Speaker for the Dead

Not all sci-fi’s are considered equal, especially sequels.  In Orson Scott Card’s Speaker for the Dead (a follow-up to one of my favorites, Ender’s Game) we learn what happens to Ender, many years later.  At the end of the last book, Ender is transporting “precious cargo” which turns out to be the Hive Queen, which he looks to bring to a new planet, Lusitania, which  has many anthropologists and biologists (of that time) which are studying a species called the ‘piggies’ on the land.  The leading scientists are fighting diseases with the two “superstars” dying before they can create a vaccine for themselves, but their daughter, Novinha, lives and as she agrees takes over the work of her parents.  She faces challenges of her peers in keeping the secret of the virus which the piggies want for their own purposes.  To keep them at bay, Novinha calls for “a speaker of the dead” (who happens to be Ender, or Andrew Wiggin – you need to read the book to understand the distinction, gets complicated) for help.  There are a series of characters between the worlds Ender lived in, pre-Lusitania (where he and his sister live) and the world that Novinha is attempting to save.  Ender arrives through time travel (eclipsing twenty-two year’s time) to assist Novinha.  The Hive Queen comes to life to challenge the group and Ender, now known as Andrew Wiggins (going back to his original self), to see who will live in the next generation. 

There is more to this one, but I lost a great deal of interest with the “back and forth” of the past/present and future, Ender/Wiggins and or Andrew, plus Novinha and her parent’s death, her love affair and mothering of her friend’s children (who died by the virus) and of course the whole meaning of what a speaker for the dead really is for this book.  Sci fi fans may love this one, I was bored and confused and had to re-read sections of the story, always a sign that you are losing interest.  So I may not be the best judge of character for responding to this one… but in the end, hoping there is not yet another return for Ender post Lusitania.