Ender's Shadow (Ender)

Submitted by Reviewer (not verified) on Saturday, November 12, 2005 - 23:34

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Orson Scott Card: Ender's Shadow

Author	Orson Scott Card
Made	Tor Books
Date	2000-12-15
Media	Mass Market Paperback
Catalog	Book
Sales Rank	249346
Availability	Usually ships in 24 hours
Our Price*	US$7.99

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Amazon.com US$7.99

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Reviews:

Rating 4.5/5 from 641 reviews

That bean is a character

Rating: 5/5 2008-12-26

Out of all the books in the series, this one was especially awesome. I'm surprised by some of the weak unfavorable reviews for this book. I found it to be throughly awesome. Bean's childhood was insane. Card stayed true to the original story and basically retold it from a completely different angle. A lot of good stuff for the movie in this book too...if the movie ever happens.

Bean there, done that

Rating: 5/5 2008-12-05

A parallel to "Ender's Game" that is, in some ways, better than the original. This one follows Bean, who is more than just one of Ender's lieutenants, through some of the same events. The boring trips into the computer game have thankfully been omitted because Bean refuses to play. It doesn't replace "Ender's Game", which is overall an excellent novel, but complements it nicely.

Listen to a well crafted story

Rating: 5/5 2008-10-08

For me there is nothing better than listening to a book on CD while chewing up a lot of asphalt during a road trip. I discovered this little gem 'Ender's Shadow, at the local library and became an addict to Ender, Bean, and the Shadow series as a result. For those of you that think you have to read or listen to Ender's Game first, don't worry Bean and his story stand up all by themselves with no problem.
The author 'Scott Card' has often stated that he believes his books are best when the story is spoken. No argument here. He uses multiple well known narrators including one of the very best Scott Brick. Fair warning is to be given however. Once you listen to Scott Card's Ender and Shadow series on audio CD, you will never feel the same about actually reading a book again.

Bean Rocks!

Rating: 4/5 2008-09-14

If you just finished reading Ender's Game, go to this one next as was recommended to me. This is the story of Bean, smallest member of Dragon army. The tale takes place during the same events as Ender's Game but from Bean's perspective. Loved it. Would have given in 5 stars but it took a little bit to get going. Enjoy!

All Bean and no rice make this a dull book

Rating: 3/5 (1 out of 1 think this is helpful) 2008-09-10

This is one of the most OK books I've ever read. While it's not bad, I didn't really find it all that good either. Keep in mind that I'm a long way from Jr. High/High school, which is the age range this book is intended for. If that's your age range, it's a totally different book. Knowing the ending of this alternate view of Ender's Game, I think it would be especially important to make Bean a bit more likeable. He's genetically gifted, and judges every bad decision, and basically everybody besides Ender as stupid. I was pleased to find that Bean gained some humility, he eventually uses his brilliance to help other people. He still makes mistakes, and a character like Bean who criticizes and condemns others for being "stupid" seems likely to put himself through the same torture when he makes mistakes, yet he doesn't. Bean, right out of the toilet, is the most obnoxious character I've ever experienced a point of view through. I realize he's just a kid, but he's still the type I would encourage to play in the street.

Bean's family was the worst addition to this story, and there are some coincidences involved with that which could make your stomach turn, it did mine. There is some severe cheesiness, but overall, a relatively decent story. I wonder why a kid from the Netherlands would seem so much like a kid from the US. Why is almost every ultra smart kid in this story European or Euro-American? Why aren't there any major Chinese or other Asian characters in here? There seems to be such a lack of smart kids from outside of the US and Europe? Hmmm...no Africans, and the only god represented here is the Christian/Mormon one.Lack of interesting character and culture give this book a mediocre rating in my book. Science? As if, this is OSC...remember? Not for everybody.

Editorials:

Product Description

The novel that launched the bestselling Ender’s Shadow series—available for the first time on unabridged cd
The human race is at War with the “Buggers”, an insect-like alien race. As Earth prepares to defend itself from total destruction at the hands of an inscrutable enemy, all focus is on the development of military geniuses who can fight such a war, and win. The long distances of interstellar space have given hope to the defenders of Earth—they have time to train these future commanders up from childhood, forging them into an irresistible force in the high orbital facility called the Battle School. Andrew “Ender” Wiggin was not the only child in the Battle School; he was just the best of the best. In this new book, Card tells the story of another of those precocious generals, the one they called Bean—the one who became Ender’s right hand, part of his team, in the final battle against the Buggers. Bean’s past was a battle just to survive. His success brought him to the attention of the Battle School’s recruiters, those people scouring the planet for leaders, tacticians, and generals to save Earth from the threat of alien invasion. Bean was sent into orbit, to the Battle School. And there he met Ender....

Amazon.com Review

Ender's Shadow is being dubbed as a parallel novel to Orson Scott Card's Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Ender's Game. By "parallel," Card means that Shadow begins and ends at roughly the same time as Game, and it chronicles many of the same events. In fact, the two books tell an almost identical story of brilliant children being trained in the orbiting Battle School to lead humanity's fleets in the final war against alien invaders known as the Buggers. The most brilliant of these young recruits is Ender Wiggin, an unparalleled commander and tactician who can surely defeat the Buggers if only he can overcome his own inner turmoil.

Second among the children is Bean, who becomes Ender's lieutenant despite the fact that he is the smallest and youngest of the Battle School students. Bean is the central character of Shadow, and we pick up his story when he is just a 2-year-old starving on the streets of a future Rotterdam that has become a hell on earth. Bean is unnaturally intelligent for his age, which is the only thing that allows him to escape--though not unscathed--the streets and eventually end up in Battle School. Despite his brilliance, however, Bean is doomed to live his life as an also-ran to the more famous and in many ways more brilliant Ender. Nonetheless, Bean learns things that Ender cannot or will not understand, and it falls to this once pathetic street urchin to carry the weight of a terrible burden that Ender must not be allowed to know.

Although it may seem like Shadow is merely an attempt by Card to cash in on the success of his justly famous Ender's Game, that suspicion will dissipate once you turn the first few pages of this engrossing novel. It's clear that Bean has a story worth telling, and that Card (who started the project with a cowriter but later decided he wanted it all to himself) is driven to tell it. And though much of Ender's Game hinges on a surprise ending that Card fans are likely well acquainted with, Shadow manages to capitalize on that same surprise and even turn the table on readers. In the end, it seems a shame that Shadow, like Bean himself, will forever be eclipsed by the myth of Ender, because this is a novel that can easily stand on its own. Luckily for readers, Card has left plenty of room for a sequel, so we may well be seeing more of Bean in the near future. --Craig E. Engler

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