Speaker for the Dead

By: Orson Scott Card

Narrated by: David Birney, Stefan Rudnicki

Length: 14 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

In the aftermath of his terrible war, Ender Wiggin disappeared, and a powerful voice arose: the Speaker for the Dead, who told the true story of the Bugger War. Now, long years later, a second alien race has been discovered by Portuguese colonists on the planet Lusitania. But again the aliens' ways are strange and frightening...again, humans die. And it is only the Speaker for the Dead, who is also Ender Wiggin the Xenocide, who has the courage to confront the mystery...and the truth. Orson Scott Card infuses this tale with intellect by casting his characters in social, religious, and cultural contexts.

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!.

Browse more titles in the Ender Wiggin series.

©1986, 1990 Orson Scott Card (P)2002 Fantastic Audio, an Imprint of Audio Literature

Critic reviews

• 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)

Even better than the first book

Loved it! It tackles deeper questions and is more reflected, more subtle. A lot of suspens, convincing reading

The real story

I never would have known if I hadn't listened to the author's commentary on the audiobook of Ender's Game, but Speaker for the Dead is the real story to him. He actually made a major change of plans with his publisher, reworked and expanded the origin story of Ender in order to effectively set up the character for what he would do in this book. This story is a masterpiece of exposition and character development, and I was so thoroughly engrossed by the time I finished it that I plan on going immediately into the next book, Xenocide.

Excellent book, fantastic performances

Listened to this years ago and decided to listen again - it definitely did not disappoint. An amazing book that leaves you feeling submerged in both the world and Ender's wisdom and understanding.

Loving the series!

Really enjoying the series since I’ve started! Can’t wait to hear the rest! Deserves all the stars!

Complex entertaining story

I thoroughly enjoyed this story, and will read it again. If you enjoyed Dune, Narnia or Alice in Wonderland I feel you will enjoy this story. It is a futuristic tale about human nature.

Jane was cringey

I loved everything about the story, but could have done without the cheesy coquette AI. It breaks immersion knowing the author was probably writing those parts one-handed

Great but with problems

The book was very good but I believe one reason it’s not as well known as Enders game was some of the psychology on why some characters did what they did, didn’t really work. Not being able to, as a reader, completely reconcile a character’s actions with who they are, and their circumstances, tends to leave you disconnecting from them (and books are all about connecting with the characters). Now this might have stood out to me as a problem because my background and education in psychology. Novinia was an example of this, and yes he described in detail why she did what she did - plus her trauma and everything- but the explanations did not line up (making it feel sloppy to me). There were also things that were said about characters but not shown, like an afterthought (generally for plot purposes).
Don’t have Miro’s brother tell me Miro is a genius, SHOW me he is. But the, otherwise, care put into writing the story was really good.

I almost quit, glad I didnt

I loved Enders Game. Was surprised to see this existed. First couple chapters were so dry that I was contemplating on giving up this book. Super glad I didn’t! Once we got past the introductions I couldn’t put it down!

One thing to note, I did not like how the readers changed it up. Either have the ladies speak for the ladies and the men for the men or just have one reader. Thats my opinion.

Overall amazing book, rough beginning.

No Spoilers

It's funny how time can improve a book. When I read this book as a teenager, I simply didn't get it. I was bored. A few decades later, I gave it another try, and I loved the story. I found that I could relate to the characters and story much better as an adult. Although it's not a direct sequel to Ender's Game, it's a good continuation of the Ender's development. The narration would have been better if they stuck with Scott Brick. The other narrators pale in comparison to Scott.

Not what I was expecting

I had heard nothing of the sequel and was looking for it to pick up where it left off. However once I got past my initial frustration on this point, I quite enjoyed the story! Way better than a politics war that the sequel could have been. Performance was good but it I wish they stuck to 2 voice actors. Picky but it was overall very good.