Ender's Shadow

Rating:
Summary: A bit repetitive
Review: Enders Game was Orson Scott Card's original novel that started the entire Ender series. It tells the story of a young prodigy, Ender, who quickly climbs the ladder of command and is soon responsible for preserving the human race. In both novels, either Ender or Bean, proves to be the central characters and the young geniuses who assume key roles in the defense of the earth. But the sequel to Enders Game seemed all too familiar. Despite the contrasting beginnings (Bean starts out in the run-down and conflict-ridden ghetto of Rotterdam, while Ender had a reasonable and well-nourished upbringing), the remainders of the stories are extremely repetitive. They both single in on a young boy and his journey as he strives to be the smartest and most recognized young wonder of the time. Bean is turns out to be Enders assistant in the end, and he follows a very similar path to the top as Ender did. Both went through the struggle of being tossed around by the older boys initially but both are ultimately respected by their elders. Both prove their strength and brilliance in the mini-games the children are involved in during training. And both children are secretly feared and intimidating to the other inferior children at the training center. Ender and Bean are also both deceived by the officers into thinking they are just playing a simulator when they are actually defending the earth from alien offenders. Overall, the novel was a good read by seemed too much like Enders Game. The two boys encountered much the same life at Battle School and were revered by many. They had virtually the exact same experiences that helped them develop into vital leaders that thrived among other boys and girls who proved too inept in the protection of the earth.

Rating:
Summary: If the title doesn't give you the shivers...
Review: The rest of the book will. Totally awesome!

Rating:
Summary: The better follow-up to Ender's Game
Review: Don't get me wrong -- I loved Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide (my fave) and Children of the mind -- but for those who just couldn't get enough of the children in the battle school, this is a great flipside to the Ender coin. The story follows the life of Bean, the smaller, younger boy who in some small ways Ender realized was possibly the superior soldier. I love the fact that with this book we get to see all of the happenings in Ender's Game from a different perspective.

Rating:
Summary: Worthy of the Ender name
Review: I picked this novel up after reading Ender's game and while I was hopeful that the novel might be good, I was doubtful it could live up to Ender's Game. It did.

The novel tells the same story as Ender's Game. The world has been nearly wiped out in two previous invasions by aliens and to ward off a future attacks, the governments of the world have united and set up a space station to train super genius children. The novel tells the story from the perspective of Bean, another child at the station.

Bean lives a life quite different to that of Ender. Where Ender lived happily in a suburban household, Bean has lived on the streets struggling to survive. The first few chapters of the novel are about Bean's life on the street and play a critical role in the development of Bean's character.

The character of Bean is very unique. Like Ender, he performs better than those around him and is picked out by the commanders. However, as information about Bean's... unique situation comes out, the commander's begin to question their faith in Bean, making for an interesting dilemma.

The novel has several interesting sub plots such as the search for Bean's origins and his feud with Achilles. The way the novel reveals more information about the events from Ender's Game adds to the interest of the novel.

The story has few flaws. While it lacks a new story (it is essentially Ender's Game retold) the new perspective and the sub plots that result make it well worth the price of admission.


Rating:
Summary: Ender's Shadow
Review: I'll try to keep this short. To start off with, however, I would just like to point out that Ender's Game, is quite possibly my favorite novel of all time, in the top three for sure.
While Ender's Shadow is well written and would be a good story otherwise, I feel like it takes away too much from Ender's Game. In this it is revealed that Ender Wiggins, was more or less being manipulated (well, maybe not the right word), but helped out of quite a few sticky situations by the superior intellect of Bean.
In my opinion, the best way to sum up this novel would be with an analogy to Harry Potter. You read through Book 7 and Harry defeats Valdomorte. Then in the last chapter, or another book, J.K. Rowling reveals it was really Shamus or Dean, hidden in the shadows that had been preventing Valdomortes rise to power or defeating him the entire series.
I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the Enger Wiggins Series and would highly recommend them to anyone, even people who are not sci-fi fans (I don't really read the genre much myself), but I will not be picking up anymore Shadow series because of the bad taste this one left in my mouth.