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Speaker for the Dead
- Narrated by: David Birney, Stefan Rudnicki
- Series: The Enderverse, Book 11, The Ender Saga, Book 2
- Length: 14 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Science Fiction
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Xenocide
- Volume Three of the Ender Saga
- Written by: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: Scott Brick, Gabrielle de Cuir, Amanda Karr, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Xenocide is the third installment of the Ender series. On Lusitania, Ender found a world where humans and pequeninos and the Hive Queen could all live together; where three very different intelligent species could find common ground at last. Or so he thought. But Lusitania also harbors the descolada, a virus which kills all humans it infects, but which the pequeninos require in order to transform into adults.
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a let down compared to speaker for the dead.
- By Amazon Customer on 2018-11-13
Written by: Orson Scott Card
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Children of the Mind
- Written by: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: Gabrielle de Cuir, John Rubinstein
- Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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The planet Lusitania is home to three sentient species: a large colony of humans; the Pequeninos; and the Hive Queen, who was brought there by Ender Wiggin. Once again, the enemy (the Starways Congress) has gathered a fleet and is threatening to destroy Lusitania. Ender's oldest friend, Jane, an evolved computer intelligence, is trying to save the three sentient species of Lusitania, but the Starways Congress is destroying the computer world she lives in.
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beautiful story loved it.
- By Amazon Customer on 2021-09-17
Written by: Orson Scott Card
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Ender's Game
- Special 20th Anniversary Edition
- Written by: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Harlan Ellison, Gabrielle de Cuir
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Why we think it’s a great listen: It’s easy to say that when it comes to sci-fi you either love it or you hate it. But with Ender’s Game, it seems to be you either love it or you love it.... The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Enter Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, the result of decades of genetic experimentation.
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Probably a great story. But...
- By Ben & Maggie McGrath on 2018-03-12
Written by: Orson Scott Card
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Ender's Shadow
- Written by: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: Scott Brick, Gabrielle de Cuir, full cast
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Andrew "Ender" Wiggin was not the only child in the Battle School; he was just the best of the best. In this book, Card tells the story of another of those precocious generals, the one they called Bean, the one who became Ender's right hand, part of his team, in the final battle against the Buggers. Bean's past was a battle just to survive. His success brought him to the attention of the Battle School's recruiters.
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Better than Enders game
- By Kris C on 2020-10-10
Written by: Orson Scott Card
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Ender in Exile
- Written by: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, David Birney, Cassandra Campbell, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Andrew Wiggin is told that he can no longer live on Earth, and he realizes that this is the truth. He has become far more than just a boy who won a game: he is the Savior of Earth, a hero, a military genius whose allegiance is sought by every nation of the newly shattered Earth Hegemony. He is offered the choice of living in isolation on Eros, at one of the Hegemony's training facilities, but instead the 12-year-old chooses to leave his home world and begin the long relativistic journey out to the colonies.
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Can’t get enough of it!
- By Frank Borst on 2021-02-25
Written by: Orson Scott Card
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Shadow of the Hegemon
- Written by: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: David Birney, Scott Brick, Gabrielle de Cuir
- Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Orson Scott Card tells a tale long awaited by millions of fans: the story of how Bean turned away from his first friend, Ender, and became the tactical genius who won the Earth for Ender's brother, Peter, who became the Hegemon.
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What happens with this audio book?
- By Amazon Customer on 2020-12-10
Written by: Orson Scott Card
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Xenocide
- Volume Three of the Ender Saga
- Written by: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: Scott Brick, Gabrielle de Cuir, Amanda Karr, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Xenocide is the third installment of the Ender series. On Lusitania, Ender found a world where humans and pequeninos and the Hive Queen could all live together; where three very different intelligent species could find common ground at last. Or so he thought. But Lusitania also harbors the descolada, a virus which kills all humans it infects, but which the pequeninos require in order to transform into adults.
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a let down compared to speaker for the dead.
- By Amazon Customer on 2018-11-13
Written by: Orson Scott Card
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Children of the Mind
- Written by: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: Gabrielle de Cuir, John Rubinstein
- Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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The planet Lusitania is home to three sentient species: a large colony of humans; the Pequeninos; and the Hive Queen, who was brought there by Ender Wiggin. Once again, the enemy (the Starways Congress) has gathered a fleet and is threatening to destroy Lusitania. Ender's oldest friend, Jane, an evolved computer intelligence, is trying to save the three sentient species of Lusitania, but the Starways Congress is destroying the computer world she lives in.
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beautiful story loved it.
- By Amazon Customer on 2021-09-17
Written by: Orson Scott Card
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Ender's Game
- Special 20th Anniversary Edition
- Written by: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Harlan Ellison, Gabrielle de Cuir
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Why we think it’s a great listen: It’s easy to say that when it comes to sci-fi you either love it or you hate it. But with Ender’s Game, it seems to be you either love it or you love it.... The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Enter Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, the result of decades of genetic experimentation.
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Probably a great story. But...
- By Ben & Maggie McGrath on 2018-03-12
Written by: Orson Scott Card
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Ender's Shadow
- Written by: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: Scott Brick, Gabrielle de Cuir, full cast
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Andrew "Ender" Wiggin was not the only child in the Battle School; he was just the best of the best. In this book, Card tells the story of another of those precocious generals, the one they called Bean, the one who became Ender's right hand, part of his team, in the final battle against the Buggers. Bean's past was a battle just to survive. His success brought him to the attention of the Battle School's recruiters.
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Better than Enders game
- By Kris C on 2020-10-10
Written by: Orson Scott Card
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Ender in Exile
- Written by: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, David Birney, Cassandra Campbell, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Andrew Wiggin is told that he can no longer live on Earth, and he realizes that this is the truth. He has become far more than just a boy who won a game: he is the Savior of Earth, a hero, a military genius whose allegiance is sought by every nation of the newly shattered Earth Hegemony. He is offered the choice of living in isolation on Eros, at one of the Hegemony's training facilities, but instead the 12-year-old chooses to leave his home world and begin the long relativistic journey out to the colonies.
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Can’t get enough of it!
- By Frank Borst on 2021-02-25
Written by: Orson Scott Card
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Shadow of the Hegemon
- Written by: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: David Birney, Scott Brick, Gabrielle de Cuir
- Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Orson Scott Card tells a tale long awaited by millions of fans: the story of how Bean turned away from his first friend, Ender, and became the tactical genius who won the Earth for Ender's brother, Peter, who became the Hegemon.
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What happens with this audio book?
- By Amazon Customer on 2020-12-10
Written by: Orson Scott Card
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Shadow of the Giant
- Written by: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: David Birney, Scott Brick, Full Cast
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Bean was the smallest student at the Battle School, but he became Ender Wiggins' right hand. Since then he has grown to be a power on Earth. He served the Hegemon as strategist and general in the terrible wars that followed Ender's defeat of the alien empire attacking Earth. Now he and his wife Petra yearn for a safe place to build a family - something he has never known - but there is nowhere on Earth that does not harbor his enemies - old enemies from the days in Ender's Jeesh, new enemies from the wars on Earth.
Written by: Orson Scott Card
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Shadow Puppets
- Written by: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: David Birney, Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Best selling SF author Orson Scott Card brings to life a new chapter in the saga of Ender's Earth.
Earth and its society have been changed irrevocably in the aftermath of Ender Wiggin's victory over the Formics. The unity forced upon the warring nations by an alien enemy has shattered. Nations are rising again, seeking territory and influence, and most of all, seeking to control the skills and loyalty of the children from the Battle School.
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Strong start and tappers off from there
- By Robert Walters on 2021-08-07
Written by: Orson Scott Card
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Shadows in Flight
- Written by: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Emily Janice Card, Scott Brick, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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At the end of Shadow of the Giant, Bean flees to the stars with three of his children--the three who share the engineered genes that gave him both hyper-intelligence and a short, cruel physical life. The time dilation granted by the speed of their travel gives Earth’s scientists generations to seek a cure, to no avail. In time, they are forgotten - a fading ansible signal speaking of events lost to Earth’s history. But the Delphikis are about to make a discovery that will let them save themselves, and perhaps all of humanity in days to come.
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Back to the roots
- By Amazon Customer on 2021-02-03
Written by: Orson Scott Card
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The Last Shadow
- Other Tales from the Ender Universe
- Written by: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: Emily Rankin, Gabrielle de Cuir, John Rubinstein, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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One planet. Three sapient species living peacefully together. And one deadly virus that could wipe out every world in the Starways Congress, killing billions. Is the only answer another great Xenocide?
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We waited years for THIS?
- By Anonymous User on 2021-11-29
Written by: Orson Scott Card
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Earth Unaware
- Written by: Orson Scott Card, Aaron Johnston
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Stephen Hoye, Arthur Morey, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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The mining ship El Cavador is far out from Earth, in the deeps of the Kuiper Belt, beyond Pluto. Other mining ships, and the families that live on them, are few and far between this far out. So when El Cavador’s telescopes pick up a fast-moving object coming in-system, it’s hard to know what to make of it. It’s massive and moving at a significant fraction of the speed of light.
El Cavador has other problems. Their systems are old and failing. The family is getting too big for the ship. There are claim-jumping corporate ships bringing Asteroid Belt tactics to the Kuiper Belt.
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earth unaware
- By Kim Ford on 2020-06-18
Written by: Orson Scott Card, and others
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Earth Awakens
- The First Formic War, Book 3
- Written by: Aaron Johnston, Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Stephen Hoye, Arthur Morey, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Nearly 100 years before the events of Orson Scott Card’s best-selling novel Ender’s Game, humans were just beginning to step off Earth and out into the Solar System. A thin web of ships in both asteroid belts; a few stations; a corporate settlement on Luna. No one had seen any sign of other space-faring races; everyone expected that First Contact, if it came, would happen in the future, in the empty reaches between the stars. Then a young navigator on a distant mining ship saw something moving too fast, heading directly for our sun.
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Great audiobook with some minor annoyances
- By Willem Buitendyk on 2021-06-07
Written by: Aaron Johnston, and others
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The Swarm
- The Second Formic War (Volume 1)
- Written by: Orson Scott Card, Aaron Johnston
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Vikas Adam, Stephen Hoye, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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The first invasion of Earth was beaten back by a coalition of corporate and international military forces and the Chinese army. China has been devastated by the Formic's initial efforts to eradicate Earth life forms and prepare the ground for their own settlement. The Scouring of China struck fear into the other nations of the planet; that fear blossomed into drastic action when scientists determined that the single ship that wreaked such damage was merely a scout ship. There is a mothership out beyond the solar system's Kuiper Belt, and it's heading into the system.
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If you liked the first Trilogy, this is for you
- By Michael R Wood on 2020-10-29
Written by: Orson Scott Card, and others
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Earth Afire
- Written by: Orson Scott Card, Aaron Johnston
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye, Arthur Morey, Stefan Rudnicki, and others
- Length: 15 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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One hundred years before Ender's Game, the aliens arrived on Earth with fire and death. Earth Afire by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston is the story of the First Formic War. Victor Delgado beat the alien ship to Earth, but just barely. Not soon enough to convince skeptical governments that there was a threat. They didn’t believe that until space stations and ships and colonies went up in sudden flame. And when that happened, only Mazer Rackham and the Mobile Operations Police could move fast enough to meet the threat.
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The book is great. The voice acting is not
- By Gavin Frei on 2020-12-14
Written by: Orson Scott Card, and others
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The Hive
- The Second Formic War, Book 2
- Written by: Orson Scott Card, Aaron Johnston
- Narrated by: full cast
- Length: 15 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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A coalition of Earth’s nations barely fought off the Formics’ first scout ship. Now, it’s clear there’s a mothership out on edge of the system and that the aliens are prepared to take Earth by force. Can Earth’s warring nations and corporations put aside their differences and mount an effective defense?
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A perfect 2nd act
- By Cyrus on 2019-07-06
Written by: Orson Scott Card, and others
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First Meetings
- In the Enderverse
- Written by: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: Gabrielle De Cuir, Amanda Karr, Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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First Meetings is a collection of three novellas (plus the original "Ender's Game") that journey into the origins and the destiny of one Ender Wiggin.
Written by: Orson Scott Card
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Children of the Fleet
- Written by: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Ender Wiggin won the Third Formic war, ending the alien threat to Earth. Afterwards, all the terraformed Formic worlds were open to settlement by humans, and the International Fleet became the arm of the Ministry of Colonization, run by Hirum Graff. MinCol now runs Fleet School on the old Battle School station, and still recruits very smart kids to train as leaders of colony ships, and colonies.
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Nice addition to the endervers.
- By spitfire402 on 2020-05-22
Written by: Orson Scott Card
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A War of Gifts
- An Ender Story
- Written by: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: Scott Brick, Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 2 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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At Battle School, there is only one purpose, only one curriculum: the strategy and tactics of war. The children are drawn from all nations, all races, all religions. There is no room for cultural differences, no room for religious observances, and certainly no room for Santa Claus.
Written by: Orson Scott Card
Publisher's Summary
This, the author's definitive edition of the sequel to Ender's Game, also includes an original postscript written and recorded by the author himself, Orson Scott Card!.
What the critics say
- Hugo Award Winner, Best Novel, 1987
- Nebula Award Winner, Best Novel, 1986
"The most powerful work Card has produced. Speaker not only completes Ender's Game, it transcends it." (Fantasy Review)
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What listeners say about Speaker for the Dead
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Zachary Wood
- 2022-03-25
just an amazing book!
If you fell in love with Ender and his world this is a must book to continue on with as BOOK 2 in the Enders saga.
hope they remake the Enders Game movie correctly so we can see this book as a movie!
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- J. Ostafew
- 2022-01-01
Not what I expected, but thoroughly enjoyed it
Having read Ender's Game first I was expecting something similar, and while this is a continuation in the lives of Ender and Valentine, it's a different kind of story. Well written and read, another great story.
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- Anonymous User
- 2021-06-07
Epstein didn't kill himself
Good, but not as good as Ender's Game or Ender's Shadow. A few poor narration points, but a good story and worth the listen.
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- Cristine
- 2020-12-31
Captivating listen!
Great continuation of Enders Game that explores an in-depth look at Enders life purpose and the future of the human & alien races. Highly recommend! Audio voices also superb!
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- eb
- 2020-12-24
Awesome story, Awesome narration
A very engaging package. Mystery, science fiction, philosophy, adventure, culture, biology.. but most of all, a wonderful and meaningful message
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- Lkitchener
- 2020-07-23
Great story
I enjoyed this second installment to the Ender's Game series, however I did like the first one better. This book an excellent follow up and I am looking forward to listening to the 3rd book!
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- David Richardson
- 2019-09-25
Good read
Overall I enjoyed this one. It's not as good as Ender's Game, and it takes a while for the story to build but it was a good read. Narrator was excellent I thought
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- Joseph Gindo
- 2019-01-25
Best Fictional Book I've Ever Read
It has a powerful message delivered in a complex and eloquent manner 👌 Loved It!!
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- Amazon Customer
- 2018-10-19
great book, average performance
the voice actors felt flat and transition from actor to actor was frustrating. the story itself was amazing, bringing up interesting ideas and intriguing mystery.
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- Jesse1983
- 2018-07-03
what a great reading of a terrific story.
cards insight into the complexity of human life and struggles is amazing. the way he brings it out in Speaker for the Dead brought me to the brink of Tears a few times. how that's possible with a book in this genre I don't know, but card did it.
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- Joe
- 2005-06-13
The Enderverse
This is my favorite science fiction series. The characters are easy to identify with, and you will find yourself sucked into this imaginary universe, nicknamed the Enderverse by fans.
Recommended order of reading (in my opinion): Ender?s Game, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, Shadow of the Giant, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind. Reading the books in this order will keep you interested and keep the story moving more naturally.
If after reading all of these wonderful books you are still itching for an Enderverse fix then read First Meetings. The list above is sorted by the Enderverse timeline. Meaning that the flow of events in the stories are uninterrupted. If you were to read the books in the order they were published, you would bounce back and forth in between time and few of the plot twists in future books would be revealed before you wanted them to be known. First Meetings, however contains short stories that occur both before and in between the list above within the Enderverse.
193 people found this helpful
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- Scott Fabel
- 2013-04-24
Great story, but the performance was dreadful
After having read "Ender's Game," I was eager to read "Speaker for the Dead." I was definitely not disappointed. According to interviews with the author, Orson Scott Card, "Speaker for the Dead" was the original book that he wanted to write. He wrote "Ender's Game" as a kind of introduction to "Speaker for the Dead." Although "Ender's Game" has become far more well-known and more popular than "Speaker for the Dead," I can see why this was the story that the author really wanted to write. The story is much richer and deeper. I feel as if it's written for a more mature audience, and its themes reflect that maturity. Don't get me wrong. I loved "Ender's Game," yet I think I enjoyed "Speaker for the Dead" just as much--only for different reasons.
Let me get the bad news out of the way. The audio recording of this book was terrible. I don't want to say that the actual performance of the narrators was bad because it really wasn't. The problem was that there were just too many narrators, and they were used inconsistently throughout the book. At times, there were shifts from one narrator to another mid-paragraph, and it didn't seem to be done for any reason. I certainly don't want to say that this lessened the story in any way. After all, it's the same story whether listening to one narrator or 50. Even so, the shifting back and forth was distracting. As if that weren't bad enough, there was also periodic background music that was played during the performance. Again, this seemed to show up in random locations. There was one location in particular in which music just started playing mid-sentence and the ended in the middle of the following sentence. Usually, I expect some of that background music to signal a change in chapter, theme, or something else recognizable. That was surely not the case here. Again, it didn't lessen the story, but it was distracting. It wouldn't be such a bad thing for the story to be re-recorded without the performance issues.
Now, on to the good news. This book takes place 3000 years after "Ender's Game"; however, thanks to space travel at relativistic speeds, both Ender and Valentine are still alive--and in their 30s! In many ways, this book picks up not long after "Ender's Game" concludes. Ender has now become the Speaker for the Dead. After the events that occurred earlier in his life (in "Ender's Game"), he decides to dedicate himself to speaking the death of other people. Perhaps he sees this as atonement for his earlier life. In this book, humans have discovered a new, alien life form, the Pequeninos (also known as "piggies"), on the planet Lusitania. A death occurs on this planet, and Ender is called to speak the death.
This book is far more philosophical than "Ender's Game." The Speaker for the Dead does not deliver a traditional eulogy for those who have died. Instead, he speaks the truth. This concept resonated strongly with me because I think a lot of people don't get to have the truth spoken at their funerals. While this idea of speaking for the dead is a central theme of the book, there are many others. For example, the interactions between the humans and the piggies is extraordinary. It frames the way in which we, as humans, look at anything or anyone who is different from us, as something that needs to be either protected or changed. We seem to think that we are the most evolved species and, subsequently, the most intelligent. Although the book doesn't necessarily contradict this belief, it does make the reader question it. Finally, I want to also mention that the Catholic Church is alive and well in the far-off future. There were very interesting discussions of religious themes throughout the book. The Catholic Church has a prominent role on Lusitania, and it must somehow align its teachings with the new reality of an alien life form.
Overall, this was an enjoyable read. It still exists in the same general universe as "Ender's Game," yet it is its own story. The more mature philosophical themes make this a great book for older readers, but it's still science fiction. This seems to be a great combination, and I look forward to reading other books in the Ender series.
53 people found this helpful
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- Josh Mitchell
- 2006-04-13
Good story, okay narration
First, this isn't Ender's Game. It's an entirely different kind of story, so if you're looking for the pseudo-military sci-fi action of Ender's Game, you will be disappointed. That said, this is one of Card's better works, with rich, interesting characters and a fascinating (if slower-moving) plot.
The multi-person reading is not very well done, however. At best, it's distracting; at worst, obnoxious--one of the female readers, in particular, has a habit of reading every sentence as though it's the saddest and most important thing ever written. The book's main narrator is (fortunately) quite good.
Overall, recommended.
28 people found this helpful
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- Doug
- 2009-06-19
Great book, really don't like the female reading
Just like Ender's game this is a great book. Harder to get through though. Card spends more time on character development than really needed. The woman who does a good bit of the reading is a bit too melodramatic for my ears.
16 people found this helpful
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- Cathleen
- 2003-01-19
Amazing!!!!
As much as I enjoyed Ender's Game, I loved this book more. I liked the action of Ender's Game, but it was the inner conflicts and thoughts of his character that I really enjoyed. (Card made me really care about Ender and what happened to him.) It is just this kind of intimacy that I think is the core of this book. It has such emotional intensity with a transcendant spirituality,that made me want to "inhale" this book. I found myself just sitting in my car long after I had reached my destination just to complete another chapter. This book grabbed me and flung me on the roller coaster of its message, and I didn't want to ever get off.
21 people found this helpful
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- AB
- 2008-02-13
The Anti-Ender's Game
I picked this book because I had very much enjoyed Ender's Game and "Speaker" is the continuation of the story. However, it is also completely different in speed and style. While "Ender's Game" is mostly science fiction of the technical kind (spaceships, battles, etc.) and moves along well most of the time, "Speaker" is a tedious, slow-as-molasses study of religion, family relationships, childhood neuroses, and endlessly repeated sermons on tolerance. The passages in Portuguese, on the Catholic teachings, and others are tedious and boring.
You may end up liking "Speaker", but it won't be for the same reasons you may like "Ender's Game". Be forewarned.
65 people found this helpful
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- The Kindler
- 2016-02-27
Brilliant
Any additional comments?
There is a lot of controversy around Card but he still writes really interesting books that require the reader to think about the implications of each action and reaction. It is a wonderful masterpiece and deserves the reader to think critically about the ideas of Card.
5 people found this helpful
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- J. T. Mitchum
- 2009-01-07
As implied by title: Not Ender's Game
I enjoyed this book, but I enjoyed it because I did not expect Ender's Game proper.
There was a lot about Ender's Game I enjoyed, but I can sub-categorize all my favorite parts into two important distinctions. Military strategy and group leadership versus interpersonal development and politics.
If you really only enjoyed the military portions of Ender's Game, then you may consider leaving Speaker of the Dead out. Scott Card wrote Ender's Game so he could write Speaker for the Dead. The way he writes the characters in Speaker for the Dead I have found to be a reliable measure for his other books in the Enderverse.
Reading about waging a war is awesome because of the absolution both sides of a war feel, a solidarity under one banner, so to speak. At the end of war, we have fractured absolution and limited solidarity -- complex topics to say the least.
Speaker for the dead is about this post-war universe. The threads of religion and science woven throughout the personalities is beautifully done in a way that should be neutral enough to spawn debate, but with the author's beliefs only somewhat veiled. Reading a book like this often makes me feel we are more predictable in groups than we are when left to our private choices.
This book gives weight to the phrase "where there is a will, there is a way." Of course -- not all wills are good ones ...
33 people found this helpful
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- Joe O.
- 2012-11-29
Great story, poor narration
Is there anything you would change about this book?
Use consistent narration. Using several different people that change the emotional delivery and even the gender of the voice is distracting and annoying. Plus, the woman sounds like she should be reading smut, not sci-fi.
Who would you have cast as narrator instead of David Birney and Stefan Rudnicki ?
These weren't the only narrators. I would have stuck with them.
9 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Helen Foster-Turner
- 2007-01-10
I loved it, you may or may not
I felt as though this was a book I should have read years ago and regretted that I did not.
Like many others who have reviewed this book, I also enjoyed Enders Game but took up Speaker for the Dead with no preconceived ideas. The first part of this novel is rightly spent setting up the rest and, since the story that follows is based on the characters experiences and the emotions that arise because of them, they form the important foundation for the rest of the novel. In other words it contextualises it.
If you want another Enders Game, then it is not the same. It is richer, deeper and slower to build. It requires a reader with empathy, a little patience and an open mind.
I will not nitpick the science but it was written a while ago and our collective understanding and expectations have changed in the interim. I do believe, however, that eventually technological development will plateau as we discover all the technology that will serve us and it will remain somewhat similar until something changes to cause the next great cycle of advancement.
It touched me and it made me think which is all I can ask of any book.
9 people found this helpful