Fiction Friday: Speaker for the Dead
(Unfortunately it looks like I hit a Windows Live Writer hiccup here. I pushed the button on this one early on Friday but it never posted.)
I’ll just come right out and say it (well, write it): Speaker for the Dead, by Orson Scott Card, is my favorite book.
A number of years ago, I read Ender’s Game for the first time and thought it was just plain awesome. But I had no idea there was a series of sequels out there for it. Then, one day, I was browsing the audio book selection at the Shute Park Library, and I saw a book with “sequel to Ender’s Game” on it.
This I had to investigate. I hadn’t read EG recently, but didn’t feel like I needed to review it. Pretty basic story, right? Boy learns tactics; defeats enemy.
For the first cassette (yes, my car has a tape player and I didn’t know from MP3s), I was a bit confused as to how, exactly, this book was a sequel to EG. Because Ender doesn’t enter the picture until the second chapter.
In fact, I had forgotten virtually all of the final chapters of Ender’s Game and didn’t remember any of the setup for Speaker. So my first “reading” of Speaker was a bit confusing. I didn’t remember what The Hive Queen and the Hegemon was.
But I still loved the book. In fact, here’s my entry in my book-tracking database (yes, I’m that geeky):
I think I liked it even better than Ender's Game!
(By the way, when I looked back at my tracker, I confirmed that I first read Ender’s Game in September 2004, then found Speaker for the Dead in May 2005)
Ender’s Game is a very fun book, but with a serious undercurrent. Because Ender suffers in it. Yes, he succeeds in everything he does, but the price he pays is brutal. But with most of the characters being kids, it almost reads as a Young Adult title.
Speaker for the Dead is much more mature by comparison, due largely to the fact that Ender’s Game was only ever turned into a novel so Orson Scott Card could properly set up Speaker.
The science fiction concept underlying the main story is one of the coolest I’ve ever read (though I’ll admit I haven’t read that much sci-fi), and the core mystery of the book kept me listening, wondering what would happen next. And the speaking that brings Ender to the main set piece of the story is just extremely awesome.
I’ve now read it in print at least twice (actually, I’m surprised I only have it entered twice, which indicates I’ve only read it that many times, and I was just sure I’d read it twice in paperback and once in hardcover…hmm) and I’ve listened to the audio version probably five times.
I just finished listening to the audio version again (I started it with my dad when we were driving up to Seattle), and it’s quite simply the best audio book I’ve ever heard. (I, Robot, the Scott Brick performance, is a close second.)
It’s a multi-voice production, but still a straight reading and not an audio-drama. Different voices read sections from different characters’ perspectives. With the exception of one actor, the performances are brilliant (and the one isn’t absolutely terrible).
Anyhow, if you ever want to give the Ender series a try, you might consider looking for the Audio Renaissance version (produced by Stefan Rudnicki, who also reads the Ender scenes). And I do recommend starting with Ender’s Game before moving on in the series.
Oh, and there are now more than ten books in what’s sometimes called the Enderverse (though Card himself doesn’t like the term). On the whole, I prefer the Shadow series (which follows Bean, one of Ender’s closest friends in EG), but Speaker is obviously my favorite single book.
