Speaker for the Dead Review by Arya

September 10, 2019

This is Arya Thirodira and this is my review (so far) of Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card. 

Speaker for the Dead is a novel written by Orson Scott Card and was published in 1986. This is part of the Ender's Game Series and is the second book in the series. It describes the aftermath of the war with the buggers and follows multiple young characters in their journey against a new alien species that may yet prove to be threatening. 

At the beginning of the book, it follows a few xenologers (alien biologists) on an alien planet inhabited by the first alien race they have seen in decades. The planet is populated with intelligent pig-like humans (piggies) that have different cultures and ethical beliefs than the people on Earth. The people of Earth are hesitant to interfere with their affairs because of the last time they met an alien race (a teenager killed an entire species of intelligent beings). I like how the author includes moral and ethical dilemmas in the story as well as the actual entertainment of reading the book. I think it gives the reader something to think about while they're actually being entertained. Personally, it felt like I was involved with the book. I thought about those moral issues and ethics long after I read the book and in the process, it changed my perspective on things in our world.

A few chapters in, one of these dilemmas takes place. In the piggy hierarchical system, females are at the top and they dictate the rest of the piggies. There is no equality within this system. One of the piggies gets this idea of equality after an encounter with a human, and ends up being killed by his fellow piggies for stating his own beliefs of equality. This stirs things up in the human community, and the characters dive into a moral and ethical dilemma. Should they stay and research the piggies, benefiting humankind and the piggies (but at the risk of changing the piggy culture)? Or should they leave and let nature take its path? This part of the book is what has made me like it so much. Instead of telling the story straight to us, it also interweaves moral and ethical beliefs into the plot line of the story, making it so much more interesting (in my opinion).

So far, this book contains so many surprising characters and events. It combines something I can relate to with the actual entertainment of the book, which (in my case) makes it very interesting read. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys suspense and action (i also recommend that you read the first book before this). 


Comments

  1. Charlie HechlerSeptember 13, 2019 at 1:22 PM

    Reading your blog post makes me very intrigued. The way that you describe how the author conveys the theme and moral of the story is enticing. I love these types of hypothetical moral dilemmas I will definitely put this book on my to read list. This makes me think about how we are interfering with so many things in the environment and the unnatural changes to ourselves. If we were the nomadic hunter gathers of the stone age we would not have the same mercy as we have today. But, in the end, is that world better than the one we may create? Overall your blog post was written very well in a way that made me interested in the concepts you were discussing.

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  2. Cameron McGillSeptember 14, 2019 at 6:21 PM

    I've never read this book or any book remotely close to it, but I'll be sure to look into it after reading this blog. You deliver all the information the reader of the blog needs to determine whether or not they want to read the book but you present the information in a way that doesn't overwhelm them. Your writing is consistent so the reader of the blog doesn't get confused while reading it. Your blog post is well written and I can't wait to read your next blog.

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  3. Emma D.September 15, 2019 at 9:27 PM

    This sounds like a really interesting book! One of the thing I really enjoyed about Ender’s Game was the moral conflict, particularly in regard to themes like responsibility and “fault,” and it sounds like Speaker for the Dead takes these ideas even further. You did a really good job introducing the plot and main themes of the book, and I’m definitely looking forward to checking it out!

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  4. JohnOctober 8, 2019 at 1:03 PM

    I read Ender's Game, and liked it. I never got around to reading the other books in the series, but after reading this review, I think I might. This Piggy concept sounds very interesting, and it sounds like it might even be better than the first book in the series. Great review!

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  5. Emily SOctober 10, 2019 at 5:37 PM

    I was slightly confused when I started to read this review- as I have absolutely no idea what a bugger is in the slightest. Your review is good, but it might help the hook if you make your words flow together more, to paint a picture rather than a description. (I'm sorry if this doesn't make any sense- I haven't actually seemed to have woken up yet). It seems very statement after statement of the book, and I think it would be more enticing if you left some of the plot unanswered and asked more questions to the reader about the continuance of the plot rather than stating monotonously what is going to happen.
    Anyways, I think this is a good review and I might just go check it out :)

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