Three thousand years have passed since Ender Wiggins committed unwitting xenocide in Ender’s Game, but thanks to relativistic interstellar travel, both he and his sister Valentine remain young, as they search for somewhere to release the last of the alien ‘bugger’ hive queen. On the colony world of Lusitania another alien species has been found, this time in a primitive state. To prevent another xenocide, the Hundred Worlds Starways Congress enacts a law much like the Prime Directive forbidding interference in the culture of the new species, colloquially known as ‘piggies’. However, despite this, the colony’s xenobiologist still dies, vivisected by the piggies. Ender, now a Speaker for the Dead, is called to speak his death. Twenty years pass before he is able to arrive (only a few weeks for him) and he finds a colony full of pain and secrets. It’s up to him and the hidden AI sentience known as Jane to try and prevent another xenocide.
Although it’s been a very long time since I’ve read Ender’s Game, this feels like a very different book. It’s a talky book, with a very interesting alien ecosystem at its heart. I was frustrated at by the lack of information about that for most of the length of the novel, as just asking some basic questions would have resolved matters. Regarding that, Ender’s explanation of the motives behind the ‘prime directive’ law makes an awful lot of sense and I can understand it in that context.
I found this a very humanistic and compassionate book. As Ender digs into the life of the man he’s come to Speak, he finds many secrets and buried pain, but he excises it like a surgeon, skilfully and without malice. I appreciate that writer and book are different things, but I can’t really match the writer of Speaker for the Dead with Card’s politics and other views. I prefer the Card who wrote this book.
Although there are unresolved plot threads left hanging at the end of this book, there is closure, so I don’t feel the need to read the sequel. This is perfectly readable as a standalone book (although I’d still read Ender’s Game first to understand the character of Ender better).
