Speaker for the Dead

I almost didn't read Speaker for the Dead. Although I enjoyed Ender's Game overall, I did not find it to be the amazing book that I had heard it to be. As such, I was not certain if I wanted to continue with the series.

I'm glad I picked up Speaker for the Dead anyway. I had heard that there was some debate over whether Ender's Game or Speaker for the Dead was the better novel. Having now read both, I am solid in my opinion that Speaker for the Dead is the better of the two books.

The plot and themes of Speaker for the Dead are deeper than those in Ender's Game, which had plenty in its own right. Ender is older and more mature. He has lived to watch his name change from that of an honored hero to that of a monster, the xenocide, who mercilessly destroyed the only other known alien race. Ender himself has also changed from a brilliant boy used as a pawn in war to a still brilliant but caring man who can distinguish the hard truth of the lives around him. And who must see to it that mankind's mistakes with the Buggers are not repeated with the Piggies.

The issue I had with language in Ender's Game is mostly eliminated in Speaker for the Dead. However, there are certain times when the character's switch to speaking Portuguese without their words being translated. I wonder if the two observations are connected, but without knowing Portuguese, I do not know for certain.

Religion also plays an interesting role, since the planet of Lusitania is strictly Catholic. I do know know what the author's personal beliefs are; however, I did not see a high opinion of religion in either Speaker for the Dead or Ender's Game, in which all religions were looked down upon. Ender himself appears to be an agnostic who does not claim himself as such. Early in the book, he says that he expects a Calvinistic student to essentially "grow out of it." However, upon reaching Lusitania, he shows a respect for the Catholic leaders, although he still does not claim to accept their beliefs. Later, he appears to be joining the Catholic population without ever accepting their beliefs. Honestly, I don't quite know what to make of it.

In addition, for 3,000 years having passed between Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, not much seems to have changed. Humans now inhabit a hundred different worlds, but the technology does not seemed to have changed beyond what was considered new in Ender's Game. In my opinion, this causes it to lose some of the realism in the setting. Three thousand years ago, earth was in the Iron Age and the Assyrians were just starting to become a world power.  I find it hard to believe that so little seems to have changed in the time between the two novels.

Still, the negatives are few in the light of the story. In short, Ender's Game left me questioning whether or not I should read Speaker for the Dead. Speaker for the Dead left me disappointed that my library did not have Xenocide on audio book.

(One note on the audio book: I like the idea of having different readers for the different characters, and it was done well with Ender's Game. However, Speaker for the Dead had the readers switch at odd times. Some conversations had different readers switching back and forth and others just had one reader for the whole conversation.)