This book was, in my opinion, much better than Ender's Game. Card admitted himself (in the Introduction) that the primary reason Ender's Game went from novel to novella was for Speaker For The Dead. And I can see why, this book was so much more mature than it's predecessor. Most of Ender's cynicism and criticisms of adulthood is gone (which is bemoaned by some) and replaced with his struggling to become a normal person. So all in all, a better book, and possibly one that is better than the first.