Speaker for the Dead
Summary
Three thousand years have passed since Ender destroyed the buggers. Technology has developed and human kind has spread out to the far reaches of the stars. Hundreds of other planets have been colonized, a new species has been discovered, and Peter lived out his rule as Hegemon and passed away. The other two Ender children continue to live, traveling together as Ender searches to find a planet for the hive queen. So that it doesn't appear as though he's randomly traveling from planet to planet without purpose, Ender has taken on the role of Speaker. This title Speaker came from a book, “Speaker for the Dead”, he wrote centuries ago in honor of the hive queen and her race. The role of the speaker is to tell the history of someone's life after they die. Different from a minister or a funeral ceremony, the speaker states both the good and the bad that has happened in the person's life highlighting all their vices along with their virtues. Furthermore, since it takes several years to travel between planets, a speaker usually does not arrive until after the person has been dead for a while, allowing for the loved ones to grieve before the speaker tells the person's life. Ender goes to planets calling for a speaker, researches the person's life while also learning about the planet and if its conditions are suitable for the hive queen. Ender's search to find the hive queen a new home begins to appear futile when a call is sent out from the planet Lusitania .
This terrestrial sphere is home to a new species of intelligent life know as pequeninos or piggies. The name comes from their pig-like appearance There are only a limited number of humans on the planet Lusitania and interaction with the pequeninos is confined to xenologists (scientists who study the civilization of an alien race), and even these few people are limited on how often they can visit the piggies. Unfortunately the pequeninos happen to kill one of the humans, in a brutal fashion by vivisecting him, displaying his organs and keeping him alive while they do it. Because the action may be part of their culture and since none of the humans know why they do it, they will not retaliate against the piggies but try and learn more about their culture while remaining cautious. Ender is called to come speak for the murdered xenologist. Twenty two years pass before he arrives. In that time a young girl, Novinha, working under the leadership of the murdered xenologist has grown into a woman, married, and had six children. The death of her mentor, and surrogate father, however, has deeply scarred her and that burden is felt by the rest of her family as well. To make matters worse, her husband is no great man. He beats Novinha and mistreats his children. He is despised by the rest of the village and the only good comment heard is “He managed to work the mines well”. By the time Ender arrives, Novinha's husband has died from disease and another human has been murdered by the piggies in the same fashion as the first. Ender is left to learn about these three dead men and to bring peace to Novinha's family.
There is one other danger on the planet: A deadly virus, the descolada, spread across the entire planet long ago. Novhina's parents managed to find a vaccine for the virus, but were too far gone in the disease to save themselves. Their vaccine, however, allowed the humans to coexist on the planet with the virus. With the exception of the piggies killing two xenologists, there has been peace on the planet. This peace is cut short when it is reported that Miro and Ouanda having been illegally helping the piggies technologically improve. When notified, Starways Congress demands that Miro and Ouanda be brought to court for trial. Instead of handing over the two xenologists, though, Ender has a highly intelligent computer program, Jane, give the perception that all of Lusitania has lost connection with Starways Congress. Starways sends a ship to Lusitania , with the little doctor, to cover negotiations. However, because of Jane's ability to stop communication with the ansible (instantaneous communication units), they cannot give the order to have the ship fire on the planet. Instead it hovers at the boundaries of the planet, waiting for the order. Furthermore no one is allowed to leave the planet, because every inhabitant is infected with the Descolada virus upon being exposed to it. If anyone visited another planet, the descolada would spread across the terrain and infect all forms of life: plants, animals, and humans. Now the clock is ticking to dissect the virus and remove the threat of Starways Congress.
Analysis
Card treats the discovery of the intelligent piggies as a rare find. While the universe has been open to the reaches of man for over three thousand years, they have not found any other species sense the buggers. Therefore, when they discover the piggies, it is important to keep them safe. The piggies do not make this as plausible as may be desired. Their reason for killing each other is to reach the third cycle of their life (see ALIENS page) Thus carving up the body seems perfectly acceptable to them and believe that humans must also have their bodies split open before they can transcend to their third life. This leads to a complicated interaction between the xenologists and the piggies, the Starways Congress wanting to mandate all research with the piggies from a distance, and the piggies themselves. The scientists are trying to understand the piggies without being tried by Congress for breaking the law. The Starways Congress wants more information about the alien species without giving the scientists any more lead way for studying the species. The piggies want to know more about the human culture and technology, but are not allowed to learning from the humans. The humans are supposed to be strictly studying the piggies, not vice versa. The government's control over both the humans and the piggies represents a lot of problems with ruling bodies of power today. The U.S. government wants a lot of control in the world, but also puts a number of restrictions on other factions while still expecting demands to be met. People are pushed too hard to complete difficult or near impossible tasks.
The idea that piggies go through three life cycles, illustrates how different the DNA is in species on foreign planets. Instead of all species being similar to those that first evolved on Earth, the humans vary from the piggies, and both contrast from the Hive Queen. The piggies keep their women and men separate from one another. The mothers and fathers, meanwhile are actually trees and not piggies at all. They have four different languages, and their population is controlled by declaring war on neighboring tribes. The Hive queen is a species with only one body. The drones and workers of the queen are no more important as people than a fingernail is to a human. When the queen gives birth to another female, the queen passes all her memories to the new female, and therefore she never truly dies, but lives on with the next queen. They have no individual languages but instead communicate through thought process. This form of communications makes it difficult to communicate with humans, though not impossible. However, the hive queen easily manages conversations with the father trees which sprung from pequenino bodies.
Ender has also changed dramatically sense the child of Ender's Game . Because of his title as Speaker he has learned a lot about other people and their various backgrounds. His experience with diverse groups provides him with the right capabilities for intermingling with Novinha's family. The six different children have various personalities, some more hostile than others, and some more reclusive. Ender has to approach each one differently. The youngest of them, also bereaves deeply for his paternal parent. Ender is the first one to see this, while all his siblings and mother are oblivious to his grief. Ender pacifies the broken household and brings peace to each of them in one manner or another. His charismatic personality also extends to the pequeninos living in the forest. The hive queen alerted them that Ender brought her and would be able to help them. Ender's meeting defies the Starways Council's regulations and bonds the piggies and humans closer than before. All these various interactions among the characters are prime examples of Card's talent at character development. He has not created flat, unrealistic people, but highly plausible characters with unique traits and personalities. The development with both the characters and the plot is deeply intricate and intriguing for the reader, ending the second book with a cliff hanger.