For as much as I enjoyed Ender's Game, I enjoyed Speaker in exactly opposite areas. The plot has a much slower pace that, while never being bogged down, does not come close to the thrill of adventure and flashier sci-fi moments of the first book. Those looking for the excitement in space aspect of the first book need not read further. While Ender's Game did have a lot of character development and introspection, Speaker is a much more thoughtful investigation of self, family, and humanity. I also was pleased to see the prominent and respected role religion still has in a technologically advanced society. Most sci-fi treats religion as archaic foolishness that no longer has a functional place once we have left our planet. Here, Card interweaves the prominence of a highly organized religion in people's everyday lives. Ender does not ascribe to the faith, but he does not look down on those that do. He merely wants to live alongside and work with them for the common betterment of the human and alien races. This goal and his numerous insights that are concurrent with what is actually in scripture lends numerous challenges to the reader that made this book pleasantly challenging. I found myself putting it down several times to absorb what I had just read, compare it to what I had previously understood, and then moved on.