Haha, when I read Speaker I thought it was extremely cool... but then, I also read it when I was 14 or so. (I just reread it to try and compare it to Grass, and man, the stuff in there about marriage and community is so skeevy!)

Marjorie made me want to whap her over the head!

The Hippae were totally the best part of the book, except they weren't even smart and evil! They didn't even realize they were spreading plague until the aliens told them! And they were over-the-top mind-rapey evil!