Speaker for the Dead

They found him all too soon. His body was already cooling in the snow. The piggies hadn't even planted a tree in him.

WARNING!
This is the second book in a series, and reading this review without having read book one might spoil some of your fun.

The story:
After the war against the Buggers, Ender and Valentine left Earth to find a new world to settle on, somewhere new to live. And on their voyage, Ender publishes a book; the story of the Hive Queen, as if told by herself.

The book spreads, and a new religion starts. When someone dies, a Speaker will tell the story of his life, without hiding faults, or pretending virtues.

More than three thousand years have passed since the third Bugger War. Ender and his sister Valentine has travelled between the stars, and aged maybe twenty years in all this time. Ender is still a Speaker for the Dead, but noone knows who he really is, nor does anyone know who really wrote the first book, about the Hive Queen.

Ender Wiggin, the Xenocide, is a symbol of the worst in Man, who destroyed a race completely. And the Speaker, the original Speaker, is a symbol of the best in Man, one who understands the minds of aliens, and can identify with them. And only Ender and Valentine knows that those two are the same person.

And now, a new race has been discovered; on the planet Lusitania, a race of porcine creatures that are called porquinhos, or piggies. Afraid to make the same mistake again, there are severe restrictions on the interaction between piggy and human. Only two xenobiologists are permitted to see them, but when one of them is killed by the piggies, Ender is called upon to speak for him.

Ender leaves his sister on the world Trondheim, and travels to Lusitania. Before he reaches his goal, the other xenobiologist is killed in the same way, and it is up to him to discover why the murders occured.

Thoughts about the book:
While Ender's Game was a story about human beings, this is as much a story of cultural differences and philosophy. Reading it will make you think thoughts you don't normally think. About why we do things, what we fear, how we judge other cultures or people.

The magic of this book, lies also somewhat in its characters interacting, but as much in the deep thoughts behind the book. Like what right does Man have to shape the worlds to fit him, with no thought for the other beings living there?

This one is deeper, I think, than Ender's Game. But still, it had not been the same without Ender's Game, because the story changes when you read it, knowing Ender. His actions make more sense, that way.

About the author Orson Scott Card
About the previous book, Ender's Game
About the next book, Xenocide

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