“let’s kill the buggers!”

Hmm, yeah. I guess I can see how the form of their name could progress via that path.

And as for Buggers… the more I think about it, the more I like it. It’s common to attribute slang and derivative terms to enemies, especially in the military. It’s quite easy to imagine that they were first called “Bugs” or something, then that slipped into “buggers” because, well, “let’s kill the buggers!” has quite a ring to it. Then it got used so much, it just lost all associated meaning and became just their name. If they ever had a ‘proper’ name, it was forgotten.

Anyway, that’s how I see the progression of the name and make it make sense to me.

…Speaker and to an even greater extent Xenocide, don’t follow directly from Ender.

I took that to mean that it was set in the future, and was more adult-oriented than Ender’s Game. However, I expected it to be the same TYPE of book, and it is not. I expected it to be about Ender being an adult, leading another fleet in a war, etc. Obviously, it was quite a surprise to find that the book is more of an anthropological look at an alien species, and the human community that lives near it.

Regarding the Buggers… well, even if they DO look like bugs, they could have opted to call them “insectoids” or just “insects”, or even “bugs”. All of those still sound better than “buggers”!

But yes, I always found ‘Buggers’ a bit of an odd name myself. Perhaps it’s because I AM British, every time I read it I go “stop swearing!”

I’m about 80 pages into Speaker for the Dead now, and thoroughly enjoying it. I expected a book that was very similar to Ender’s Game, but it’s not at all; it is, however, still excellent.

I think the “silly” names for the aliens may have been completely purposeful… as if Card is trying to show that humans still see themselves as superior to other sentient beings. Just a thought.