Rating: 
Summary: perfect
Review: Card is magnificent I was so impressed with this book I read it in less than a week. Bean is a much more interesting character than Ender because he is always second guessing people. If your smart you'll read this book and love it like a child. Card does such a good job that he makes up a twist to a plot that you know whats going to happen and he brings life to people that you thought you knew. READ THIS AND LEARN FROM IT
Rating:
Summary: bean!
Review: This is a rehash of "Ender's Game" told from the perspective of Bean. This is amazing, seriously. It takes guts to rewrite your beloved book from a different POV and make the beloved character look like a jerk. This is a terrific novel, read in conjunction with enders game
Rating:
Summary: Card keeps me on the edge of my seat!
Review: Orson Scott Card has done a wonderful job with the book Ender's Shadow. He succeeded in writing a book parallel to Ender's Game without being repetitive but also being connected and intertwined with Ender Wiggins's story. Bean stole my heart in the beginning as an insightful and intense street urchin and then locked it up with his devotion and intellect as Ender's second in command. Bean's struggle for the respect of his peers and superiors was somewhat hindered by his small size and shaky past. Although this caused him to be to some extent alienated in the beginning of his days at Battle School, Bean again won me over as he used deft social maneuvering skills to pull his team together just as he civilized the streets he used to roam. He also demonstrates his intelligence, that at some times seems greater than that of Ender's, when he is able to foresee the purpose of the Fantasy Game and understand the risk he would take if he played the game. He knew he would give his superiors, whom are sometimes shown as the enemy, an inside look into his mind, and he knows not give them an upper edge. It seems a shame that Ender will forever overshadow Bean. While Ender does have the responsibility of saving the world from the alien Buggers, it is Bean who bears the full knowledge of his actions. Orson Scott Card has again written a novel that occupied my mind until I could finish it. Bean's story was definitely worth telling. There also is a characteristic Card surprise ending in Ender's Shadow that leaves plenty of room for a Bean sequel and the reader yearning for it.
Rating:
Summary: Just as good a Ender's Game
Review: This book is a super fast read. The characters are great and the plot is just as good the second time around.
Rating:
Summary: Even better than Ender's Game
Review: Bean is a kid, not a meal, who is following in Ender's footsteps. However, their lives before Battle School were completely and totally different. For one thing, Bean grew up in Rotterdam, a slum. as it turns out, Bean is also more intelligent than Ender, with a perfect memory, and the brainpower to understand the Fantasy Game. (If you haven't read Ender's Game, I suggest that you read it first, it gives you a more mild overview of the whole situation.)Bean finally decides that the only way for him to look less suspicious as being the only kid in Battle School not to play the fantasy game is to follow become like Ender. He learns how to get inside the security system and use teacher accounts to sign in to his desk. (laptop)After a while, Bean has memorized the records of every student in Battle School. Meanwhile, Ender is in an army, almost ready to become commander. The teachers, after noticing Bean's readings, decide to give him the honor of selecting Ender's army, but only picking from launchies and rejects. I guess that I've said almost too much about the plot already. The book is divided into sections, and that little summary brought you up to about the third section. I still recommend reading the first three sections, though, because there are many details that you really need to read to understand the book.
Rating:
Summary: More like Bean's Game than Ender's Shadow
Review: Finally the story of Bean is told and told well. Although this character shows up very late in Ender's Game, I was as intrigued by him as I was with Ender. This book does Bean full justice and in a way it's a better character study because Ender's Game put Ender a bit on a pedestal and hard to reach, but with Ender's Shadow, Card really brings you into Bean's head and gives you details about his past.
The title of the book is my only reservation as I think Bean holds his own very well. But I guess Card had to for the public recognition. I'd hate to give anything away but I loved learning how much more involved he was with the mission than previously thought. It made me read Ender's Game again to get the nuances missed before and then Ender's Shadow AGAIN to really get a grasp of the whole story.
Rating: 
Summary: Another version of a classic
Review: This novel features preparation of children to lead a galactic battle that could be the end of Earth. It is a parallel story filling out and adding a new perspective to Card's classic Ender's Game (a story with one of the most startling twists in all SF, and must be read first). Bean, a secondary character in Ender's Game, turns out to be something of the mastermind behind the scenes (and literally roaming the orbital station). The first part is Bean's fascinating struggle for survival as an urchin on the mean streets, the rest is his rather perfunctory gaming of the Battle School system already featured in Ender's Game. The ending of the game is prefigured by Bean, who figures out everything. It's hard to write an engrossing parallel story when your audience knows the outcome, and when the first novel was so memorable. While there are strong emotions here--after all it's Earth against an alien hive (but see the sequel "Speaker for the Dead")--there's not much empathy because silent Bean with his icy, precocious, and belligerent super-intelligence lacks much empathy himself, and it is largely through his hard eyes we see all the other characters. The only adults are all totally manipulative, involved in their own games, and the chief source of humor in the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Ender's Shadow
Review: Ender's Shadow, by Orson Scott Card is an intriguing book that has a similar genre to Star Wars. Companion to Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow tells the story of a brilliant boy, Bean, who was drafted into Battle School at the young age of six. Bean was drafted in order to train to be a soldier in space and eventually fight the "buggers." Earth and the "buggers" have been in a constant war for some time now, and Earth will do whatever it takes to win the war; even if it means relying on a six year old boy. Another boy that was drafted at a young age was Ender Wiggin. Ender is older than Bean, and further into the training process when Bean arrives. However, Ender was also drafted at the age of six. Bean, just like Ender, is exceptionally bright. Throughout Bean's training, he is consistently finding out things about Battle School that no teacher wanted him to know. He also learns how to sign on to his own personal desk as someone else, giving him a "secret identity." Bean is constantly being compared to Ender because of his size, age, and brightness. Even though being compared to the great Ender sounds nice, Bean continuously struggles to be his own individual self and to make friends; most people don't want to associate with him because of his intellect. Bean also tries to cope with events that happened before his being drafted into Battle School. You will surely love Ender's Shadow, even if you don't like science fiction books!
Rating: 
Summary: I can't put my finger on it...
Review: First of all, let me start out by saying that Ender's Game is one of my favorite novels of all time. Ender's Game was fluid and well written. Capturing the reader's interest, it was captivating. I wish I could say the same for Ender's Shadow. Overjoyed when I heard that Card was returning to Ender for another installment (although I didn't particularly care for the other installments in the series...none were as fluid or moving as Ender's Game), I was optimistic that Card would once again capture the magic that once enthralled me. However, I was once again disappointed.
While the story would have been interesting in and of itself, to force this new sub-story into the Ender Saga is stretching it. While Bean was obviously capable in Ender's Game (even Ender compares Bean to himself when Bean is assigned to the Dragon squadron), Card never gives him, or alludes to, the kind of depth needed in Bean to make such a story as Ender's Shadow plausable. The whole thing seems a bit contrived.
Gone from Ender's Shadow is the masterful story telling present in Songmaster (my favorite of Card's novels) or Maps in a Mirror. In it's place exists an intersting, yet unfeeling rendition of a masterpiece.
I know 2 stars may be a little harsh, but I was sorely disappointed in Ender's Shadow.
If you are looking for a book with some intersting concepts to pass the time with, check out Ender's Shadow. However, if you wish to read some truly fine science fiction, then read Card's Ender's Game or Songmaster.
Rating:
Summary: Two Views
Review: Most of this work is absolutely great. But, the parts that overlap with Ender's Game seemed a bit contrived. Card recognizes that no two people are going to view the same events the same way, but seems to spend a bit too much time defending this new story against the old. He doesn't seem to trust the reader to catch on. And at the same time, Bean seems to lose a great deal of his personality during his time at Battle School, though he regains it by the time he gets to Command School.
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