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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent sequel and fascinating story, 2 Sep 2006
This was a fascinating, generational story of life on Lusitania, where humans have come into contact with the second sentient beings--the piggies--since the xenocide of the buggers in Ender's Game. Feeling guilty, the Starways Congress decides to allow xenologers to study these aliens and live among the Catholic colony on Lusitania. When two xenologers die at the hands of the piggies, the old calls for war ring again but instead of an armada, the Speaker of the Dead is summoned. Andrew Wiggin, Speaker of the Dead, sets off for Lusitania where he hopes to repair the lives of two of families on Lusitania and solve the mystery of the piggies.
This story is VERY different from Ender's Game, and yet it succeeds in many ways. The very idea of a Speaker for the Dead is incredibly moving and to have Ender, the slayer of the buggers, fill this role proves even more powerful. The dramatic effect he has on Lusitania is enough to declare the book a triumph. However, the culture of the piggies is at the heart of the story, and the gripping mystery of the xenologer's deaths, when resolved, will not disappoint. Card really doesn't need to continue this series; I can't image a more fitting ending.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Surpasses Ender's Game, 18 Jan 2005
This book is the second part of the Ender saga (the first part being Ender's Game). In this, Ender Wiggin travels to the planet of Lusitania to find out why the aliens there (called `piggies') have murdered one of the human scientists assigned to study them. But he is also going as a Speaker for the Dead, to speak about the life of a deceased man called Marcao Ribeira, and to uncover what his intentions were in life (this is the job of a Speaker for the Dead). I found this book to be a much deeper read than Ender's Game, with many underlying themes: the nature of the difficult but worthy path towards unity between peoples, the importance of family, the choice between obeying authority and obeying conscience, the pain of the loss of friends, the nature of truth, the tragedy of alien misunderstanding man, to name a few. I also found the characters in this book to be superbly realised, especially the children of the character called Novinha. The character of Ender has developed too (he is no longer a child), and this mirrors the developing maturity of Card himself as a writer. Running as a theme throughout the book is the fact that Ender is looking for a place where the buggers can be reborn. This is Ender's penance for his destruction of the buggers at the end of Ender's Game. Profound and powerful writing from Orson Scott Card. I loved Ender's Game, and before reading this was sceptical that it would be as good. It is a tribute to Orson Scott Card that it is even better.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Evolution in a literal sense., 8 Mar 2002
Having read and thoroughly enjoyed Card's original Ender's Game I was eager to get my hands on other copies of his work, however a friend of mine - the one who had introduced me to the Ender saga in fact - warned me that I would be disappointed with the sequels. Gladly I can say he was wrong.The first thing to note is that this is not Ender's Game 2 - don't expect it to be the same as the first one, it's not. Instead this is an evolution of the storyline that devolops the character of Ender, mirroring the developing maturity of Card himself as a writer. The luscious character descriptions remain, Card once more gives us characters we can emote to, and his main strength - the interaction and tension between those characters is amongst the best in the business. The creation and realisation of alien societies reminds me of times of Asimov in The Gods Themselves (another underestimated work) and never at any time feels artificial or unbelievable. Although you may guess some of the twists before hand this is a good book - it is not worse than Ender's Game, just different and deserves to be judged on its own merits.
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