Author: Orson Scott Card
Rating: 4/5
Tags: Sci-Fi, Dystopian
Orson Scott Card is my favourite Sci-Fi author. I recently received the entire Ender Saga quintet book series. My introduction to the world of Ender was via the Speaker for the Dead. The hugely successful second book in the series, winning both the Hugo and Nebula awards similar to Ender’s Game.
I enjoyed reading Card’s introduction to the book, admitting the mixed reviews that the book has received. Especially amongst childminders - with a focus on those who work with special children. I found that, possibly due to the bias introduced by highlighting this negative reception in the introduction, I was slightly more critical of the sort of activities these children were engaging in. While most people would allude that children are definitely more capable of more than we attribute to them, I still felt that either the capabilities of these children were unrealistic, or I wouldn’t want to live in a world where children are made to go through life like this - it’s injustice.
Regardless, it’s immediate how beautiful the universe Card is creating is. Speaker for the dead is my favourite work of fiction and this book perfectly set the backdrop for what is to come in the next. The characters were diverse, however, not fully fleshed as you'd imagine, as it is a book about Ender. I believe there are so many alternative explorations that could be undergone - as confirmed by the numerous books that have been published in this universe.
It’s a worthwhile book to spend time on, with a bit of some non-popular scenes/actions and I’m curious as to how it would be received in the more critical world we currently live in.
