Talk:Speaker for the Dead

Jane

I just realized there is little mention of Jane and it isn't made apparent how close she is to Ender, nor the effect it has on Jane when Ender 'disconnects' her, and her subsequent relationship with Miro. I'm not sure at this point how to fit this into the current page.

CJHuxley (talk) 11:21, 31 January 2018 (UTC)

Overhaul

The article constantly refers to the Pequeninos as "piggies" which I don't believe follows the spirit of the novel. It makes more sense to me to primarily refer to them by their actual name while only occasionally (or perhaps only once) mentioning that they are sometimes referred to as "the piggies." Let me know if I am making too big of a deal out of this. Also, I think some of the events may be out of order. If I recall correctly, the fence was erected before Pipo was killed. I'll go back and refresh to be sure before I make any changes there.

CJHuxley (talk) 04:03, 28 January 2018 (UTC)

Spoiler

IIRC, the only spoiler here is if you haven't read Ender's Game: the article tells about as much as the back of the paperback copy, so is it really a spoiler? Also, it might be nice to have the spoiler warning below a brief description of the book but before the actual spoiler. KQ

The spoilers include many things: The fact that Libo fathered Novinha's children, The rebirth of the Buggers, the death of Pipo and Libo, etc. -63.120.61.3 22:50, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

Revised edition

The article mentions that the book was revised in 1991. It doesn't say why, though. Anyone know? I'm very curious -- was it editing the book to conform to some plot elements that only arose in later books in the series? Looking for help, to both improve the article and help my curiosity. :-) Jwrosenzweig 00:13, 19 August 2005 (UTC)

There was the Introduction, if that can count as a "revision" (I'm guessing not). Hbdragon88 07:21, 5 September 2005 (UTC)

I believe OSC discusses some of his changes in the introduction. If not, I can ask him. My guess is that the changes were very small. -63.120.61.3 22:50, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

Wikify Template

This atricle needs to be updated to better reflect this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels/ArticleTemplate -- I don't have the time to currently do it, so I added the template in hopes that someone else might. --SSTwinrova 22:31, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

This was my first attempt at answering the call to Wikify something. Better? Phauge 20:52, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

Analysis

I would think that post all sorts of cool things about this book. They don’t have to be too deep, we should at least start with high-school book report deep. Here is the first thing that comes to my mind…

1. Perceived justice of a cause changing through history. Originally Ender was worshiped, and then he was hated. The buggers were first hated, and then there was supposedly love. However, how deep was the love? It was shown that society was willing to re-perpetrate history’s mistakes. There are many parallels. For instance treatment of American Indians.

Conflicts:

1. Ender vs. The Bishop. This is a power struggle between the Bishop, who at first sees a "Speaker for the Dead" as a threat to the balance in the community.
2. Star Congress vs Listuania. Listuania's charter is revoked when it is discovered that rules have been broke with regard to conflict with the piggies. Star Congress sees the rules as ways to protect the piggies from "cultural contamination" however Ender convinces others that they are lying to themselves and they are really trying to protect their own interest.

Children Of The Mind

Why isn`t there a article on the last book??

There is. Children of the Mind. QueenStupid 15:22, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

Hard Science Fiction

I was about to remove the reference to Ender's Game being hard science fiction, since I don't think that children's space fantasies qualify under any definition of hard sf, but I wanted to look for other opinions first.

I removed it. It's an absurd claim. If you just follow the link included in that section and read about what is considered "hard science fiction" it's clear that either the person who originally wrote that never read Ender's Game or they had never read the definition of hard science fiction. Ender's Game focuses MUCH more on psychology, ethics, and morality than it does on the specific and accurate representation of science that typifies "hard science fiction."

Reception and Criticism

This page really needs more info on reception/criticism. I'm going to start find some info. If anyone finds some good sources can you post a link here. Thanks Ziphon (^ALL_ears) 04:49, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

There's an excellent critical review of the novels, Speaker and Ender's Game, at this website: http://www4.ncsu.edu/~tenshi/Killer_000.htm It appeared in the periodical Foundation, the International Review of Science Fiction, and spends most of its time analyzing the (occasionally heavy-handed) moral arguments Card has impregnated in the aforementioned novels.

Recursion

I don't know much about these books, so can't really correct this, but if you follow the "followed by" links you go:

Speaker for the Dead > Xenocide > Children of the Mind > A War of Gifts: An Ender Story > Ender in Exile > Speaker for the Dead

I'm guessing that this is a publication date/series chronology mix up - can someone who knows the series correct it? Of course, if it's some sort of time-travel thing, all bets are off.. :)

ya, there's just some confusion about whether they should go chronologically or in order of release. They all go in chronological order untill "A War of Gifts" but that one is parallel with Ender's Game chronologically and shouldn't really be included unless they go in order of releases. In that case "Ender's Shadow" should come after "Children of the Mind". I personally think that they should go in order of release because there are too many novels happening at the same time or crossing over each other to make any sense out of having them chronologically. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jelloshooter (talk • contribs) 08:06, 28 November 2008 (UTC)

Tomandlu (talk) 13:26, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Jane

is first mentioned in the Ender section, but who she is is never explained. I don't remember the details well enough to fix this, but it seems like it would be confusing to someone who didn't already know who she was. · rodii · 02:30, 10 March 2011 (UTC)

Plot Summary

The first two sections are in the reverse order. The section leading to Pipo's death should go before the section on Ender arriving at Lusitania. If no one disagrees, I'll fix it soon. -Beachdude42

Lusitania

Hey. This question could be totally random, but I want to know if Orson Scott Card named Lusitania for the ship "Lusitania" that was sunk by Germany in World War I, when Germany practiced Unrestricted Submarine Warfare. I mean I just read the book, and today my History teacher started talking to us about the Lusitania and causes why America was dragged into World War I. Anyone see a connection between the two? (the Lusitania was an English cruise-liner that had 138 Americans and about 2000 people total on board when it was sunk by Germany. Just some extra info). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.185.56.143 (talk) 00:42, 5 October 2011 (UTC)

"Lusitania" means, roughly, Portugal. It was a Roman province more or less coextensive with modern Portugal. The settlers of Lusitania speak Portuguese--I assume they named the planet after their ancestral homeland. · rodii · 18:33, 1 November 2011 (UTC)

Awards

The introduction indicates that Card was the first to win the Hugo and the Nebula in consecutive years. Didn't William Gibson do it in '84-85 with Neuromancer? Anyone object to removing that "fact" from the article? BrentRockwood (talk) 02:01, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

WP:Be Bold, Sadads (talk) 17:13, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

References