Review Speaker for the Dead Orson Scott Card

Review of Orson Scott Card's Speaker for the Dead 1985

Speaker for the Dead is the sequel to Enders Game and is a much more interesting story than the prior. The author himself says that EG was just the setup for SFTD, SFTD was the story he really wanted to tell. There is a lot of loss built into the world with light speed travel, and in comparison to the other characters, Ender is like an immortal, reinventing himself over millennia although he has lived a normal lifespan. His sister did likewise, traveling through the stars with him until they reached the snowy nordic inspired planet, where she married and put down roots. He leaves her behind but his other "sister" Jane is an emergent AI or super consciousness inhabiting the FTL ansible network. SFTD was published in 1986, certainly emergent AIs were not a radical idea sans precedent, she is a bit of an insensitive callow bitch tho, prompting Ender to terminate their connection in an emotionally intense, distracted moment.

Her primary imprinting was when she discovered the battle games Ender played, the extended version Ender created when he killed the Giant, essentially a hack of the game. This isn't unlike the Kobiahi Maru Kirk pulls off in the cinematic Star Trek universe, tho Enders hack was through sheer persistence. The extended version was customized to his personality, which is why Jane seeks him out and reveals herself.

His speaking for the death of the abusive husband is blatant exposition, and not unlike the penultimate scene in a detective novel, Agatha Christie's Poirot explaining how the murder was committed.

His superpower is his empathic talent, to think like the enemy (or ally) and thus have the truth spread open like a book.