Rating: 
Summary: Incredible and touching
Review: In Ender's Shadow, Orson Scott Card struck a much deeper cord with me than he did in Ender's Game. This isn't to say that Ender's Game wasn't a wonderful book; quite the opposite, in fact. But telling the story from Bean's point of view gives it incredible depth. I felt as though I was inside Bean's mind more than I did with Ender, and it was absolutely fascinating to follow Bean's brilliant reasoning and trains of thought. Card also tells the story with a bare minimum of detail; the reader is given no hints nor guidelines in picturing Bean or Ender's faces, and a great deal about the Battle School and the Battle Room is left to the imagination. It's an unusual style of writing and it's extremely effective here. In all ways, it is an outstanding book intellectually. But the real strength of Ender's Shadow lies in its emotional side. Seeing Ender from Bean's point of view is vastly different and allows you to understand why it is that Ender's army loves him so fiercely and devotedly. Bean evolves a great deal throughout the book, from a calculating, cold little machine to a boy who feels genuine anguish and love. I read over and over the scenes where Bean realizes Ender's danger from Bonzo, and when the teachers take Ender away to Command School. In the simplest of words, Card evoked the most complex, raw emotions I have ever felt while reading a book. It's the kind of book that literally gets inside my heart and makes it feel as though it's swelling and bursting, while at the same time leaving me with a deep, inexplicable kind of sadness that words really can't describe.
Rating: 
Summary: A great addition to the Ender Series
Review: This story parallels Ender's Game, but is told from the view of Ender's sidekick, Bean. We learn about Bean, what makes him tick and why we should even care. We also see Ender from another perspective. As with Orson Scott Card's other books, it is exciting, suspensful, and thrilling. It was difficult to put the book down and I anxiously awaited the sequel. If you liked Ender's Game, you will like this series too. If you didn't like the sequels to Ender's Game, you will still like this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad
Review: I enjoyed this book, although it was nothing new. More like reading old journal entries in a way. Enjoyable. However, I felt the last 75-100 pages was more set up for the sequels which sort of turned me off. Otherwise, not bad.
Rating:
Summary: Very
Review: As a 15 year old girl, I was convinced to read Ender's Game by my math teacher. To my surprise I loved it. Then I read Ender's shadow. I found that it was actually better than Ender's Game. Bean is a much more convincing character than Ender. Ender doesn't have the strong inner dialogue that
Bean has. This book also worked quite well and the author did not change his story like they do sometimes when they write parallel novels. If you liked Ender's Game; you'll love the Bean series. They are more interesting. Also skip the other Ender books because they get a little bizarre.
Rating:
Summary: A good follow-up to Ender's Game
Review: For all of you who were dissapointed with the sequels to Ender's Game (Speaker for the Dead - Xenocide - and Children of the Mind) - this book will be a little more up your alley. Not that the sequels to Ender's Game were bad - they just weren't what I believe most fans of Ender's Game were craving. Ender's Shadow tells the story in Ender's Game from a different character's (Bean) perspective. I know it sounds kind of forced and hackneyed - but it actually is very entertaining. If you're looking for more of Ender's Game - this is the book and not Speaker For The Dead and the others. If think it's closer to the Card of old and a better effort than many of recent works.
Rating: 
Summary: Repeat, rerun, blah blah blah
Review: With this story Card revisits the original "Ender's Game" story from the point of view of the character "Bean". We learn more about Bean than we knew before and don't see much of Ender himself at all. It's the first in a new set of books. I haven't bothered to look at the one that comes after this. I'd say this is readable, good if you're really that "into" Ender's Game or Orson Scott Card, but very skip-able otherwise.
Rating:
Summary: Card hits a home run
Review: If you read and enjoyed Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow is a must read. The title refers to Bean, one of Ender's most reliable and competent soldiers in his Dragon Army at Battle School. Card starts from Bean's earliest childhood during which he nearly starves to death in Rotterdam. Bean's extraordinary intelligence is soon recognized and after a couple turbulent years in a street gang he winds up in Battle School, where he quickly learns more about the training facility and the teachers' motivations than any other child there. Eventually Bean meets Ender and the two come to depend on each other for the success of Dragon Army. From this point on, the story parallels Ender's Game but is told from Bean's viewpoint. We learn that Bean had a lot more to do with events at Battle School than we previously thought! Along the way, we learn the disturbing secret of Bean's genius intellect and the terrible price he must one day pay for it. Bean is not who he seems. Just like Ender's Game, the pace is generally quick and the story quite straightforward. But Shadow is a more mature work than Game. This is due both to Card's growth as a writer and to the fact that much of the subject matter deals with Bean's ongoing thoughts, which due to his genius must reflect the insight and experience of a grown adult. There's not much more to say. If you liked Ender's Game, you've gotta get this one! Also, it leaves plenty of room for a sequel (Shadow of the Hegemon, already published).
Rating:
Summary: Take a chance
Review: I was utterly dissapointed by Card's "Xenocide." I was even reluctant to pick up "Ender's Shadow." Something about Bean, though, was intriguing enough to make me want to read the fifth novel in this series. It was *beyond* worthwhile. "Ender's Shadow" does, in fact, draw a parallel to "Ender's Game," but it is nothing like the first novel. Bean's experiences are so different and they add layers upon layers to the dynamics that were developed in the first novel. If you are simply interested in the bugger action present in the first novel, then no, this book is not for you. You already know the punchline. But if you've developed any interest in the children, in Ender, Bean or even their superiors then I *highly* reccomend "Ender's Shadow." As you get further into the book and find out more things, more "secrets" that Card has hidden, you feel like you're getting rewarded! Constantly, the author reveals more information from the first novel, allowing his audience to get a better feel for what was going on and to see the situation from entirely new angles. Try it!
Rating:
Summary: Very fine, though limited by earlier book
Review: It's often interesting to view a great work from another viewpoint, as Stoppard did with "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" to "Hamlet". "Ender's Shadow" does much the same, to nearly as good an effect. Bean is an interesting character, but the book is most interesting when we see the reflected glory of Ender and we get to see that much loved character from another viewpoint. The scenes before and after Ender are missing something, and the something is, Ender. Card created three great characters in this series: the Wiggins siblings. When one of them is not on stage, they are missed greatly. Stoppard used snippets from Hamlet to highlight the helplessness of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, lost in events far greater than them. Bean, though, is supposed to be a dynamic character, shaping events, not merely being part of them. Card's problem is that the scenes and words already written in Ender's Game straightjacket him in this one--we have Bean say things which are perfectly appropriate in Ender's Game, but not consistant with his character here, and so he is forced to have Bean rage in his own mind about saying the wrong thing. Similarly, the adults, Anderson and Graf, make it abundently clear in Ender's Gamethat there is no alternative to Ender, no one who could possibly compare to him. Ender's Shadow forces Card into a "Yes, but . . ." in writing these characters and their conversations which start most of the chapters. Excellent, and I'm hoping for great things when the third book comes out in August. But in this volume, Card did the best he could in trying to reshape a Hugo-winning book that would be intimately familiar to his readers. For all my carping, few could have done better.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as "Ender's Game"...
Review: ...but then, "Ender's Game" affected me like very few books ever have. "Game" is about the personal journey of one boy through the events chronicled in both books. "Shadow" is about the larger events and ideas that were background filler of the original. Which isn't to say that we don't care about Bean, but the reader's relationship builds much more subtly... Bean possesses an analytical view of the world. He is a robot struggling against his own humanity while Ender was a human struggling against being turned into a machine. Still, "Shadow" is one of the best books I've read in a long time, and it's incredible the way that Card can bring two completely different outlooks to the same story. The writing style is the same... one can tell it's the same author. But few authors could play with the events they wrote decades ago to create a new purpose. Characters that exited stage left at a point in "Game" often continue their storylines in "Shadow." Characters that Card went to pains clearly establishing and fleshing out in his first telling and relegated to the background. Had "Ender's Game" not shown me all the tricks, it is quite possible that this book would have had the same impact. Still, when Bean finally lets go and lets his emotions flow, it was one of the most uplifting experiences I've garnered from a book in a while. And unlike the ambiguous and somewhat downbeat ending of Ender's story, Bean gets a clearly happy ending. This book is highly recommended. Rarely do you find sci-fi with characters as complex and three-dimensions as those in this book. Card is a brilliant writer, and perhaps a brilliant philosopher as well. He isn't pretentious enough to give you the anwsers, but he gets you asking the questions.
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