Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card, science fiction book

Denver Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club

SPEAKER FOR THE DEAD
by
ORSON SCOTT CARD

Speaker for the Dead (1986)
Winner of the Hugo Award
Winner of the Nebula Award

Tor science fiction paperback - 382 pages
cover art by John Harris

From the back cover:
In the aftermath of his terrible war, Ender Wiggin disappeared, and a powerful voice arose: the Speaker for the Dead, who told the true story of the Bugger War.
Now, long years later, a second alien race has been discovered, but again the aliens' ways are strange and frightening...again, humans die. And it is only the Speaker for the Dead, who is also Ender Wiggin the Xenocide, who has the courage to confront the mystery...and the truth.

Read for group discussion on November 12, 1997

Amy's Short Summary : Speaker for The Dead - Orson Scott Card

On the planet Lusitania, settled by Portuguese speaking Catholics of Brazilian descent, a race of intelligent aliens is found. They are only the second race of sentient aliens ever found. The first, the buggers, were killed off by Ender in the Xenocide three thousand years earlier.

The small forest dwelling aliens are called porquinhos, or piggies. They have a strange, not yet understood biology. A xenobiologist, Pipo, is tortured to death by the piggies. Andrew Wiggin, the original Speaker for the Dead, who is also Ender, comes light years by starship to discover the story of the piggies, and learns some other truths as well.

summary written by misuly@aol.com

Ender's Game (1985) concerns a young genius, Ender Wiggin, who is subjected to an escalating series of challenges at a Battle school during the Bugger War. Many of the same events are covered from the point of view of Ender's friend Bean in the parallel novel Ender's Shadow (1999).

Speaker for the Dead (1986) is the second book of the Ender sequence. It's a serious moral tale set many years after Ender's Game.

Xenocide (1991) and Children of the Mind (1996) carry forward the situation set up in Speaker for the Dead and introduce some new characters.

Following Ender's Shadow in the Bean sequence are Shadow of the Hegemon (2001), Shadow Puppets (2002), and Shadow of the Giant (2005). These precede events in recounted in the book Speaker for the Dead .

RATINGS:
How we each rated this book

Dan	9	Amy	9	10 Wow! Don't miss it 8-9 Highly recommended 7 Recommended 5-6 Mild recommendation 3-4 Take your chances 1-2 Below average; skip it 0 Get out the flamethrower! U Unfinishable or unreadable - Skipped or no rating given
Cheri	10	Barb	8
Aaron	10	Cynthia	8
Lars	7	Jackie	10
Richard	10

Our book group has also read the following books by Orson Scott Card:
-- Ender's Game in August 1995
-- Hart's Hope in November 1996
-- Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus in September 1999
-- Enchantment in November 2000
-- Shadow of the Hegemon in September 2002

Bibliography:
Orson Scott Card (1951- ) Is a US writer of novels and short fiction.

Awards:
1979 John W. Campbell Award (for best new SF writer)
1985 Nebula Award for Best Novel Ender's Game
1986 Hugo Award for Best Novel Ender's Game
1986 Nebula Award for Best Novel Speaker for the Dead
1987 Hugo Award for Best Novel Speaker for the Dead
1988 Hugo Award for Best Novella "Eye for Eye"
1991 Hugo award for Best Non-Fiction Book How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy

Card has written fantasy, science fiction, horror, and mainstream books. His first published story "Ender's Game" was nominated for a Hugo Award.

The Ender books are Ender's Game (1985), Speaker for the Dead (1986), Xenocide (1991), and Children of the Mind (1996).

Ender's Shadow (1999) is a "parallel novel" to Ender's Game. It's the story told from the point of view of Ender's friend Bean. Shadow of the Hegemon (2001), Shadow Puppets (2002), and Shadow of the Giant (2005) are sequels in this saga.

The Locus award winning fantasy books of the Tales of Alvin Maker sequence, Seventh Son (1987), Red Prophet (1988), Prentice Alvin (1989), Alvin Journeyman (1995), and Heartfire (1998) are set in an alternate-world version of the USA.

The Homecoming series is The Memory of Earth (1992), The Call of Earth (1993), Ships of Earth (1994), Earthfall (1996), and Earthborn (1996).

Some of his earlier material he later reworked. Stories of Jason Worthing were in Capitol (collection 1978). Several of those short stories were incorporated into his first novel, Hot Sleep (1978), which was later entirely rewritten as The Worthing Chronicle (1983). The Worthing Chronicle and some stories from Capitol, and some additional related stories were published as The Worthing Saga (1990). Other books revised books are Treason (1988, revision of A Planet Called Treason (1979), and Woman of Destiny (1984, text restored version Saints 1988).

His short fiction has been collected in Cardography (collection 1997), Folk of the Fringe (collection 1989), Unaccompanied Sonata (collection 1981), and in Maps in a Mirror (collection 1990). The paperback editions of Maps in a Mirror are Volume 1: The Changed Man, Volume 2: Flux, Volume 3: Cruel Miracles, and Volume 4: Monkey Sonatas.

Other works include Songmaster (fixup 1980), Hart's Hope (1983), Wyrms (1987), Lovelock (1994, with Kathryn Kidd), the fantasy Enchantment (1999), the adult picture book Magic Mirror (1999), and the dark fantasy or horror novels Lost Boys (1993), Treasure Box (1996), and Homebody (1998).

Card's novel Stone Tables (1997), a retelling of the story of Moses and the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, was published as religious fiction. Sarah (2000) and Rebekah (2001) are books in his "Women of Genesis" series.

He has also written non-fiction. How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy (1991) won the Hugo Award for best non-fiction book. He's covered the subjects of writing technique (Character and Viewpoint (1988)), child-rearing (Listen, Mom and Dad (1978)), sports biography (Ainge (1982)), and Mormon topics (Saintspeak (humor 1982) and A Storyteller in Zion (essays 1993)).

Card did the novelization of the movie The Abyss (1989).

He has edited several short story collections, including Dragons of Light (1980), Dragons of Darkness (1981), Future on Fire (1990), Future on Ice (1998), and Turning Hearts: Stories of Family Life (1984 - stories of Mormon interest).

Thanks to Aaron for providing information for this Orson Scott Card bibliography

Links:
Hatrack River - The Official Web Site of Orson Scott Card
Our book club's page for Pastwatch
Our book club's page for Enchantment
Our book club's page for Shadow of the Hegemon
Aaron's book review of Enchantment on Fantastic Reviews
Aaron's book review of Ender's Shadow on Fantastic Reviews
Aaron's book review of Shadow Puppets on Fantastic Reviews
Aaron's book review of Shadow of the Giant on Fantastic Reviews
The Ornery American - www.ornery.org - Card's political web site

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