Calum

Sequel to Ender's Game, set three thousand years after its end. Ender is now a Speaker for the Dead, recounting the lives, motives, thoughts and actions of those he is called to speak.

Orson Scott Card wrote Ender's Game almost as an introduction to this book. Although it did not recieve as much recognition, it deals with many more complex issues - especially the treatment of strangers through Demosthenes' groupings of utlanning, framling, ramen and varelse. Much of the story focuses on recognising that the species known as piggies are ramen, the stranger that is human but not homo sapiens, rather than varelse, like the animals. Brings up ideas of how we judge others that we don't know. Neither the Xenocide nor minimal intervention is the right way.

Other characters include Novinha, a xenobiologist, and her children in the colony. They tell us something of fear and guilt, and the way that different people deal with different issues (Ender's speaking is masterful in its comprehension of the events, as well as the audience reaction.)

Enjoyable also due to the concepts of scifi technology introduced. The ansibles enable instantaneous communication, but the ideas behind starflight, protection, genetic engineering, and the unique biology of Lusitania are ideas worth revisiting.

Definitely looking forward to Xenocide, the next book.

lysanderoth au chune

I was hit a lot harder by this than the first. In hindsight, The Blade Itself is setup. This book lets the characters breathe a lot more, and gets to have them interact, both directly and in allusion and parallel. It makes me think a great deal about anger, since so many of the characters seem at its mercy. But it's the softer moments, especially “Scars” and the last chapter “Back to the Mud”, which elicited sobs. I don't know if I'd say there is a nihilistic thread to this so far, almost the opposite. Somehow, despite tragedy, it feels hopeful - not explicitly, but nevertheless.

After my unsuccessful murder I wasn't unhappy for an entire year.

A couple of diamonds in here but an awful lot of rough. “Reprieve” I enjoyed immensely and brought up repeatedly. I was constantly thinking about his near death experience and subsequent elation as a pretty revealing anecdote about the nature of happiness and sadness, and how relative they are. “An Insult to the Brain” I found really quite funny as a discussion on stories, and how we construct them and find escape and meaning in them. The rest was dated at best, and psychopathic at worst.

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