[tdnewton]

I just finished reading Ender's Game and LOVED it. Once I got done kicking myself for not reading it earlier on in life, I picked up the sequel Speaker for the Dead and was immediately turned off. Has anyone else had this reaction? Should I give it a few chapters to warm up, or what?

[SusF]

You know I loved Ender's Game and I read the sequels, but I really think the story could have just stopped with the first book.

I got to where I liked the sequels but they were just not even in the same league or seemed to belong to the same story as Ender's Game.

[tdnewton]

Interesting. In Card's commentary (on the audio version I read), he says that Speaker was really the book he wanted to write, and that he rewrote Ender's Game from a novella into a novel so that it could be the jumping off point. He said he "just had fun" with Ender's Game because he was just getting to where he wanted to be... and somehow it worked. Makes me wonder why he didn't "just have fun" with the other books, if what you're saying is true.

[Dyloot]

I just finished reading Ender's Game and LOVED it. Once I got done kicking myself for not reading it earlier on in life, I picked up the sequel Speaker for the Dead and was immediately turned off. Has anyone else had this reaction? Should I give it a few chapters to warm up, or what?

Yes. It wasn't at all what I was expecting. And yes, I did get sucked in and enjoy it thoroughly. Both Speaker and Xenocide are good, but Children of the Mind not so much.

If you want more of Ender's Game, check out Ender's Shadow. It's the battleschool story from Bean's perspective. My opinion on ES might be a bit skewed, however, since I never expected to have a second opportunity to enjoy battleschool... so I just ate it up.

Sadly, Card has regressed as an author and his later Ender novels are bad. And I don't often call books bad... but they are. The last Ender book may have been the worst book I've read in 5 or 10 years.

BUT, Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide were all great in my opinion. :)

[psikeyhackr]

I liked Ender's Shadow but Speaker for the Dead was only tolerable.

To me the relevance of the stories is the psychological manipulation of children. Do you think anyone really knows the ultimate impact of this electronic bombardment we have today? Did human brains evolve to deal with this?

At least you can say in Ender's Game the manipulation was much more controlled and had a specific objective. But in the real world one corporation is trying to jerk you to do this and another is trying to push you to do that. Little kids can't really think much about it they just grow up regarding it as NORMAL.

Reading sci-fi became NORMAL for me at 10 but it contained ideas explaining stuff that adults weren't telling me.

Cost of Living by Robert Sheckley
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29458/29458-h/29458-h.htm

psik

[Smitty]

I just finished reading Ender's Game and LOVED it. Once I got done kicking myself for not reading it earlier on in life, I picked up the sequel Speaker for the Dead and was immediately turned off. Has anyone else had this reaction? Should I give it a few chapters to warm up, or what?

I read the ender series back in the day am I am currently rereading (audible baby!) and I am currently on Xenocide. I read Ender's Shadow as well and loved it. I have not read the sequels to Ender's Shadow but might some day.

Anyway, I loved them all. The big strength about OSC in my opinion is that his characterization and relationship building is very strong.

[nquixote]

Ender's Game is a much better book. However, both are big turn-offs for me.

[Dyloot]

I read the ender series back in the day am I am currently rereading (audible baby!) and I am currently on Xenocide. I read Ender's Shadow as well and loved it. I have not read the sequels to Ender's Shadow but might some day.

Anyway, I loved them all. The big strength about OSC in my opinion is that his characterization and relationship building is very strong.

I would not recommend reading the sequels to Ender's Shadow. :D

Or do, and come back and we can talk about 'em. It's pretty rare that I meet anyone who read past the first five Ender books.

[Dyloot]

Ender's Game is a much better book. However, both are big turn-offs for me.

I dunno. I have mixed feelings. I loved them at 15. Both won Nebula and Hugo awards, and Speaker won a Locus Award. I had a college professor once lecture about Speaker...

Still... his later works are some of the worst I've ever read. I'm honestly a bit baffled that an author can regress so much over two decades.

[Jeroen]

I actually think Speaker for the Dead is the better book. I devoured it.

The two are very different indeed in tone and content. But Speaker for the Dead was actually the book that Card wanted to write, as he tells it in the introduction, and he came up with Ender's Game as a sort of prequel to Speaker for the Dead. I was immensely impressed with the intelligence and the conscience and love for other souls that Card displays in Speaker for the Dead. He presents Ender as a kind of super thoughtful and charismatic guru as I am sure Card himself wanted to be if he could. And I think he pulls it off and gives a range and depth to the Ender of Ender's Game. Speaker for the Dead is also one of the very best novels about first contact and understanding a strange alien race.

In comparison with Speaker for the Dead, Ender's Game is a more shallow, juvenile adventure in my opinion. But I can perfectly imagine that if you were expecting something similar to Ender's Game, you will feel cheated. Perhaps Speaker for the Dead is not for everybody. If you want to enjoy it, let go of expectations and brace yourself for something more philosophical.