Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card, 416 pages

I haven't read the "Ender" series of books in order.  I just read them in the order I can get my hands on them.  I knew the broad strokes of what would happen in this book because I've read later books in the series.

Ender is an adult here, in fact he's about 3,000 years old but because he has spent so much of that time traveling in space he is also only about 35 years old.

Ender makes his living as a Speaker for the Dead, meaning he tells the true story of someone's life after they have died.  It's a beautiful concept.  He travels from the planet Trondheim to the planet Lusitania to speak 3 deaths.  The trip takes him 2 weeks, but 22 years have past as he travels there.

Lusitania happens to be the one other planet with alien life and Ender gets caught up in the politics of dealing with an alien race.  The Ender books all seem to start slow but totally hook me about a quarter of the way through.  This one didn't disappoint.