#48 in Science fiction
Speaker for the Dead
- 416
- Pages
- about 8 h
- Reading time
- Hugo Award for Best Novel
- Nebula Award for Best Novel
- Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
- Kurd Lasswitz Award for Best Foreign Work
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Our view
A sequel that refuses to repeat its predecessor: set three thousand years on, with Ender now in his thirties, it is a quieter, more reflective novel about how people treat those who are foreign to them, human or alien. Some readers rate it as highly as the first book, or higher, because it makes them care about a new world and cast. Not for anyone hoping for the same story twice.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Speaker for the Dead is a 1986 science fiction novel by American writer Orson Scott Card, a sequel to the 1985 novel Ender's Game. The book takes place around the year 5270, some 3,000 years after the events in Ender's Game. However, because of relativistic space travel at near-light speed, Ender himself is only about 35 years old.
Reading order · Ender's Saga
Full order & progress →
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.2 across 1,637 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 92% of the weight and the score stays at 8.4 — the Science fiction average of 7.8 barely moves it. A further +0.20 comes from the small bonus for major awards.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.1 | 108 | 7% |
| Google Books | 8.0 | 19 | 1% |
| Hardcover | 8.2 | 1.5K | 92% |
Frequently asked
How long is Speaker for the Dead?
It has 416 pages — shorter than 58% of the ranked books in Science fiction.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Science fiction — and a score of 8.4, the closest to this book.
