! There went the good old days, when humans got killed only by each other. So, Columbus Day. It fits. When the morning sky twinkled again, this time with Kristang starships jumping in to hammer the Ruhar, we thought we were saved.
-
-
Hampsters, Beer Cans & Cheese Burgers
- By S. Morris on 05-03-17
-
Gateway
- By: Frederik Pohl
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman, Robert J. Sawyer
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When prospector Bob Broadhead went out to Gateway on the Heechee spacecraft, he decided he would know which was the right mission to make him his fortune. Three missions later, now famous and permanently rich, Robinette Broadhead has to face what happened to him and what he is...in a journey into himself as perilous and even more horrifying than the nightmare trip through the interstellar void that he drove himself to take!
-
-
Great book, shame it's not genuinely unabridged
- By Mark Pack on 27-04-11
-
Pathfinder
- Book 1
- By: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Kirby Heyborne, Don Leslie, and others
- Length: 17 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rigg is well trained at keeping secrets. Only his father knows the truth about Rigg’s strange talent for seeing the paths of people’s pasts. But when his father dies, Rigg is stunned to learn just how many secrets Father had kept from him - secrets about Rigg’s own past, his identity, and his destiny. And when Rigg discovers that he has the power not only to see the past, but also to change it, his future suddenly becomes anything but certain.
-
-
Truly enjoyable
- By Inga on 06-02-11
-
Battlefield Earth
- Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi and New York Times Bestseller
- By: L. Ron Hubbard
- Narrated by: Josh Clark, Scott Menville, Fred Tatascorie, and others
- Length: 47 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the year AD 3000, Earth is a dystopian wasteland, plundered of its natural resources by alien conquerors known as Psychlos. Fewer than 35,000 humans survive in a handful of communities scattered across the face of a post-apocalyptic Earth. From the ashes of humanity rises a young hero, Jonnie Goodboy Tyler. Setting off on an initial quest to discover a hidden evil, Jonnie unlocks the mystery of humanity’s demise and unearths a crucial weakness in their oppressors.
-
-
okay story, irritating production and acting.
- By Michael O'connor on 11-02-19
Summary
This, the author's definitive edition of the sequel to Ender's Game, also includes an original postscript written and recorded by the author himself, Orson Scott Card!.
Critic reviews
Winner, Nebula Award
"The most powerful work Card has produced. Speaker not only completes Ender's Game, it transcends it." ( Fantasy Review)
More from the same
What listeners say about Speaker for the Dead
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
- V. S.
- 23-06-05
Probably my favourite book ever
This audio book amazed me. It follows on from Enders Game but is a vast departure from that story in both style and content. Listening to this book is like meditation - it's so deep and moving, and yet never boring. Pure Bliss! Wonderful narration. The first ever audio book to make me cry.
So good that I wish I had never heard it, so that I could discover it for the first time again.
One of Audible's gems.
15 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Danamic
- 13-12-13
A different follow on from Ender's Game
Some may not like it... but I do.
The book becomes a philosophical debate about the inward struggles that we face when confronting things we cannot understand.
Would I listen to it again? Probably not...
Will I listen to the next book in the series? Already have.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- iplayedthatgame
- 16-04-11
my favourite book
This story takes ender and follows him into his adult life , it shows how the battle school and descisions he made while there affected his adult life , showing for me that osc has a real understanding and empathy for his character and not just writing another story because the first book did well.
This really comes across with the relationship ender has with his sister with jane and the familly he befriends, also with the comunity he affects just by being there.
As this is the second book in the series you may feel that you need to read the first and you should because it is an excellent book but the refferences in this book explain themselves so you can read it as a book and not feel left out.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Elaine
- 18-12-18
Great story but odd narratiion
Terrific story, interesting and thought provoking and has stood the test of time well.
Multiple voices narrate the story, and there is no obvious pattern. Sometimes the voice changes at chapter breaks, sometimes with alternating lines of dialogue. Every time the voice changed it jarred. I thoroughly enjoyed the book in spite of the narration but I would have much preferred to have one person tell it.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- WillThePirate
- 15-10-20
Lovely story, weird direction
I enjoy the story, it is a strong tale about truth wrapped up in some pretty good scifi. It has been reviewed elsewhere for the book format, and it joins The Culture series and Peter Watts' novel, Blindsight, in having a truly unique form of alien life depicted.
The narration is ok. The director clearly tried to have separate actors for different characters, but it is performed very clumsily where the actor doesn't just do the voice but also reads the narrative and other character voices that are involved in that bit of narrative. They get about 3/4 of a chapter before changing voice again. This can be confusing. There's also the occasional random semi-musical tone that gets put in now and again.
If this audiobook was rereleased with better performance I would buy it again for that. As it is, this is what we have available, and the story is too good to miss.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Margaret Mary Whiteley
- 09-09-19
Too many narrators
I loved this story. Why not just one narrator? Didn't add anything with so many.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Benobeone
- 09-05-19
really inspirational Si-Fi
such a deep and and thought provoking tale that looks deep at the heart of what it means to be human and not. definitely recommended.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- andy
- 17-03-19
wow
haven't picked this up since I was a teenager, so good, great production as well
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- England fan 1
- 16-01-19
Wow this made me think! Brilliant!
I have only listend to Ender's Game before this but this feels like the conclusion.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sam Goodwin
- 14-01-19
Thinking is beautifuly complex
I enjoyed this book incredibly!
the story itself was as incredible and insitnful and real feeling as ever. I admire the thought prossess that created this story and love the words in which it was told!
It has changed the way I think about people and how to see them and why they do what they do. You can't hate someone if you understand them. This simple idea and prossess created a chin of event in my mind that I think has created a much deeper and detailed way of think. And I love that!
That's one of the many things I learned here.
I look faward to listening to the rest of these stories.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall

- Joe
- 13-06-05
The Enderverse
This is my favorite science fiction series. The characters are easy to identify with, and you will find yourself sucked into this imaginary universe, nicknamed the Enderverse by fans.
Recommended order of reading (in my opinion): Ender?s Game, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, Shadow of the Giant, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind. Reading the books in this order will keep you interested and keep the story moving more naturally.
If after reading all of these wonderful books you are still itching for an Enderverse fix then read First Meetings. The list above is sorted by the Enderverse timeline. Meaning that the flow of events in the stories are uninterrupted. If you were to read the books in the order they were published, you would bounce back and forth in between time and few of the plot twists in future books would be revealed before you wanted them to be known. First Meetings, however contains short stories that occur both before and in between the list above within the Enderverse.
178 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Scott Fabel
- 24-04-13
Great story, but the performance was dreadful
After having read "Ender's Game," I was eager to read "Speaker for the Dead." I was definitely not disappointed. According to interviews with the author, Orson Scott Card, "Speaker for the Dead" was the original book that he wanted to write. He wrote "Ender's Game" as a kind of introduction to "Speaker for the Dead." Although "Ender's Game" has become far more well-known and more popular than "Speaker for the Dead," I can see why this was the story that the author really wanted to write. The story is much richer and deeper. I feel as if it's written for a more mature audience, and its themes reflect that maturity. Don't get me wrong. I loved "Ender's Game," yet I think I enjoyed "Speaker for the Dead" just as much--only for different reasons.
Let me get the bad news out of the way. The audio recording of this book was terrible. I don't want to say that the actual performance of the narrators was bad because it really wasn't. The problem was that there were just too many narrators, and they were used inconsistently throughout the book. At times, there were shifts from one narrator to another mid-paragraph, and it didn't seem to be done for any reason. I certainly don't want to say that this lessened the story in any way. After all, it's the same story whether listening to one narrator or 50. Even so, the shifting back and forth was distracting. As if that weren't bad enough, there was also periodic background music that was played during the performance. Again, this seemed to show up in random locations. There was one location in particular in which music just started playing mid-sentence and the ended in the middle of the following sentence. Usually, I expect some of that background music to signal a change in chapter, theme, or something else recognizable. That was surely not the case here. Again, it didn't lessen the story, but it was distracting. It wouldn't be such a bad thing for the story to be re-recorded without the performance issues.
Now, on to the good news. This book takes place 3000 years after "Ender's Game"; however, thanks to space travel at relativistic speeds, both Ender and Valentine are still alive--and in their 30s! In many ways, this book picks up not long after "Ender's Game" concludes. Ender has now become the Speaker for the Dead. After the events that occurred earlier in his life (in "Ender's Game"), he decides to dedicate himself to speaking the death of other people. Perhaps he sees this as atonement for his earlier life. In this book, humans have discovered a new, alien life form, the Pequeninos (also known as "piggies"), on the planet Lusitania. A death occurs on this planet, and Ender is called to speak the death.
This book is far more philosophical than "Ender's Game." The Speaker for the Dead does not deliver a traditional eulogy for those who have died. Instead, he speaks the truth. This concept resonated strongly with me because I think a lot of people don't get to have the truth spoken at their funerals. While this idea of speaking for the dead is a central theme of the book, there are many others. For example, the interactions between the humans and the piggies is extraordinary. It frames the way in which we, as humans, look at anything or anyone who is different from us, as something that needs to be either protected or changed. We seem to think that we are the most evolved species and, subsequently, the most intelligent. Although the book doesn't necessarily contradict this belief, it does make the reader question it. Finally, I want to also mention that the Catholic Church is alive and well in the far-off future. There were very interesting discussions of religious themes throughout the book. The Catholic Church has a prominent role on Lusitania, and it must somehow align its teachings with the new reality of an alien life form.
Overall, this was an enjoyable read. It still exists in the same general universe as "Ender's Game," yet it is its own story. The more mature philosophical themes make this a great book for older readers, but it's still science fiction. This seems to be a great combination, and I look forward to reading other books in the Ender series.
44 people found this helpful
-
Overall

- Josh Mitchell
- 13-04-06
Good story, okay narration
First, this isn't Ender's Game. It's an entirely different kind of story, so if you're looking for the pseudo-military sci-fi action of Ender's Game, you will be disappointed. That said, this is one of Card's better works, with rich, interesting characters and a fascinating (if slower-moving) plot.
The multi-person reading is not very well done, however. At best, it's distracting; at worst, obnoxious--one of the female readers, in particular, has a habit of reading every sentence as though it's the saddest and most important thing ever written. The book's main narrator is (fortunately) quite good.
Overall, recommended.
23 people found this helpful
-
Overall

- Doug
- 19-06-09
Great book, really don't like the female reading
Just like Ender's game this is a great book. Harder to get through though. Card spends more time on character development than really needed. The woman who does a good bit of the reading is a bit too melodramatic for my ears.
14 people found this helpful
-
Overall

- Cathleen
- 19-01-03
Amazing!!!!
As much as I enjoyed Ender's Game, I loved this book more. I liked the action of Ender's Game, but it was the inner conflicts and thoughts of his character that I really enjoyed. (Card made me really care about Ender and what happened to him.) It is just this kind of intimacy that I think is the core of this book. It has such emotional intensity with a transcendant spirituality,that made me want to "inhale" this book. I found myself just sitting in my car long after I had reached my destination just to complete another chapter. This book grabbed me and flung me on the roller coaster of its message, and I didn't want to ever get off.
18 people found this helpful
-
Overall

- AB
- 13-02-08
The Anti-Ender's Game
I picked this book because I had very much enjoyed Ender's Game and "Speaker" is the continuation of the story. However, it is also completely different in speed and style. While "Ender's Game" is mostly science fiction of the technical kind (spaceships, battles, etc.) and moves along well most of the time, "Speaker" is a tedious, slow-as-molasses study of religion, family relationships, childhood neuroses, and endlessly repeated sermons on tolerance. The passages in Portuguese, on the Catholic teachings, and others are tedious and boring.
You may end up liking "Speaker", but it won't be for the same reasons you may like "Ender's Game". Be forewarned.
60 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- The Kindler
- 27-02-16
Brilliant
Any additional comments?
There is a lot of controversy around Card but he still writes really interesting books that require the reader to think about the implications of each action and reaction. It is a wonderful masterpiece and deserves the reader to think critically about the ideas of Card.
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall

- J. T. Mitchum
- 07-01-09
As implied by title: Not Ender's Game
I enjoyed this book, but I enjoyed it because I did not expect Ender's Game proper.
There was a lot about Ender's Game I enjoyed, but I can sub-categorize all my favorite parts into two important distinctions. Military strategy and group leadership versus interpersonal development and politics.
If you really only enjoyed the military portions of Ender's Game, then you may consider leaving Speaker of the Dead out. Scott Card wrote Ender's Game so he could write Speaker for the Dead. The way he writes the characters in Speaker for the Dead I have found to be a reliable measure for his other books in the Enderverse.
Reading about waging a war is awesome because of the absolution both sides of a war feel, a solidarity under one banner, so to speak. At the end of war, we have fractured absolution and limited solidarity -- complex topics to say the least.
Speaker for the dead is about this post-war universe. The threads of religion and science woven throughout the personalities is beautifully done in a way that should be neutral enough to spawn debate, but with the author's beliefs only somewhat veiled. Reading a book like this often makes me feel we are more predictable in groups than we are when left to our private choices.
This book gives weight to the phrase "where there is a will, there is a way." Of course -- not all wills are good ones ...
31 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Joe O.
- 29-11-12
Great story, poor narration
Is there anything you would change about this book?
Use consistent narration. Using several different people that change the emotional delivery and even the gender of the voice is distracting and annoying. Plus, the woman sounds like she should be reading smut, not sci-fi.
Who would you have cast as narrator instead of David Birney and Stefan Rudnicki ?
These weren't the only narrators. I would have stuck with them.
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall

- Helen Foster-Turner
- 10-01-07
I loved it, you may or may not
I felt as though this was a book I should have read years ago and regretted that I did not.
Like many others who have reviewed this book, I also enjoyed Enders Game but took up Speaker for the Dead with no preconceived ideas. The first part of this novel is rightly spent setting up the rest and, since the story that follows is based on the characters experiences and the emotions that arise because of them, they form the important foundation for the rest of the novel. In other words it contextualises it.
If you want another Enders Game, then it is not the same. It is richer, deeper and slower to build. It requires a reader with empathy, a little patience and an open mind.
I will not nitpick the science but it was written a while ago and our collective understanding and expectations have changed in the interim. I do believe, however, that eventually technological development will plateau as we discover all the technology that will serve us and it will remain somewhat similar until something changes to cause the next great cycle of advancement.
It touched me and it made me think which is all I can ask of any book.
8 people found this helpful