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Questions tagged [speaker-for-the-dead]

Speaker for the Dead is a science fiction novel by Orson Scott Card and an indirect sequel to the novel Ender's Game

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The founding of Starways Congress

The Starways Congress has always seemed a bit weak to me- there is no way to enforce their policies without taking decades, as demonstrated in Speaker for the Dead. It was formed sometime after ...
regionalsky's user avatar
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Why don't the piggies plant a seed when they kill Pipo and Libo?

I recently read Speaker For The Dead for the third time and stumbled across an anomaly (forgive my lack of direct quotes, I had to return the book): Pipo and Libo die in the same ritualistic fashion ...
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Is the Descolada based on an actual virus?

I have been reading the Ender quartet and was wondering if the Descolada, a disease introduced in The Speaker for the Dead, was based on a disease in the real world. Is there a virus that goes around ...
Rebel 42's user avatar
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Where do the Mother Trees came from?

Warning: this question is a significant spoiler to the "Speaker of the dead"! Lets talk about sex. No, not the ordinary one but that of the Pequeninos (Piggies) from the Enderverse, which have a ...
Yasskier's user avatar
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14 votes
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Does "planting" have any biological impact on the Pequeninos (piggies) lifecycle?

I wonder if "planting" has any biological impact on the Piggies life-cycle, or if it is a ritual to honor Piggies in their society. I know that Piggies have 3 lives: The first-life: tiny piggies ...
Haha TTpro's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
538 views

Ender's apparent lack of impact in Novinha's family

The whole saga is based on the powers of Ender in dealing with relationships, influencing people to better them and how much of an impact Ender has on people(supreme commander and all). That's the ...
Sismetic's user avatar
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10 votes
1 answer
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Etymology of "raman"

The Demosthenes hiearchy of exclusion goes Utlanning, Framling, Raman, Varelse, Djur. Of these, U, F, V and D are recognizable as Swedish words: Utlanning from Utlänning ("foreigner"). Framling from ...
hmakholm left over Monica's user avatar
31 votes
3 answers
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What is the Speaker for the Dead cover depicting?

To me, it seems that whatever is on the cover of Speaker for the Dead--it appears to be a docking location for starships--is entirely unrelated to the story. Am I missing something? Is it depicting ...
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9 votes
1 answer
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When did the piggies learn about the Demosthenian Hierarchy of Exclusion

In the beginning of chapter 4 of Speaker for the Dead, in Pipo's notes it says this : As for what they call us, they do use human, of course, but they have also taken to using the new Demosthenian ...
ike's user avatar
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6 votes
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How old was Ender objectively at the start of Speaker for the Dead

In Chapter 2 of Speaker, it says this After all, the Bugger Wars were more than three thousand years ago; it was now the year 1948 SC, counting from the year the Starways Code was established, and ...
ike's user avatar
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Does Demosthenes' Hierarchy of Foreignness have a real world root?

In the second Enders Game book Speaker for the Dead the concept of the Hierarchy of Foreignness is described: Utlanning are individuals who are of the same species as the subject, and are from a ...
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