Anyway, like I was saying, last night I finished Speaker For the Dead by Orson Scott Card. This is the sequel, I guess, to Endor’s Game. I say “I guess” because its a very different kind of story and it takes place 3000 years after EG, although thanks to lots of realitivistic planet-hopping, Endor Wiggin is still alive.

This was another Fantastic Audio production, and I got it from Audible.com and listened to it off my iPod. I can’t say enough about how much Audible and my iPod have improved my daily commute. A whole raft of people were in on the narration, making it at times feel as much like a play as a novel. I’ve been very happy with all of Fantastic Audio’s material, and this was no exception. Well worth listening to.

As for the novel itself, well, I’m not very good at reviewing books beyond saying “Wow, I really liked this.” or “Do yourself a favor and stay away.” This was clearly a case of the former. It was a complete suprise to me, since I expected it to be much like Ender’s Game.On the surface, its about humanity encountering a second intelligent alien species (the first being the Buggers of EG). This time, we’re the more advanced civilization. At a deeper level, though, its about, well, the power of truth, I suppose.

These aren’t new books and I don’t know how I missed them for so long, but I sure am glad I found them now. I just picked up Xenocide and its going very near the top of my ‘to read’ stack.