Ender's Shadow (Ender, Book 5)
by Orson Scott Card
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Book Summary Information
Author: Orson Scott CardEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2000-12-15
ISBN: 0812575717
Number of pages: 480
Publisher: Tor Books
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780812575712
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Ender's Shadow (Ender, Book 5)
Book Review: "It turned a little corner of my universe upside down"
Summary: 5 Stars
...says Petra in Ender's Shadow and I think it's also a fitting description to this book.
Sometime in the near future, Earth has been attacked by an alien race, Formics or "buggers". The International Fleet is monitoring and testing all of Earth's children to determine who will be its soldiers and commanders in the upcoming war.
Bean is an orphan living in Rotterdam when he is plucked out of the streets and taught by a nun, Sister Carlotta, who discovers his amazing intelligence and notifies the IF. He is sent to Battle School where students are trained like soldiers in the art of war. Being children, these exercises are called games. While there, he realizes that the only way for him to ever survive in his small body is to use his intelligence to gather as much information about the upcoming war as possible to make himself necessary in their plans, to make him impossible to ignore. However, it turns out that the "powers that be" already have someone they tagged as their savior, namely Ender Wiggen. Bean makes it his number one mission there at the school to learn all about Ender and what makes him such a powerful leader. Along the way, Bean learns to accept and even admire Ender, as well as play an integral part in Ender's final "game."
I read Ender's Game first, like almost everybody I think, and only came across Ender's Shadow much later. It honestly took me a couple of tries to get into Ender's Game but after the first couple of chapters I was hooked. I didn't think anything could match up the experience of that book but Ender's Shadow does a fantastic job of taking a minor character and making his story as engrossing as he does Ender's.
A lot of reviewers say that Bean isn't as engaging as Ender and that, in order to show how brilliant Bean is, Orson Scott Card had to put down Ender and show that he isn't as smart as we all thought.
Of course Bean isn't as engaging or as lovable as Ender! He was supposed to be such a polar opposite of Ender, that when even this cold, calculating child learns to love and admire Ender, it means even more. He isn't supposed to be Ender, he was an outsider looking in and wanting to BE Ender. He craved the power he held over others and Bean couldn't figure out why he didn't have it.
At first, I was also a little disappointed that OSC seemed to keep reminding us that Bean is smarter than Ender but after rereading it, I notice that even within this context, Bean makes pains to say that he is the result of genetic modification and Ender was born with the talents that matter.
Overall, I think this is a great companion book to Ender's Game. There are unexpected moments in here that will genuinely touch you, like Bean's thoughts after Ender's fight with Bonzo and after Ender is promoted to Command School.
Enjoy!
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