Card only wrote Ender’s Game (ie, rewrote it as a full novel) as a prologue to this story, and it shows: the most interesting parts of the first book were the final chapters that laid ground for Speaker, and they felt a little out of place.

For some reason, the author’s introduction spoils most of the science-fiction mystery that’s developed over the entire book, so I strongly recommend you skip it (or maybe that’s what you’re always supposed to do? I don’t know; it’s printed in front of the book, so I just read it first). But then, Card isn’t the most subtle author when it comes to managing suspense, anyway.

The book could probably be a bit shorter (as often happens, I guess), but Card’s obsession with designing and presenting alien lifeforms and their thought processes is as interesting as ever — especially if you skip the aforementioned spoilery introduction.

I only noted this quote because it was funny, coming from an author who’s more famous now for his recent declarations against gay marriage than his books:

Marriage is a covenant between a man and woman on the one side and their community on the other. To marry according to the law of the community is to become a full citizen; to refuse marriage is to be a stranger, a child, an outla, a slave, or a traitor. The one constant in every society of humankind is that only those who obey the laws, tabus, and customs of marriage are true adults.