bello!!!! completamente diverso dal primo
uno di quei libri che puoi rileggere ad ogni lustro
Orson Scott Card entra a pieno titolo fra i miei autori del cuore ( )

Still love it! ( )

Sequel to Ender's Game, set three thousand years after its end. Ender is now a Speaker for the Dead, recounting the lives, motives, thoughts and actions of those he is called to speak.

Orson Scott Card wrote Ender's Game almost as an introduction to this book. Although it did not recieve as much recognition, it deals with many more complex issues - especially the treatment of strangers through Demosthenes' groupings of utlanning, framling, ramen and varelse. Much of the story focuses on recognising that the species known as piggies are ramen, the stranger that is human but not homo sapiens, rather than varelse, like the animals. Brings up ideas of how we judge others that we don't know. Neither the Xenocide nor minimal intervention is the right way.

Other characters include Novinha, a xenobiologist, and her children in the colony. They tell us something of fear and guilt, and the way that different people deal with different issues (Ender's speaking is masterful in its comprehension of the events, as well as the audience reaction.)

Enjoyable also due to the concepts of scifi technology introduced. The ansibles enable instantaneous communication, but the ideas behind starflight, protection, genetic engineering, and the unique biology of Lusitania are ideas worth revisiting.

Definitely looking forward to Xenocide, the next book. ( )

Might currently be my favorite book (circa 2020).

Significantly better than Ender's Game; the ending of the first book was simply worthless. ( )

I started reading this book when I was a kid, after I finished Ender's game, but it didn't appeal to me. I'm glad I decided to give it a second chance, because this time around, I thought it was really good. The tone and atmosphere of the book are very different, I find. Ender is an adult, and is in a completely different situation now. He is no longer being controlled and no longer in school.
Speaker for the dead deals with tolerance, truth and cultural (racial) differences. The characters are well developed. You can understand how they came to make the decisions that they do (which is important, because that is part of what the book is about). This not only goes for the human characters, but also for the piggies. Perhaps especially for the piggies. I very much like the way the biological mysteries are presented, and how the answers make everything clear. Partly I think there is some simplification going on: everybody has clear reasons for what they do, whereas in real life, I think things tend to be a bit more muddled. On the other hand, this is part of what Ender does as a speaker. He takes the muddle of everything and structures it so people can understand. Quite possibly, not even the person he speaks for would have known enough to be able to tell their own story: it is difficult to be impartial about yourself, and we are probably the most muddled about things that come close. But if the speaking is good, than that person would have resonated with the clarity Ender gives things. That clarity also permeates the book. Even though the subjects can be emotional, they are presented in a rational way. This makes it possible to lay the book aside, but doesn't take away from its allure. As a matter of fact, I happened to finish the book at 3 am in the morning (on a friday night, fortunately). If it had been a weekday, I could have put the book away, but since it wasn't, I didn't want to. ( )