Orson Scott Card
Autor(a) de Ender's Game
About the Author
Orson Scott Byron Walley Card, was born in 1951 and studied theater at Brigham Young University. He received his B.A. in 1975 and his M.A. in English in 1981. He wrote plays during that time, including Stone Tables (1973) and the musical, Father, Mother, Mother and Mom (1974). A Mormon, Scott mostrar mais served a two-year mission in Brazil before starting work as a journalist in Utah. He also designed games at Lucas Film Games, 1989-92. He is best known for his science fiction novels, including the popular Ender series. Well known titles include A Planet Called Treason (1979), Treasure Box (1996), and Heartfire (1998). He has also written the guide called How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy (1990). His novel Ender's Game and its sequel Speaker for the Dead, both won Hugo and Nebula awards, making Card the only author to win both prizes in consecutive years. His titles Shadows in Flight, Ruins and Ender's Game made The New York Times Best Seller List. He is also the author of The First Formic War Series, which includes the titles Earth Unaware, Earth Afire, and Earth Awakens. (Bowker Author Biography) mostrar menos
Image credit: Nihonjoe
Séries
Obras por Orson Scott Card
The Ender Quartet Box Set: Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind (2008) 497 exemplares
Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show (v. 1) (2008) — Editor; Contribuidor — 189 exemplares
The Great Snape Debate : The Case for Snapes Guilt / Innocence (2007) — Contribuidor — 175 exemplares
The Ender Saga #1: Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind, Ender in Exile (2013) 76 exemplares
Getting Lost: Survival, Baggage, and Starting Over in J. J. Abrams' Lost (Smart Pop series) (2006) — Editor — 52 exemplares
Shadows Alive (Ender's Shadow, #6) 45 exemplares
Empire of Dreams and Miracles: The Phobos Science Fiction Anthology (v. 1) (2002) — Editor — 33 exemplares
Hitting the Skids in Pixeltown: The Phobos Science Fiction Anthology, Volume 2 (2003) — Editor — 26 exemplares
Formic Wars Trilogy Boxed Set: Earth Unaware, Earth Afire, Earth Awakens (The First Formic War) (2016) 22 exemplares
Turning Hearts: Short Stories on Family Life (1994) — Editor; Contribuidor; Introdução — 20 exemplares
Orson Scott Card Boxed Set Trilogy (Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, Ender in Exile) (2013) 16 exemplares
Homecoming: The Memory of Earth / The Call of Earth / The Ships of Earth / Earthfall / Earthborn (1995) 16 exemplares
The Queens 12 exemplares
MegaSF : verhalen van Orson Scott Card, Greg Bear, Wim Gijsen, William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Jack Vance e.a. (1990) 12 exemplares
Ender's Game Boxed Set II: Ender's Game, Ender in Exile, Speak for the Dead (The Ender Quintet) (2013) 11 exemplares
Tweesprook. 2 9 exemplares
The Wives of Israel 6 exemplares
By Orson Scott Card - Shadow Puppets 6 exemplares
Ender's Shadow: Battle School 1 5 exemplares
The Sons of Rachel (Women of Genesis, #5) 5 exemplares
InterGalactic Medicine Show, Issue 1 4 exemplares
Ultimate Iron Man #1 3 exemplares
Ultimate Iron Man #4 3 exemplares
Ultimate Iron Man #3 3 exemplares
Master Alvin 3 exemplares
Ultimate Iron Man #5 3 exemplares
Waterbaby 2 exemplares
Ultimate Iron Man II #2 2 exemplares
Ender's Game (Movie Tie-In) Trade Paperback Boxed Set III: Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow (The Ender… (2013) 2 exemplares
Ultimate Iron Man #2 2 exemplares
Homeless in Hell [short story] 2 exemplares
Card, Orson Scott - 27 Short Stories 2 exemplares
Vessel 2 exemplares
The Science Fiction Box: Eye for Eye, Run for the Stars, And Tales of the Grand Tour (2006) 2 exemplares
Ultimate Iron Man II #5 2 exemplares
Books 1-6 of The Ender Series: "Ender's Game," "Speaker for the Dead," "Xenocide," "Children of the Mind,"… 2 exemplares
Ultimate Iron Man II #1 2 exemplares
DRAGONS OF LIGHT - and - DRAGONS OF DARKNESS: Ice Dragon; George Business; One Winter in Eden; Drama of Dragons; Silken… — Editor — 1 exemplar
A Dixie Christmas Carol 1 exemplar
Homecoming (Orson Scott Card) Series 9-12 1 exemplar
Card, Orson Scott - Short Stories 1 exemplar
InterGalactic Medicine Show, Issue 16 1 exemplar
InterGalactic Medicine Show, Issue 11 1 exemplar
InterGalactic Medicine Show, Issue 14 1 exemplar
InterGalactic Medicine Show, Issue 20 1 exemplar
Ender's Game [Revised] 1 exemplar
Ender Series: Books 1-9 1 exemplar
Rasputin 1 exemplar
#14 Fleet School 1 exemplar
Intergalactic Medicine show 1 exemplar
Urania 1192 - IL POPOLO DELL'ORLO 1 exemplar
Sunstone - Vol. 2:2, Summer 1977 (1977) — Contribuidor; Editor, uncredited; Contribuidor; Contribuidor; Contribuidor — 1 exemplar
Pastwatch: The Garden of Eden 1 exemplar
All Books by this Author 1 exemplar
Ender Series: Books 1-8 1 exemplar
Ender Series: Five Book Set 1 exemplar
Ender Series: Six Book Set 1 exemplar
Null_A three 1 exemplar
Dragon Age #4 1 exemplar
Dragon Age #6 1 exemplar
InterGalactic Medicine Show, Issue 19 1 exemplar
InterGalactic Medicine Show, Issue 21 1 exemplar
InterGalactic Medicine Show, Issue 52 1 exemplar
InterGalactic Medicine Show, Issue 18 1 exemplar
Orson Scott Card 5 Novels 1 exemplar
Hitching 1 exemplar
Damn Fine Novel 1 exemplar
Billy’s Box 1 exemplar
The Best Family Home Evening Ever 1 exemplar
Bicicleta 1 exemplar
I Think Mom And Dad Are Going Crazy Jerry 1 exemplar
Gert Fram 1 exemplar
Inventing Lovers on the Phone (short story) 1 exemplar
The Hypocrites of Homosexuality {article} 1 exemplar
Shadow Complex 1 exemplar
InterGalactic Medicine Show, Issue 12 1 exemplar
Futura - broj 22 1 exemplar
InterGalactic Medicine Show, Issue 13 1 exemplar
InterGalactic Medicine Show, Issue 15 1 exemplar
InterGalactic Medicine Show, Issue 53 1 exemplar
THE BOOK OF MORMON-ARTIFACT OR ARTIFICE 1 exemplar
Geriatric Ward 1 exemplar
Ender's Homecoming (short story) 1 exemplar
In The Dragon's House 1 exemplar
Tweesprook. 1 exemplar
Jamaica 1 exemplar
Uncle Orson's Writing Class 1 exemplar
Shadows in Exile 1 exemplar
Ultimate Iron Man II #4 1 exemplar
Ultimate Iron Man II #3 1 exemplar
Ender 14 - A point in time 1 exemplar
IL POPOLO DELL'ORLO 1 exemplar
Associated Works
Legends I: New Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy (1998) — Contribuidor — 1,840 exemplares
Legends II: New Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy (2003) — Contribuidor — 1,229 exemplares
Masterpieces of Terror and the Supernatural: A Treasury of Spellbinding Tales Old & New (1985) — Contribuidor — 508 exemplares
Legends: Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy, Vol. 1 (of 3) (1999) — Contribuidor — 424 exemplares
The Norton Book of Science Fiction: North American Science Fiction, 1960-1990 (1993) — Contribuidor — 309 exemplares
Serenity Found: More Unauthorized Essays on Joss Whedon's Firefly Universe (2007) — Contribuidor — 307 exemplares
Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction: How to Create Out-of-This-World Novels and Short Stories (2013) — Contribuidor — 153 exemplares
Legends: Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy, Vol. B (of 2) (1999) — Contribuidor — 136 exemplares
Nebula Awards 22: Sfwa's Choices for the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 1986 (Nebula Awards Showcase (Paperback)) (1988) — Contribuidor — 49 exemplares
Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact: Vol. XCVII, No. 11 (November 1977) (1977) — Contribuidor — 32 exemplares
Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact: Vol. XCVIII, No. 4 (April 1978) (1978) — Contribuidor — 27 exemplares
Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact: Vol. XCVIII, No. 2 (February 1978) (1978) — Contribuidor — 26 exemplares
Tar Heel Dead: Tales of Mystery and Mayhem from North Carolina (2005) — Artista da capa — 26 exemplares
Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact: Vol. XCVIII, No. 5 (May 1978) (1978) — Contribuidor — 25 exemplares
Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact: Vol. XCVIII, No. 8 (August 1978) (1978) — Contribuidor — 25 exemplares
Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact: Vol. XCVII, No. 8 (August 1977) (1977) — Contribuidor — 25 exemplares
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction June 1991, Vol. 80, No. 6 (1991) — Contribuidor — 21 exemplares
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction October 1990, Vol. 79, No. 4 (1990) — Book reviewer — 17 exemplares
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine: Vol. 11, No. 3 [March 1987] (1983) — Contribuidor — 17 exemplares
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction October/November 1993, Vol. 85, No. 4 & 5 (1993) — Book reviewer — 16 exemplares
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction November 1990, Vol. 79, No. 5 (1990) — Book reviewer — 16 exemplares
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction May 1991, Vol. 80, No. 5 (1991) — Book reviewer — 16 exemplares
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine: Vol. 11, No. 6 [June 1987] (1987) — Contribuidor — 15 exemplares
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction September 1990, Vol. 79, No. 3 (1990) — Book reviewer — 15 exemplares
Legends II, Volume 1: New Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy (2005) — Contribuidor — 14 exemplares
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction April 1992, Vol. 82, No. 4 (1992) — Book reviewer — 13 exemplares
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction October 1988, Vol. 75, No. 4 (1988) — Book reviewer — 13 exemplares
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction January 1990, Vol. 78, No. 1 (1990) — Book reviewer — 13 exemplares
Building a Love That Lasts: Outstanding Articles on Marriage from the Ensign (1985) — Contribuidor — 13 exemplares
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction August 1988, Vol. 75, No. 2 (1988) — Contribuidor — 12 exemplares
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction September 1988, Vol. 75, No. 3 (1988) — Book reviewer — 12 exemplares
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction January 1989, Vol. 76, No. 1 (1989) — Contribuidor — 12 exemplares
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction July 1988, Vol. 75, No. 1 (1988) — Contribuidor — 12 exemplares
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine: Vol. 10, No. 8 [August 1986] (1986) — Contribuidor — 11 exemplares
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction May 1990, Vol. 78, No. 5 (1990) — Book reviewer — 11 exemplares
Children of the Night: Stories of Ghosts, Vampires, Werewolves, and Lost Children (The Children of the Night) (1999) — Contribuidor — 11 exemplares
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction November 1988, Vol. 75, No. 5 (1988) — Book reviewer — 10 exemplares
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction June 1990, Vol. 78, No. 6 (1990) — Book reviewer — 10 exemplares
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction October 1989, Vol. 77, No. 4 (1989) — Contribuidor — 10 exemplares
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction April 1990, Vol. 78, No. 4 (1990) — Contribuidor — 9 exemplares
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction June 1989, Vol. 76, No. 6 (1989) — Book reviewer — 9 exemplares
Saints Well Seasoned: Musings on How Food Nourishes Us-- Body, Heart, and Soul (1998) — Contribuidor — 8 exemplares
More Dixie Ghosts: More Haunting, Spine-Chilling Stories from the American South (American Ghost) (1994) — Contribuidor — 8 exemplares
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction December 1989, Vol. 77, No 6 (1989) — Book reviewer — 8 exemplares
In the Shadow of the Wall: An Anthology of Vietnam Stories That Might Have Been (2002) — Contribuidor — 6 exemplares
Science Fiction Review #29 — Contribuidor — 1 exemplar
Science Fiction Eye #07, August 1990 — Contribuidor — 1 exemplar
Sunstone - Vol. 3:5, July-August 1978 (1978) — Contribuidor; Contribuidor; Contribuidor — 1 exemplar
Mondaugen — Contribuidor — 1 exemplar
InterGalactic Medicine Show, Issue 26 — Contribuidor — 1 exemplar
Etiquetado
Conhecimento Comum
- Nome legal
- Card, Orson Scott
- Outros nomes
- Walley, Byron (pseudonym)
Richards, Scott (pen name)
Bliss, Frederick (pseudonym)
Gump, P.Q. (pseudonym) - Data de nascimento
- 1951-08-24
- Sexo
- male
- Nacionalidade
- USA
- Local de nascimento
- Richland, Washington, USA
- Locais de residência
- Greensboro, North Carolina, USA
Santa Clara, California, USA
Mesa, Arizona, USA
Orem, Utah, USA - Educação
- Brigham Young University (BA|1975)
University of Utah (MA|1981)
University of Notre Dame - Ocupações
- writer
university professor
playwright - Relações
- Young, Brigham (great-great-grandfather)
Allen, James B. (father-in-law) - Organizações
- Southern Virginia University
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints - Prémios e menções honrosas
- John W. Campbell Award (1978)
Whitney Awards, Lifetime Achievement Award (2008)
Margaret A. Edwards Award (2008)
Locus Award (1996)
World Fantasy Award (1987)
Fatal error: Call to undefined function isLitsy() in /var/www/html/inc_magicDB.php on line 425- Orson Scott Card is the author of the novels Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, and Speaker for the Dead, which are widely read by adults and younger readers, and are increasingly used in schools. His most recent series, the young adult Pathfinder series (Pathfinder, Ruins, Visitors) and the fantasy Mithermages series (Lost Gate, Gate Thief, Gatefather) are taking readers in new directions.
Besides these and other science fiction novels, Card writes contemporary fantasy (Magic Street, Enchantment, Lost Boys), biblical novels (Stone Tables, Rachel and Leah), the American frontier fantasy series The Tales of Alvin Maker (beginning with Seventh Son), poetry (An Open Book), and many plays and scripts, including his "freshened" Shakespeare scripts for Romeo & Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, and The Merchant of Venice.
Card was born in Washington and grew up in California, Arizona, and Utah. He served a mission for the LDS Church in Brazil in the early 1970s. Besides his writing, he teaches occasional classes and workshops and directs plays. He frequently teaches writing and literature courses at Southern Virginia University.
Card currently lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife, Kristine Allen Card, where his primary activities are writing a review column for the local Rhinoceros Times and feeding birds, squirrels, chipmunks, possums, and raccoons on the patio.
Membros
Discussions
YA sci fi em Name that Book (Janeiro 2021)
Help Reading Ender's Saga em The Green Dragon (Julho 2014)
Another tes em Touchstone Testing (Fevereiro 2014)
Seventh Son, Orson Scott Card em World Reading Circle (Agosto 2013)
December 2011 Reading em Science Fiction Fans (Janeiro 2012)
anyone read Pathfinder by Orson Scott Card? em FantasyFans (Outubro 2011)
Colonial science fiction adventure with transformation em Name that Book (Setembro 2011)
Magic Street? em Orson Scott Card (Fevereiro 2011)
Críticas
Ender's Shadow is the first novel in The Shadow Series by Orson Scott Card. Ender's Shadow (published in 1999) is a parallel science fiction novel, taking place at the same time as the novel Ender's Game and depicting some of the same events from the point of view of Bean, a supporting character in the original novel.
Bean, in many ways, is a more interesting character than Ender. Bean is a homeless child living in the hellish streets of Rotterdam in roughly 2170 after escaping as an infant from an illegal genetic engineering laboratory. Highly intelligent and extremely young, Bean is mainly concerned with his need for food. He joins a large gang of children led by a girl named Poke and sets up a system in which they can all receive nourishment at a local soup kitchen. Specifically, the group gets a bully, Achilles, to be their protector. However, Achilles is increasingly ruthless, protective, and methodical.
Luckily for Bean, his incredible mind, creativity and determination bring him to the attention of Sister Carlotta, a nun who is recruiting children to fight a war against the Buggers. Soon enough, Bean finds himself at Battle School alongside of Ender Wiggin where Bean's intelligence becomes apparent (he is even more intelligent than Ender). We get to see the events that happen in Ender's Game from Bean's point of view and we realize that Ender isn't exactly the savior character we thought he was (he was quite cruel to his friends from Battle School when he led "simulations" in Command School on Eros). Bean is not as perfect as Ender Wiggin either, and although he struggles to understand Ender, he becomes Ender's ally. Though Bean is cold at first, the kind of child who weighs the costs of hugging the nun who saved him from the streets, he wants to understand the respect and love that Ender wields. Thus, Bean's story is twofold: he learns to be a soldier, and to be human.
I love the way Card reweaves the story he told in Ender’s Game, making it both the same and different. And I found it quite emotionally touching and heartbreaking as well, particularly the final battle scene and the end where Bean is united with his parents.… (mais)
Bean, in many ways, is a more interesting character than Ender. Bean is a homeless child living in the hellish streets of Rotterdam in roughly 2170 after escaping as an infant from an illegal genetic engineering laboratory. Highly intelligent and extremely young, Bean is mainly concerned with his need for food. He joins a large gang of children led by a girl named Poke and sets up a system in which they can all receive nourishment at a local soup kitchen. Specifically, the group gets a bully, Achilles, to be their protector. However, Achilles is increasingly ruthless, protective, and methodical.
Luckily for Bean, his incredible mind, creativity and determination bring him to the attention of Sister Carlotta, a nun who is recruiting children to fight a war against the Buggers. Soon enough, Bean finds himself at Battle School alongside of Ender Wiggin where Bean's intelligence becomes apparent (he is even more intelligent than Ender). We get to see the events that happen in Ender's Game from Bean's point of view and we realize that Ender isn't exactly the savior character we thought he was (he was quite cruel to his friends from Battle School when he led "simulations" in Command School on Eros). Bean is not as perfect as Ender Wiggin either, and although he struggles to understand Ender, he becomes Ender's ally. Though Bean is cold at first, the kind of child who weighs the costs of hugging the nun who saved him from the streets, he wants to understand the respect and love that Ender wields. Thus, Bean's story is twofold: he learns to be a soldier, and to be human.
I love the way Card reweaves the story he told in Ender’s Game, making it both the same and different. And I found it quite emotionally touching and heartbreaking as well, particularly the final battle scene and the end where Bean is united with his parents.… (mais)
Reread. This is still an intriguing combination of action, military and political strategy, war games, and psychology; and an interesting look at the nature of empathy vs. violence.
Well, I'm not the target audience for this book. It was fun, but kinda annoyingly simplistic in places, particularly in Ender's perfection (and it was difficult to believe that no-one would have had the same insights he had that allowed him to win). Although I was at times slightly worried about the fascist overtones of the book, in the final analysis I thought it presented the moral ambiguities and difficulties clearly, but still subtly. I won't rush to read the other books, but wouldn't avoid them either.… (mais)
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Prémios
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Estatísticas
- Obras
- 373
- Also by
- 189
- Membros
- 190,342
- Popularidade
- #24
- Avaliação
- 3.9
- Críticas
- 3,185
- ISBN
- 1,959
- Línguas
- 28
- Marcado como favorito
- 688
Winner: Nebula Award Best Novel.
Winner: Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.
Nominee: Campbell Award Best SF Novel.
Ender’s Game was originally written and published as a short story in 1977. Several years later, Card got the idea for Speaker for the Dead – a sequel – which would only make sense if Ender’s Game were extended into a novel. So he published the novel Ender’s Game in 1984 to critical acclaim. It was followed shortly thereafter by Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind. These books collected are known as the Ender quartet.
Card's novel Ender's Game introduced Ender Wiggin, a young genius who used his military prowess to all but exterminate the ""buggers,'' the first alien race mankind had ever encountered. Wiggin then transformed himself into the ``Speaker for the Dead,'' who claimed it had been a mistake to destroy the alien civilization. Speaker for the Dead picks up many years later (well, thousands actually), when a new breed of intelligent life forms called the ``piggies'' is discovered. This gives Wiggin the opportunity to atone for his earlier actions in Ender’s Game.
As noted, speaker for the Dead takes place three thousand years after Ender’s Game, and Ender has spent most of those three thousand years in interstellar travel, and as a result he appears to be only in his mid-thirties. Valentine is still traveling with him, too. By this time, Ender has learned that he did not really wipe out all of the alien species back when he was young, and he has possession of a cocoon containing a hive queen, whose egg sac is potentially capable of replenishing the species. Ender has learned how to communicate with the hive queen, and he knows that her species is not evil and will never hurt humans again if he allows her to settle on a planet and lay her eggs. In the three thousand years since he wiped out the majority of her species, Ender has gone from being perceived as the hero who saved humanity to being vilified as a ‘xenocide’ – an evil villain who wiped out an entire species in cold blood (even though the military deemed him a hero). His status is semi-mythological, and of course everyone assumes that Ender is long dead and fails to connect the wise, quiet interstellar wanderer named Andrew Wiggin with the horrible murderer of the past.
What’s interesting is that Ender isn’t really the protagonist of Speaker for The Dead. This novel is about a group of Portugese-speaking Catholic colonists who have settled a planet called Lusitania. These colonists share their planet with a sentient species that they call the pequininos, or “piggies”. The heroes of Speaker for the Dead are the scientists (‘xenobiologists’) and anthropologists (‘xenologists’) who have been granted permission to initiate closely guarded contact with the piggies. All other humans on the planet are kept contained in an area bounded by an electric fence at all times.
The novel really focuses on Novinha. She is a woman whose life – like Ender’s – is circumscribed by guilt. She was part of a family who is charged with studying this species on Lusitania and the small community of the colony in which they live. We see 3 generations of this family over the course of the book, but most of the novel focuses on Novinha and her 6 children. Novinha life is one of constant interactions with death, on several occasions and twice at the hands of the alien species. These deaths deflate humanity's hope of peaceful coexistence with the aliens.
Into this mix comes Ender, who is now a Speaker for the Dead, which is a sort of humanist priesthood of people who learn about those who have died and speak the truth of their lives, their hopes, fears, intentions, virtues, and vices. He is called by several members of the family to speak the deaths they have experienced in an act of defiance of the Catholic hierarchy that essentially runs the colony.
Ender comes to Lusitania, solves everyone’s problems with his infinite wisdom, falls in love with Novinha and decides to stay with her forever, gets to know the piggies and discovers that – of course – they are not really evil, JUST MISUNDERSTOOD. He figures out why they keep killing off everyone that Novinha loves, and he arranges for them never to do this again. He also reveals his identity as the original Ender and manages not to get murdered by an angry mob. He establishes the hive queen on the planet – which will now be the only known planet where three sentient species will live side by side.
It all ends on a very beautiful, hopeful note. Yes, Ender is able to atone for his sins. Seems like the sort of conclusion that is tied up with a nice little bow...except that everyone, including Ender, are just so broken….it makes the ending that much more believable and satisfying.
Speaker for the Dead does have a bit of a religious agenda, as all the Ender novels do – and religious proselytizing disguised as sci-fi can be off putting to say the least. Card’s Mormonism is occasionally on display here and it's bothersome. But that aside, there are some fare criticisms of the Catholic church here as well. Catholicism has a long history of abusive missionary work through the use of canon law and crusades to coerce conversions and to subdue heathens. The catholic tradition in the Latin West grew out of the foundations of Rome which claimed the founding of a settlement or a “colony” was in a sense, a military expedition. Card's imaginating of the Catholic church expanding its governmental reach to the stars and its attempt to run the colony of Lusitania is fascinating and raises interesting questions about belief, governing, and politics. And his critique of the church, in the form of Ender as The Speaker for The Dead is spot on. Yet, while Card critiques the Catholic religion he also inserts his own religious stance in the narrative as mentioned. The life stages of the "piggies" in Speaker for the Dead correspond to phases of life in the LDS's plan of salvation which is kind of weird.
However, don’t let this stop you from reading this important work of sci-fi.
Why? This book has a lot to say about the trans formative powers of isolation and suffering. It has a lot to say about the corruptible nature of humanity and our institutions. It is a book about morality, guilt, and redemption. Yes, this is a heavy, adult themed sci-fi novel about philosophical concepts. Yes, this isn’t the YA novel we loved growing up (Ender’s Game). This is about becoming an adult, dealing with our past, and recognizing the flaws within ourselves and within the systems we create.
This book reminds us that:
“Sickness and healing are in every heart. Death and deliverance are in every hand. The truth is a beautiful and terrible thing, and therefore should be treated with great caution.”
Not only is Speaker for The Dead an amazing work of sci-fi. It’s one of the best pieces of literature ever written.
… (mais)