{"id":451,"date":"2017-05-24T16:00:25","date_gmt":"2017-05-24T22:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=451"},"modified":"2017-09-10T16:33:00","modified_gmt":"2017-09-10T22:33:00","slug":"book-speaker-for-the-dead-1986","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2017\/05\/24\/book-speaker-for-the-dead-1986\/","title":{"rendered":"BOOK: Speaker for the Dead (1986)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SpeakerSpeaker for the Dead
\n<\/u><\/strong>Year: 1986
\nAuthor: Orson Scott Card
\nLength: 850 minutes \/ 14.17 hours<\/p>\n

In this sequel to Ender\u2019s Game<\/a><\/em>, Orson Scott Card continues to provide a smartly-written plot that causes the reader to think about death in a whole new way. While the first book in the series gave some thought-provoking insights into war, simulation and the dangers of following orders, Speaker for the Dead<\/em> examines cultural differences, religion, and the humanity of individuals who acted like monsters during their lives. Instead of moving on from the life of a deplorable person, Card manages to show the reader that a person’s life is made up of all its truths: the bad included with the good.<\/p>\n

While Ender Wiggin seemed a little young in Ender\u2019s Game<\/em>, by Speaker for the Dead<\/em> he\u2019s aged into a wiser and much more complex character. His experiences in the first book helped to set him up as the universe\u2019s devil and savior, a unique attribute set for a very cerebral character. I did appreciate how the physics of interstellar travel were used as limitations and constraints to make the situation of Ender\u2019s age and experience much more believable. Of course, now that I\u2019ve read the sequel to Ender\u2019s Game<\/em>, I\u2019m not sure if the sub-plot with his siblings was nearly as important as I thought it would have been, thus making its omission from the movie a sensible choice.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s most intriguing about this science fiction adventure is how little science fiction is in it. Sure, there\u2019s light-speed travel, alien creatures, and sentient computers, but when it comes down to it, the story is essentially a detective mystery solved by Ender Wiggin. Perhaps the sci-fi framework helped to create the ideal metaphor for understanding a culture different from our own, but these sci-fi elements could have easily been cut out, and a profound plot would have remained.<\/p>\n

Another thought-provoking story in Ender Wiggin\u2019s saga, I give Speaker for the Dead<\/em> 4.5 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n

\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"<\/strong>\u00a0\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"<\/strong>\u00a0\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"\u00a0\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"\u00a01\/2<\/strong><\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speaker for the Dead Year: 1986 Author: Orson Scott Card Length: 850 minutes \/ 14.17 hours In this sequel to Ender\u2019s Game, Orson Scott Card continues to provide a smartly-written plot that causes the reader to think about death in a whole new way. While the first book in the series gave some thought-provoking insights […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,54],"tags":[569,55,572,59,554,571,8,235,570],"class_list":["post-451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4-5-stars","category-book","tag-569","tag-book","tag-culture","tag-enders-game","tag-orson-scott-card","tag-religion","tag-review","tag-science-fiction","tag-speaker-for-the-dead"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":779,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451\/revisions\/779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}