Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead

by Orson Scott Card

They were the back-to-back winners of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novel-a feat unique in the annals of science fiction.They rank among the most influential novels of the past 30 years, their provocative take on the concept of young peopleforced into conflict by a war-torn future society laying the groundwork for countless other writers.They are Ender'sGame and Speaker for the Dead, the first two volumes in SF legend Orson Scott Card's bestselling Ender series.In Ender's Game, you'll meet Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, an extraordinary boy picked to compete against other gifted children in a grueling soldier-training program for humanity's 100-year war against the alien Buggers. As the pressure mounts, Ender and his remarkable siblings hold the key to victory-but the cost may be more than any of them can bear....And in Speaker for the Dead, you'll see the bitter fruit borne by his last-ditch plan to win the war as a new alien race enters the fray. Can Ender's unique gifts prevent history from repeating itself?Now, in celebration of SFBC's 60th anniversary and the Ender's Game film adaptation, these essential stories are united at last in this SFBC exclusive 2-in-1 omnibus edition!

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Adult, Science Fiction Fantasy, Space Opera, Childrens

586 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Orson Scott Card is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is (as of 2023) the only person to have won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for his novel Ender's Game (1985) and its sequel Speaker for the Dead (1986). A feature film adaptation of Ender's Game, which Card co-produced, was released in 2013. Card also wrote the Locus Fantasy Award-winning series The Tales of Alvin Maker (1987–2003).
Card's fiction often features characters with exceptional gifts who make difficult choices with high stakes. Card has also written political, religious, and social commentary in his columns and other writing; his opposition to homosexuality has provoked public criticism.
Card, who is a great-great-grandson of Brigham Young, was born in Richland, Washington, and grew up in Utah and California. While he was a student at Brigham Young University (BYU), his plays were performed on stage. He served in Brazil as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and headed a community theater for two summers. Card had 27 short stories published between 1978 and 1979, and he won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 1978. He earned a master's degree in English from the University of Utah in 1981 and wrote novels in science fiction, fantasy, non-fiction, and historical fiction genres starting in 1979. Card continued to write prolifically, and he has published over 50 novels and 45 short stories.
Card teaches English at Southern Virginia University; he has written two books on creative writing and serves as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest. He has taught many successful writers at his "literary boot camps". He remains a practicing member of the LDS Church and Mormon fiction writers Stephenie Meyer, Brandon Sanderson, and Dave Wolverton have cited his works as a major influence.

Reviews

[Gerald Vance · Rating 5 out of 5]

My friend Jared recommended the Ender’s Series to me and I am very grateful. I bought this version which has both Ender’s Game and Speaker for the dead and read it straight through. I fell in love with the characters quickly and the settings became real places. Card does a wonderful job of creating a vastness that seems reachable not only within space but time as well. I am very much looking forward to reading the rest in the series.

[Erika · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m glad I decided to randomly pick this book up. It is a dual book including Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead. I had read Ender’s Game years ago, but then just recently read Ender in Exile. In this new book, Ender in Exile, Card changes the last few chapters of Ender’s Game to further the new book (written almost 25 years later). So, I was glad to have the original to re-read Ender’s Game and then I immediately read the Speaker for the Dead after that.

Here is my review for Speaker of the Dead:
This is a great sci-fi fantasy series! I wasn’t sure I would love a book set 3,000 years after Ender’s Game and Ender’s Exile, but it works! What it comes down to is—people are people, no matter what planet we live on, or what time we live in. Human emotion is universal and this book demonstrates that perfectly. The book is about living light years away in space and meeting and learning about a new intelligent alien species, but there are misunderstandings and secrets and death, which would happen at any time and any place. The author has a very involved and sophisticated way of writing. I feel like I am taking a philosophy course while reading and it makes me think!!

[Samuel Peterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite an interesting role model.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

truly awesome sci-fi. Perhaps the best there ever was.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a revew:
Just had to say that I can't stop laughing at the piggies calling her "Shouter"..."but not where any of them could hear".

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not as exciting as the first book but seems to be more thought provoking.

[SeriouslyJerome · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is two books in one: Ender's Game, & the sequel, Speaker for the Dead. Having already read & reviewed Ender's Game, this review is for, Speaker for the Dead.

Murder mystery in space! That's my over simplified summary of this story. Or rather, a murder mystery set on distant planet, being colonized by humans, but also inhabited by native creatures & possibly other aliens... And since I love a good murder mystery, this was pretty enjoyable, even with some formulaic mystery elements. But this story also shows a nice progression of Ender's maturity, from the first book, & his ability for compassion & empathy allowing him great wisdom.

As much as I liked it, I have one beef. Card just couldn't help himself. It wasn't enough to create new & strange names for places & creatures of his imagination. He had to throw in a human language, Portuguese, just to make the names that much more confusing & unpronounceable. Yeah, yeah, I got the point, & how it fits in with your story, but it was still tiresome to my little brain.

[Candy Wood]

So this is actually two books, Ender's Game (1984) and Speaker for the Dead (1986), and the second takes place 3000 years after and many light-years away from the first. Game is the coming-of-age story of Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, a third child in a society that only allows two per family. Sent away to school at age six, he has both a talent for killing and an aversion to causing anyone pain, a combination suited to computer games but not when they become real. He is still grappling with the combination in Speaker, having aged only twenty years through interstellar travel even though he has gained thousands of years' worth of knowledge and experience. Game, with its school setting of bullying and competition, could appeal to young adult readers, Speaker, more concerned with the ethics of interspecies contact, probably not as much, making me wonder why the publisher decided to bind the two together. Both are worth reading in a world where conflict often seems unavoidable.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

One book - two novels.

The first is the Sci-fi seminal work Ender's Game. I read this novel many years ago and loved the Battle School scenes, in fact I loved this entire book, the characters, the plot, virtually everything about it. Rereading it again, the story shows it's age a bit, the ending which seemed cool to me as a kid, seems forced now, a bit unrealistic that the battles were actually real and not a game and not noticed doesn't seem possible. And, the relationships between siblings seem very one dimensional. Still, the Battle School is way cool and the concepts it introduces still rock.

The second book is a much quieter story, in essence a murder mystery story involving a second non-human race. I found this story equally fascinating but in a totally different way. It explores the what makes us human theme, it tosses in pain and grief, it talks about culture and yearning, and is generally a very interesting read.

Both, highly recommended, for totally separate reasons.

[Mark Dickson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the original story version of "Ender's Game" many years ago. This is my first time reading the novel version in this omnibus volume comprising both "Ender's Game" and the sequal, "Speaker of the Dead."

I wanted to read this before the movie comes out this fall. Unfortunately, not knowing, nor having been a precocious child, I did not take to this cast of gifted children. I had the same problem with Scout from "To Kill a Mockingbird." The children just weren't belivable.

I've known AP kids from when I was in public school. They could still be immature and petulant even with their gifts. Ender's kids are not. They are brilliant young adults in juvenile bodies. Just didn't work for me.

I enjoyed the story twist and want to see how it is played out in a movie treatment. But I doubt I'll be reading any more Ender books.

[Berry Muhl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've previously read Ender's Game, but since I found this two-novel volume in the public library, I decided to reread it before moving on to the sequel, Speaker for the Dead. (Since I'm doing the Challenge this year, it would probably be unethical to include a book I've already read once, so I'm including the volume instead as a single entry.)

This is an absolute must-read for anyone interested in science fiction. Card is a master, not only of story but of storytelling. This is a different kind of book: not focused particularly on action, or on technology, or on dialogue, or on philosophy. It's focused on thought, on the inner world of the characters, and as such, it gives each of these other realms all the attention they're due.

Oh, and the Twist. Never forget the Twist.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was on a list of banned science fiction books. I had never read any of Orson Scott Card (probably a deficit in my education!) and I am such a rebel that I wanted to read a banned sci-fi book. So I picked this one as a place to begin.

It is a very good book and probably was banned because the book was all about young children who fought the war. The story is well-told and is a page-turner. It is in the genre of a future dystopia (even found it on a Wikipedia list: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_... the premise that children, educated "properly" from an early age, can be turned into fighting machines.

[♥Xeni♥ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Ender's Game a lot! I've read it at least 15 times, and intend to keep re-reading it in the future! And, the scifi didn't bother me in this book at all.

No such luck with the sequel... all of a sudden I realized how scifi the series was and how the focus was off the space cadets and their heroic quest to save their world.

Not bad, but also not the most exciting fun I've had either. After this I feel that it just went a tad downhill... and then more so with subsequent novels!

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

One the best books that I've read in quite some time. I can't believe that it took me so long to find it! From everyone that I've spoken to about it (even my wife) they remember reading it in high school or at some other point in their lives when they were younger. I just happened to find the title in some random comment section.
I would highly reccomend this book to anyone. It's written in a very pleasant and flowing style and will make you think. I may just read it again.

[Matt Watt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ender's Game was a great book for a nerdy middle school/High School boy to read. However, Speaker of the Dead, which is also combined in this edition, will seriously alter your perception of Ender's Game. As an adult the impact of Ender's Game was not the same, as most of the story revolves around Ender dealing with the social problems of his age and emotional maturity, and the adults that surround him.

[Joe Szilvagyi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the book that catapulted OSC's career into orbit. Please don't use the movie as an indication of what this book is about. There is so much internal conflict in the book that I'm surprised they even attempted to translate it to the big screen.

There is a reason this book makes it on to so many lists of fiction books to read. This reason is the characters. They are written so you actually care about what happens to them and can't wait to see how each hurdle is overcome.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wasn't sure if I would really like a sci-fi/fantasy book but really enjoyed it and am currently starting the next in the series- "Speaker of the Dead". Orson Scott Card is a very talented writer and I was drawn in pretty quick. I definitely recommend this book, especially if you don't usually read these types of books-its a good "starter".

[Ive · Rating 5 out of 5]

Très bien menés, ces deux romans donnent à penser à ce qui fait de nous des humains et ce qui donne un sens à nos actions. Le monde science-fictionnel où se déroule l'action sert principalement à mettre en valeur les questionnement sur la nature de l'humanité et l'impératif de survie. Plus qu'à la technologie, l'auteur s'attarde aux relations entre les êtres.

[Jacob Bornheimer]

Reread Speaker for the Dead. Since I hadn't read it since I was probably 15, it was a very different experience. I could more clearly understand the philosophical positions of the characters this time 'round, which made the novel a bit more interesting. Still, I felt like it was rushed (even though I wouldn't wish it longer) in some indefinable way.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've heard hype about this book for years and years and years. I've had a pretty good idea of what it was all about by the time I got to it. I wasn't surprised by anything (by now, anyone who's a part of the sci-fi world knows the story) but it was still a really enjoyable book.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I couldn't put it down - I'm very much looking forward to reading the rest of the series. I don't know how deep the books really are when you get right down to it, but they have a really great mix of biology, anthropology, philosophy, and theology.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I only read the "Ender's Game" portion of this book. I've read "Speaker for the Dead" and it is good, but the first book is, in my opinion, the best. I'm also the guy who only reads the Felix parts of "Armor" (I did read the whole book the first time).

[Bradleykelcey01]

Ender's Game MTI Boxed Set II: Ender's Game, Ender in Exile, Speak for the Dead

[Amory · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enders Game, just as good to re-read as the first time (and infinitely better than the movie). Speaker for the Dead, a totally different kind of book, but with shared intensity of perspective... it actually makes me eager to read more sequels.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

outstanding. great scifi in the ender universe, exciting and heartwearming at the same time

[Cheryl Lange · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not usually into science fiction but this was really good and there is supposed to be a movie eventually. I couldn't put it down!

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most current reading. Go Ender

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book contains both Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead. I love Ender's Game, not so much Speaker.

[njs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gr. 6-Adult. Fascinating bildungsroman story. Highly recommended for lovers of sci fi and adventure. But who hasn't read it and the series!

[Sara]

also: magic mirror (i own )