"Speaker of the Dead" is one of the WORST science fiction novels I've ever read. I'd rather read the worst the EU has to offer than this.

SPOILERS

The entirety of all of the conflict, both character based and xenobiology, stems entirely from people being really really really stupid. Not just a few people, but generations of people across the entire society are unable to piece together what the reader no doubt figures out in the first few pages. The hero shows up, calmly explains whats-what to all the morons, and the book ends.

There are so many moments of characters saying "well, this situation doesn't make sense as we understand it, but there's no other possible explanation" and shrugging I started to wonder if I was reading a parody.

How is this a classic?