Ender's Shadow - Ender Author:Orson Scott Card Orson Scott Card brings us back to the very beginning of his brilliant Ender Quartet, with a novel that allows us to reenter that world anew. — With all the power of his original creation, Card has created a parallel volume to Ender's Game, a book that expands and compliments the first, enhancing its power, illuminating its events and its ... more »powerful conclusion.
The human race is at War with the "Buggers", an insect-like alien race. The first battles went badly, and now as Earth prepares to defend itself against the imminent threat of total destruction at the hands of an inscrutable alien enemy, all focus is on the development and training 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 then into an irresisible 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. He first appeared on the streets of Rotterdam, a tiny child with a mind leagues beyond anyone else's. He knew he could not survive through strength; he used his tactical genius to gain acceptance into a children's gang, and then to help make that gang a template for success for all the others. He civilized them, and lived to grow older.
Bean's desperate struggle to live, and 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....« less
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I actually preferred "Ender's Shadow" to the original "Ender's Game". While I relate better to the character of Ender, Bean's experience was far more interesting due to his larger emotional range in comparison.
Anybody who is looking to read this book should be made aware that this isn't just a rehashing of the original book. Card seems to have put a lot of thought into it. What Ender experiences in comparison to Bean is different, despite the fact that they go through the same rigorous training. Bean has a different point of view on it all, since he isn't as innocent as Ender.
This book would probably stand well on its own, if the one has not read the original.
This book was amazing! I picked it up years after reading the original Ender's Game and loved every minute of it. It was a good refresher on the detail of the original story line, but with unexpected twists that were unrevealed from Ender's perspective. A must read if you loved Ender's Game!
Revisit the best for enders game with a new perspective. I have read the whole ender series and liked Enders Shadow more then any other book in the series, short of the original. The book is so good it ends up being a short read.
The plot is similar to Ender's Game naturally. However, the plot twist in Ender's Game is written plainly in Ender's Shadow, making it have less of an impact. While I did enjoy this book as much as, if not more than, Ender's Game, I would recommend reading Ender's Game first due to the mentioned difference in perspective on the story.
Fans of Ender's Game who couldn't follow with the increasingly (for me anyway) strung out series will love Ender's Shadow. It's a great companion piece to the original, although it doesn't quite have the lingering power of the original.