I loved Enders Game, Enders Shadow and Speaker for the Dead. It had a great emotional importance to me. Especially Enders Shadow, it was one of the first books I read that properly described starvation. I went through a lot as a child, and Beans story of a starving, smart, small kid really resonated with me in the period after my own tribulation. I don’t think Shadow has the same impact on people without some of my experiences, so I chose to use the main arc and I’ve always felt that Ender would rather be remembered as The Speaker more than anything else. Probably silly, but I’m fine with that. In short, I agree, Enders Game is the better book. Speaker is just the pay off.
Moby Dick has always infuriated and enthralled me. I read 5 pages, hate myself. Start reading again in 15 minutes because I can’t get it out of my head.
It’s been a really long time since I read Speaker, but I really liked it.
First, middle school me loved how different it was from Enders Game. It was a challenge, and it felt like the author was purposefully shedding the fans of the first novel with something less approachable.
Second, it hooked me in immediately with the mystery, and then really wrestled with what would anthropology with non-human cultures look like, and how could they go wrong? And how could that bridge be mended? In a way that middle school me could appreciate.
It seemed to complete Enders Game in the sense that in the first novel, he accidentally genocides a species based on a historic cultural misunderstanding between alien sentient races, and Speaker is his chance to learn from his experience and prevent it from happening again. I ate up that moral.
I may have rose-tinted glasses and only remember the good parts.
Also I remember liking Xenophobia (?) but even then I realized that even though the OCD descriptions were really interesting, there was something *off about making them all Asians with genetically-engineered disabilities to keep them from being too smart (I forget the exact plot, but that felt pretty icky even though I didn’t understand why and still can’t really explain it).
I liked Enders Shadow because Bean’s background was eye-opening, but the other Shadow novels felt pretty weird in how they framed and simplified world politics.
Speaker for the Dead
Eisenhorn
Count of Monte Cristo
The Emperor of All Maladies
Moby Dick
Lords of Silence
All Honorable Men: History of the war in Lebanon
Adams and Victor’s Principles of Neurology
The Biology of Cancer (Weinberg)
Japan to 1600
History of Medieval Russia (Martin)
The Baltic: A History
On War (Clausewitz)
The Back Channel
Timbuktu (Villiers)
Sorry if this is too many, just looked at my book app for ones I keep reading.
Edit: Fuck it, I’m having fun. Here are a few more I remembered while roasting a bowl.
Dune
Amulet of Samarkand
Venice (Madden)
The Golden Compass
First and Only (Abnett) - read the first omnibus
Harrisons Manual of Medicine 18th ed
Gomorrah (Saviano)
The Gunpowder Age (Tonio)
The Money Illusion (Sumner)
Interesting! I enjoyed it much less than Ender’s Game, but they were such different books it doesn’t surprise me that someone else would prefer it.
Right‽ Such an amazing read. It does take a bit to get into the cadence, I find, but so worth it.
I loved Enders Game, Enders Shadow and Speaker for the Dead. It had a great emotional importance to me. Especially Enders Shadow, it was one of the first books I read that properly described starvation. I went through a lot as a child, and Beans story of a starving, smart, small kid really resonated with me in the period after my own tribulation. I don’t think Shadow has the same impact on people without some of my experiences, so I chose to use the main arc and I’ve always felt that Ender would rather be remembered as The Speaker more than anything else. Probably silly, but I’m fine with that. In short, I agree, Enders Game is the better book. Speaker is just the pay off.
Moby Dick has always infuriated and enthralled me. I read 5 pages, hate myself. Start reading again in 15 minutes because I can’t get it out of my head.
I liked Ender’s Shadow much more than Speaker for the Dead, which felt preachy to me. I just didn’t click with it.
Both Game and Shadow are great books, and excellent choices.
It’s been a really long time since I read Speaker, but I really liked it.
First, middle school me loved how different it was from Enders Game. It was a challenge, and it felt like the author was purposefully shedding the fans of the first novel with something less approachable.
Second, it hooked me in immediately with the mystery, and then really wrestled with what would anthropology with non-human cultures look like, and how could they go wrong? And how could that bridge be mended? In a way that middle school me could appreciate.
It seemed to complete Enders Game in the sense that in the first novel, he accidentally genocides a species based on a historic cultural misunderstanding between alien sentient races, and Speaker is his chance to learn from his experience and prevent it from happening again. I ate up that moral.
I may have rose-tinted glasses and only remember the good parts.
Also I remember liking Xenophobia (?) but even then I realized that even though the OCD descriptions were really interesting, there was something *off about making them all Asians with genetically-engineered disabilities to keep them from being too smart (I forget the exact plot, but that felt pretty icky even though I didn’t understand why and still can’t really explain it).
I liked Enders Shadow because Bean’s background was eye-opening, but the other Shadow novels felt pretty weird in how they framed and simplified world politics.