In his introduction to Speaker for the Dead, Orson Scott Card explains that most protagonists are adolescents (or in an adolescent stage of social development) because adolescent characters are unfettered by the responsibilities that would prevent more mature characters from going on novel-worthy adventures. But in this story, Card chronicles Ender's transition from unencumbered, transient loner to responsible family man. As a reader who is often frustrated by a lack of mature adults (both in literature and in my real life!), I like seeing Ender grow up.



But because Ender is so emotionally armored in Ender's Game, the empathy he exhibits in Speaker for the Dead is often confounding. A few times I had to stop reading in order to rant about the implausibility. But as I became more invested in Novinha's children and the pequinos, Ender's unlikely aptitude for connecting with others became less important. Speaker for the Dead is emotionally engaging, the twist concerning the pequinos is delightfully inventive, and even those who *think* they don't like sci-fi will probably like this book.