Ender's Shadow

Rating:
Summary: Gotta love the Battle School
Review: Here's the deal with Ender's Shadow: it's nearly as good as Ender's Game. In fact, if this novel came first, and there were subsequent stories about Bean and family, I may consider it better than Ender's Game. As a huge fan of the first novel about the Battle School participants, I had enormous expectations for 'Shadow,' and I must say that those expectations were indeed fulfilled.

Rating:
Summary: The continuing saga...
Review: I enjoyed the entire series of Ender's Game... and I've found myself wanting to read more of it. So, when I heard that this was out I had to go read it for myself. Once I picked it up I couldn't stop, and now I find myself with the urge to go back to the original series since it's been so long since I read it... I'm curious to see the "original" side of the story now that I've seen Bean's side. This was a very believable character, and I find myself hoping the saga continues!

Rating:
Summary: Wow! And you thought Ender was smart!
Review: Bean's smart. He's logical. He's a leader. His flaw? He is not Ender.

Ender's Shadow is a perfect companion book to Ender's Game. I read Ender's Shadow right after I read the first, and you should re-read if you haven't read it in a wile because it is so much better if you know what Ender was thinking in that same situation. In this story we fallow Bean through the training. Bean has a more removed point of view then that of any other person close to Ender. Bean's logic also adds a new dimension to the world around Ender, and into the teacher's world. Bean's broad perspective and logic give you an entirely new point of view.

Rating:
Summary: A challenge, as ENDER'S GAME was, but not the same.
Review: If you read, and were moved by ENDER'S GAME, read this. If you have never read ENDER'S GAME,and like stories of almost unbearable choices, try this; the "great surprise" in ENDER'S GAME is not kept here (or, at least not as long) but the pain of impossible ethical decision is even sharper. I, for one, cannot read the climactic scene without tears; I don't say that about many things. Bean is someone you cannot forget.

Rating:
Summary: Can a secondary star outshine the original?
Review: I must admit, I had my doubts sbout "Ender's Shadow". I mean, just how "parallel" can can a book be before it becomes identical? "Ender's Game" sketchily details the participation of Bean in the fight against the threat of the "evil" Formics. How much could this very secondary character contribute to the storyline? But I was pleasantly suprised. The book itself read with a fast and furious pace, with a style so frustratingly suspenseful as to make putting the book down quite out of the question. However, while Ender was a human character, one who touches the hearts of readers, Bean is quite the opposite. He puts on a show of superhuman stoicism; he abandons feeling for steely scholasticism. It was a refreshing change of pace, yet it isolated Bean from Ender in an undeniable tone. His brains quite dwarfed those of Ender, and as it turns out, a more appropriate title of the book would have been "Are you sure it's really Ender's Game?" I couldn't keep away from warfare of the mind. Child supermen and interstellar flight, astounding technology and warfare of the mind will make this book quite unavoidable. -Locke

Rating:
Summary: Read It
Review: OK, it's not as good as Ender's Game (what could be?), But it is still better than 99% of the SF/Fantasy that's out there.

If you are only going to read one Card book read Ender's Game. If you have time for two, read Ender's Shadow (it is better than the other books in the Ender series and it is MUCH better than the Homecoming series).

Rating:
Summary: A surprisingly great read!
Review: I was a little hesitant when I started this book. The idea of a parallel novel had me a little concerned. Could it be good, even though I knew the ending and most of the plot? About ten pages into the book and I was hooked. It starts on the streets of Rotterdam quickly we found out about Bean and it never stops. I had a hard time putting down the book. When I did run into sections that were similar to "Enders Game" I found myself more intrigued to see what Bean was thinking and feeling. This is a highly recommended read.

Rating:
Summary: Diminutive Hero
Review: An enjoyable return to the action and pace of Ender's Game, this retelling of the story of Battle School (this time from Bean's perspective) is an encore to a satisfying series which needed no additional closure. While it does not completely escape a sequel's stigma of being "more of the same," this is a page-turner, following the thoughts and struggles of a brilliant child forced to play an unchildlike role. We follow Bean through his survival on the anarchic streets of his home planet; to the nearly-adolescent posturing of Battle School where young children are pitted against each other in war games; to the Battle Room, where planetary wars are fought by children who are told it is all a game.

The paradox of this story is fascinating: Knowing that children are better at adapting and learning than adults, what are the moral ramifications of using the brightest children as weapons against an enemy which can annihilate the human race? These children are already at odds with their peers because of their intelligence -- but Battle School, floating hundreds of miles from the planet they protect, robs them entirely of a chance at normal life. Card has brought exploration of this question full circle in this series, as he followed Ender's life through his victory over the Buggers, his manifesto of regret for annihilating that species, his colonization of new planets, and his struggle to bring humanity into peaceful relations with other life forms.

Now, after closing Ender's story with great satisfaction, we revisit the Battle School with new eyes. This time we follow the life of Bean, whose brilliance and tenacity to survive the street life of his war-torn planet earned him the dubious honor of fighting a dire enemy. A familiar theme, a familiar story, but told by one who has fully explored the ramifications of the reality he has created.

Rating:
Summary: Highly entertaining, if slightly gimmicky
Review: With this book, OSC attempted a feat I've never seen another author do - he went back to one of his earlier novels and re-told it from the point of view of a different character. I highly recommend keeping a copy of Ender's Game nearby when you read Shadow. It's really neat to compare scenes in one book and see how they dovetail with scenes in the other.

This technique allowed OSC to explore details about his fictional world that were omitted from the previous version. He revisited old characters and scenes, fleshing them out with new detail and sometimes altering their significance just enough to give readers a fresh vision of his universe, without fundamentally changing its story.

The main characters of both novels seems more human, more whole, once we've seen them through each other's eyes.

The only flaw was that OSC tried to outdo his first book by making Bean (the protagonist of Shadow) smarter than Ender (the hero of Game). While this gave Bean the chance to work "behind the scenes" and learn things Ender never did, it also resulted in more than a few stilted scenes and passages of dialogue where Bean's actions in Game did not fit his personality in Shadow. In most cases, Card had to explain away the discrepancies by attributing hidden or patronizing motives to Bean. Sometimes, it worked and sometimes it seemed gimmicky.

Still, the concept of a parallel novel has a lot of possibilities, and I would love to see other authors give it a try.

Rating:
Summary: Not a just a companion book - excellent by itself!
Review: It has been about 8 years since I read Ender's Game and I think that is just about right to read this novel! Its just enough time to remember the outline of Ender's Game and not the finer details, and that allowed me to appreciate Ender's Shadow all the more.

Card's attention to strategy in this novel is brilliant and makes it every bit as compelling as Ender's Game. I loved the way he incorporated Bean's psychoanalysis of people and all the other variables with the power of deduction to come up with truth - just mesmerising reading! Absolutely compulsive page turning stuff.

I agree with reviewer's that this book probably shouldn't have been called Ender's Shadow because Bean was such a fascinating and powerful character within himself, that he didn't live in Ender's Shadow - he complimented Ender.