Ender's Shadow (Shadow Series, Book 1)

by Orson Scott Card

published

May 19th 2002 (first published 1999) by Starscape

edit

binding

Paperback, 480 pages

url

http://www.tor-forge.com/ender...

characters

Bean

isbn

0765342405 (isbn13: 9780765342409)

description

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,&...more

[close] 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 [close]

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bj rated it:

08/12/07

Read in August, 2007

This book was definitely not as good as Ender's Game. The best parts of Ender's Game were the action parts, and also the parts where Ender would be faced with a problem and he had to come up with a clever way to fix it. But in Ender's Shadow, Bean is the main character and he tends to be much less subtle than Ender. He also spends an absurd amount of time thinking, just thinking and thinking. It's like... dude. STFU! Maybe if he thought about interesting stuff, but he...more

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Seth rated it:

12/04/07

bookshelves: crap, young-adult

This is the simplified version of Ender's Game for the kiddie set that can't handle rich characters with moral ambiguity, moral introspection, and character growth.

Card does great work teaching people how to re-imagine stories from different viewpoints and with different motivations in his workshops. It's a shame that he didn't demonstrate it here.

Instead, we get Bean (a great character in the original story) as a classic Mary Sue, a wis...more

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Martine rated it:

(review of isbn 0812575717)

07/17/08

bookshelves: modern-fiction, north-american, psychological-drama, science-fiction

Read in June, 2002

When I first heard Orson Scott Card had written a parallel story to Ender's Game, dealing with virtually the same events as the original book but told from another character's perspective, I thought it was a cheap way to cash in on the success of his first bestseller. Like many people, though, I had to eat my words after reading Ender's Shadow. For not only is it as gripping a read as Ender's Game, but in some regards it is actually a better book.

Ender's Shadow ce...more When I first heard Orson Scott Card had written a parallel story to Ender's Game, dealing with virtually the same events as the original book but told from another character's perspective, I thought it was a cheap way to cash in on the success of his first bestseller. Like many people, though, I had to eat my words after reading Ender's Shadow. For not only is it as gripping a read as Ender's Game, but in some regards it is actually a better book.

Ender's Shadow centres on one of Ender's lieutenants, Bean, an even younger and more intelligent child prodigy than Ender himself. After some thrilling adventures on the streets of Rotterdam, Bean is sent to Battle School, where he keeps hearing about this genius called Ender. Bean gets obsessed with Ender, or rather with proving to himself and others that he is a better strategist than Ender. But when he finally meets Ender, he realises that there is a reason why Ender is revered the way he is, and learns to accept his place in the universe. Nope, he doesn't get to command Earth's army, but he plays a major part in the background -- in many ways a more interesting part than the one Ender plays in the foreground.

Ender's Shadow does have a few problems. As a Dutchwoman, I dearly wish Card had gone over the Dutch names and references in the Rotterdam segment with a Dutch person, as many of them are riddled with mistakes (Sinterklaas lights? WTF?). Furthermore, there were a few times (especially halfway through the book) when I found Bean's superiority complex a bit grating. Apart from these minor flaws, though, Ender's Shadow is a solid novel by an author who had clearly matured immensely since writing Ender's Game. The prose in Ender's Shadow is much richer, the psychology has more depth, the back story is more fully realised, and thanks to Bean's amazing tactical and analytical insights, he is able to offer an interesting perspective on events known from the first book. Bean himself, too, is a much better drawn protagonist than Ender -- not always entirely likeable, but always fascinating. His story may lack some of the surprise and impact of Ender's, but in its own way it's thoroughly engaging and thought-provoking. It easily holds up as a stand-alone book, and as a companion piece to Ender's Game, filling in gaps and providing new perspectives on known events, it is simply superb. I never thought I'd say this about a young-adult-meets-sci-fi novel, but there you are. Good stuff....less

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Kyle rated it:

(review of isbn 031286860X)

06/03/08

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

This is a hard book for me to review without getting angry, so bear with me. The review may also contain spoilers, so if you have not read this book or "Ender’s Game" you may want to skip over this review and just note I'm giving it a 2/5, and would probably drop that down to a 1.5 given the choice.
The original "Ender’s Game" novel is, in a word, extraordinary. Its one of those books almost everyone has read. Its translated in hundreds of languages. Its won many, many a...more This is a hard book for me to review without getting angry, so bear with me. The review may also contain spoilers, so if you have not read this book or "Ender’s Game" you may want to skip over this review and just note I'm giving it a 2/5, and would probably drop that down to a 1.5 given the choice.
The original "Ender’s Game" novel is, in a word, extraordinary. Its one of those books almost everyone has read. Its translated in hundreds of languages. Its won many, many awards, and has won Orson Scott Card many awards as well. So you would think that revisiting "Ender’s Game" through the eyes of the rather important side-character Bean would be hard to mess up. Whole sections of the book are already written, as Bean and Ender experience the same situations together. All Card needed to do was fill in the blanks, toss in a bit of behind-the-scenes information on Ender through the eyes of a team member, and voila! Instant hit, especially with fan boys like me.

Unfortunately, thats not what happened. Instead, Card let the many years that passed between the writing of the original "Ender’s Game" short story, and the conceptualization of "Ender’s Shadow", shine through. He forgot what it meant to write a story based on a childhood dream during the time of Nixon, Carter, and Regan. Instead, he wrote as an upstanding citizen and devoted Latter Day Saint. Don't get me wrong, neither of these attributes are bad! They're just not where he was personally when he wrote "Ender’s Game", and this changes the whole tone of not just "Ender’s Shadow", but "Ender’s Game" as well!

In "Ender’s Game", Ender is manipulated by the world government into becoming the greatest space admiral, and the world's savior. Along the way, Ender knows he's being manipulated, and believes he understands the implications found within such manipulations. And even in the face of severe adversity, chooses to keep going because he knows its the right thing to do. He sees their deception and continues on, because even if the deception itself is wrong, their goal is just. And it coincides with his own reason for continuing on; to save his sister Valentine. Throughout the book, we also are given the perspectives of Generals Graff and Anderson, who speak constantly of the affects their manipulations are having on Ender, and the justifying reasons for their deception of someone so young. Graff is even put on trial at the end of the book for his involvement, and is deemed not guilty, in no small an example of the ends justifying the means.

"Ender’s Shadow" takes these machinations, these deceptions of both the children at Battle School and the general public, and throws it out. Instead of sticking with the idea of a government uncaringly using a very small segment of the population for the protection of the species as a whole, instead the government is painted as almost completely lost in how to proceed. Only the arrival of hyper-intelligent Bean saves the day. Younger even than Ender, Bean ends up manipulating Graff and Anderson, in order to achieve the results we saw in "Ender’s Game". The government wasn't smart enough to plan anything in advance, but Bean is! Not only that, but he continues to get smarter and smarter. By the end of the Bean series ("Shadow of the Giant"), he has long since past the point of believability. Nearly every problem Bean faces, he is able to solve with his unbelievably powerful brain without any outside help. This makes the books following "Ender’s Shadow" gradually get worse, but it all starts here.

The Bean series, beginning with "Ender’s Shadow", has me hesitant to read anything else Card has written in the Ender-verse. "A War of Gifts" seems to be yet another attempt by Card to re-write the "Ender's Game" tale by repainting it rosier than it once was. A recently-announced prequel to "Speaker for the Dead" makes me fear Card will start rewriting the rest of the series as well. And that makes me quite sad, because it will mean the scuttling of one of the greatest science fiction series around.
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Tamra rated it:

04/15/08

Read in January, 2004

recommends it for: Ender's Game fanatics

I am ashamed to admit that I've never finished the Ender's Game original set. But I did read Ender's Shadow, which I think most people really liked. I didn't mind it, but I have some serious reservations.

First, the original story is better. This re-telling isn't near as fun. It takes longer to get to the GOOD story, though it is interesting to see the background on this kid.

Most of what I disliked, though, is that this re-interpretation is NOT what Card originally had in mind when he...more

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Jessica added it

03/19/08

bookshelves: fiction

Read in February, 2008

recommends it for: Everyone

What is most obvious after reading this book after _Ender's Game_ is how much more Orson Scott Card knew about computers the second time around. The Net has matured and come closer to the Internet, Rotterdam has the textual richness missing in the beautifully but vaguely described world of Ender's family and the tactics of the Buggers have all become more revealed than they were when we traveled with Ender. Perhaps this has to do with our omniscient Bean and his massive ability to perceive the w...more

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Chris rated it:

02/05/08

Read in February, 2008

recommends it for: Everyone. That's right.

Wow.

I just cried while listening to an audio book. Even more amazing is that this book was the re-telling of a story I've already read, only told from a different perspective. Orson Scott Card is amazing. I'm now looking forward to the other books in the shadow series.

The audiobook was, like all others in this terrific series, fantastically well-executed. Full-cast reading, but no audio effects. Nothing is done to cheapen the conveyance of the story, but oh so much is done to elevat...more

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Ren the Unclean rated it:

10/23/07

bookshelves: sci-fi

Read in January, 2005

recommends it for: Everyone

Rather than pursue the massive political/social examination that takes in the sequels to Ender's Game, Card goes back to the roots of the series by starting in the same timeframe and following a different character, and then continuing from there in the same style.

Ender's Shadow is, I would say, as good as or better than Ender's Game. Bean is one of the coolest characters I have seen in a book, and that is especially true in this first book in his series. Most of Ender's Game is spent with...more

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Jared rated it:

11/14/07

bookshelves: science-fiction

Read in August, 2000

This book tried really hard to ruin Ender's Game for me. The premise of the book is that Ender wasn't really the hero of his own book, but that his course was manipulated and prodded onward by an even greater genius, in the form of Bean, a member of Ender's army.

Bean had a brutal upbringing on the streets, and somehow ended up in Battle School, where he takes over the computer system and runs everything by the time he's six. He en...more

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Jon rated it:

12/24/07

Read in December, 2007

This is an excellent companion to the story that started the series: Ender's Game. The premise behind the book is the same as Ender's Game, but the story is drastically different. It is told through the eyes of Bean, a calculating child who excels beyond Ender in all tests.

For Bean, surviving was life. When anything happened, no matter the intent, it was absorbed and stored with suspicion. He didn't know why he would need it-- he just knew that the more he knew the more he could manipulate ...more

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Anthony rated it:

(review of isbn 031286860X)

10/11/08

bookshelves: sci-fi

Read in October, 1999

This book was just as entertaining to me as Ender's Game. I loved how this book paralleled Ender's Game but took it from the perspective of Bean and only enhanced what he and Ender went through. After I got done reading this, I immediately went back and read Ender's Game again. Orson Scott Card did a beautiful job with this story. I was compelled to read the rest of the books in the Shadow series, and I have to say, I enjoyed the Shadow Series better than the Ender Series.

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Kathy rated it:

02/09/08

bookshelves: fantasy-scifi

I'm going to review the whole Shadow Series as a whole instead of rating each book individually. I had a difficult time enjoying this series. It was partially psychological--I really liked the Ender's Game series, and had a hard time seeing it in a different light. Other people may not have this hang-up. But my main problem is that this is written in later-Card style. His style has become a lot of dialog, almost like you're reading a play, and it's very hard for me to throw myself into sheets of...more

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Mansoor added it

04/20/07

Read in August, 2001

recommends it for: Fans of Ender's Game

This is virtually the same story as Ender's Game, but told from the perspective of a different character in the story. In Ender's Game, one of the students training with Ender is Bean. This is the story of how Bean came to train at the military academy and the problems he faced there.

It's hard for me to be objective about this book. I don't know if it was enjoyable because it was a good book, or if I liked it because it revealed more about a story I already liked. I think i...more

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Karl rated it:

07/28/08

Back to the prime stuff! Perfect blend of suspense, point-of-view and story-telling that made "Ender's Game" such a phenomenon!

NOTE: Again, there is a movie coming out next year that supposedly will try to tell the story in this book ALONG WITH the story in "Ender's Game." Don't exactly know how they'll do this without butchering both, so if you value books over movies, read these two books first and then you can tell your friends, "Well yeah, the movie was okay, ...more

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Michael rated it:

01/28/08

bookshelves: fiction

Ender's Game:
There's this really, really smart kid, see, and he's lonely, and he has to do really hard stuff, and adults are mean.

OK. I can get with that.

Ender's Shadow:
Oh, but I forgot to mention, there's this OTHER kid, who's even smarter, like really, really, REALLY smart, and he's also even lonelier, and he has to do even harder stuff, and the adults are even meaner.

Give me a break. Yawn. I think Card is great but this is just ridiculous. I read Shadow of the Hegemon but quit...more

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Joshua rated it:

06/09/08

This is the best sci-fi book I can ever remember reading. Kylie let me borrow her copy. Now, this book is about a kid genius, so if you liked Artemis Fowl, chances are you'll like this one more. Just imagine Artemis being as smart as he was at age 12 when he was 5 and you'll get the genius in here.

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David rated it:

11/11/08

bookshelves: 11th

Read in November, 2008

Simply a great book this was. I'm almost done, but I am just going to write a review first for advisory. This book is a sequel to Ender's Game, basically the same plot in the perspective of little Bean.

Bean, a tiny child, grew up in the streets, and thrives for survival. Throughout the course of the novel, Bean grows from starving in the streets to a genius in Battle School. Bean's growth is a symbol of the Darwinist theory of Survival of the Fittest. Bean, also fitting into Campbell's Heroi...more Simply a great book this was. I'm almost done, but I am just going to write a review first for advisory. This book is a sequel to Ender's Game, basically the same plot in the perspective of little Bean.

Bean, a tiny child, grew up in the streets, and thrives for survival. Throughout the course of the novel, Bean grows from starving in the streets to a genius in Battle School. Bean's growth is a symbol of the Darwinist theory of Survival of the Fittest. Bean, also fitting into Campbell's Heroic Cycle, was genetically modified, hence carries the trait of perfection with a dire consequence. Being extraordinarily gifted, he is Ender's very shadow, who helps out in difficult situation. But the question of ethical beliefs also rises. Is it right to play God? The father of Bean who also modified 22 other babies had to kill all of them because of the illegal research. All were killed, except obviously for Bean. Bean's survival can be an example of the American Dream, as one grows slowly in life and slowly reach a secure place. In this case, the earth is the country that Bean emigrates from and Battle School would be American soil. Bean reaches Battle School and live in better conditions and receive a better life.

The War with the "enemy" known as Buggers (aliens) was an allegory of the world's corruption and conflicts. The IF (International Fleet) can symbolize the US and the Buggers would symbolize other countries. The US and their firm belief of manifest destiny/ imperialism is shown in the Battle with the Buggers. Even the US's Indian Removal Act to drive the Indians westward or the European invasion of the Americas during the Age of Discovery. They wiped out the Buggers, invaded their land and ceded it, into a colony. On the surface, it was a propaganda of human safety, but what was underneath? It was an invasion for land, for self-benefit and development. For Ender and the other children, they were innocent, and they were exploited as children to go to war. Was that just? They realized the mistake and the truth that was shrouded (as the Bugger had tried to communicate with Ender in an fantasy game). Sadly, mis-communication led to the near-extinct of the whole Bugger race, who wanted peace. I guess you can't judge a book by its cover.

Moreover, the use of POV in the book truly emphasizes the situation. We see Bean POV and how he analyzes the situation. Bean is one who learned to be truly independent and self-sufficient. He reminds me of me. Quiet, yet he is analyze everything in that brain of his. We see the POV of the officers who are training the children. We never really see their real thoughts until the end of the novel. They pushed the kids to their limit with their cruelty, but wanted what's best for their planet. In the first novel, we saw everything from Ender's perspective. These POV are significant as we see multiple lenses of the story. The fact that the author wrote an sequel base on a different perspective of the same novel emphasizes the importance of the plot. This connects back to the allegory of the Battle with the Buggers is really our national wars against other countries. We see what different types of people think of the situation as well as the author and reader's POV. Was the wars justified? The question can be raised to the war in Vietnam, Iraq, etc. as well as in the novel.
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