Speaker for the Dead
Nebula Award 1986, Hugo Award 1987, Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel 1987.
Three thousand planet-bound years have fled since Ender Wiggin won humanity's war with the Buggers by totally destroying them. Ender remains young – travelling the stars at relativistic speeds, a hundred years or more might pass while he experiences a month-long voyage. In three thousand years, his books The Hive Queen and The Hegemon have become holy writ, and the name of Ender anathema; he is the Xenocide, the one who killed an entire race of thinking, feeling beings, the only other sapient race humankind had found in all the galaxy. The only ones, that is, until the planet called Lusitania was discovered and colonized.
On Lusitania humans found another race of ramen... a young race, beings just beginning to lift their eyes to the stars and wonder what might be out there. The discovery was seen as a gift to humanity, a chance to redeem the destruction of the Buggers. And so the Pequininos, as they were named by the portuguese-speaking settlers, the "Piggies," were placed off-limits to the colony. The only humans allowed to meet them and speak with them are trained xenobiologists, and then only two at a time. This time, there will be no tragic misunderstandings leading to war. This time...
This time, again, men die – bizarrely killed by the Piggies. Andrew Wiggin is called to Lusitania to Speak the deaths of the two xenobiologists, and walks into a maelstrom of fear and hatred. To Speak for these dead, he must first unravel the web of secrets surrounding the lives of the Piggies and those who study them. He must Speak not only for the dead, but for a living alien race.
This magnificent sequel to ENDER'S GAME won both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award for Best SF Novel of the Year. Orson Scott Card is one of the finest, most innovative writers of the past decade, whose works also include the acclaimed alternate world fantasy series, The Tales of Alvin Maker.
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Orson Scott Card
Before Ender’s Game became required reading in classrooms and a touchstone for science fiction fans worldwide, it was just a short story—one that Orson Scott Card wrote while trying to understand how humanity might survive its own genius. That idea, born of curiosity and a deep interest in moral complexity, would eventually grow into a sprawling series exploring war, empathy, leadership, and the loneliness of brilliance.
Born in Richland, Washington in 1951 and raised mostly in Utah and California, Card grew up in a family where storytelling was a living thing—spoken, passed down, constantly evolving. Though he began his career writing plays and studying literature, he found his true voice in speculative fiction. And when he wrote Ender’s Game—and later Speaker for the Dead—he did something science fiction rarely dared at the time: he treated the genre as a tool for exploring the human soul.
Ender
The Ender's Game Series (or Ender Series), a series of science fiction books by Orson Scott Card.
Ender consists of four primary books, and includes three additional books that complement the series but are not considered mandatory reads. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
Main series Enderverse
