Ender's Shadow (Ender, Book 5)

Customer Reviews:

The Legend Continues

By A Customer - November 17, 2000

Every few years, a book comes along that burns into the very core of the reader, leaving memory of the book for many, many years to come. When ENDER'S GAME first appeared in the mid-80's, the groundbreaking novel did more to turn legions of "mainstream" readers into sci-fi fans. The gripping human drama in that Hugo & Nebula winning book left many of us stunned and wowed.While some many have followed Mr. Card's foray into the further adventures of Ender Wiggins through the sequels, I personally couldn't get through SPEAKER FOR THE DEAD and decided to abandon the further life story of Ender. And when I saw that a "parallel" novel of ENDER'S GAME was published, I thought to myself, "Well, Mr. Card is selling himself out. Talk about rehashing."Then as fate would have it, I picked up ENDER'S SHADOW anyway about a week ago and began reading a few days ago. By page 2, I was hopelessly lost in the world of Rotterdamn, where the 2-year old Bean... read more

Maybe Urchin would have been better...

By Matthew Vanhouten - May 11, 2000

Card, in the acknowledgements, voices his wish to have named the book Urchin, only to be trumped by the marketability of the name "Ender". So in a desire to sell books, his publishers convinced him to force everyone to look at Bean, and at this novel, through the eyes of their love for Ender and Ender's Game. That was a mistake.It seems that the Ender aficionadoes out there judge Card a standard by which he himself set. For them, every other book must meet or at least approach meeting the acclaim of Ender's Game, otherwise it is a dismal failure. To anyone fitting this description, please read Card's masterpiece, "The Worthing Saga". I think you may finally be able to tear yourselves free from your Ender obsession and be able to recognize that Card is a very talented and engaging writer even when he is not writing about Ender Wiggin. Then perhaps you can return to "Ender's Shadow" with an open mind."Ender's Shadow" is a... read more

Absolutely wonderful---as good as Ender's Game

By Joanna Daneman - April 17, 2001

If you loved Ender's Game, I can say you will definitely love Ender's Shadow. Orson Scott Card's concept of a parallel novel is brilliant. These two books fit together incredibly well. Ender's Shadow focuses on Bean, one of the members of Ender's Dragon Army. If you read Ender's Game, you'll remember Bean, who was the small soldier that Ender saw as a younger version of himself. Bean was more brilliant than any other of Ender's soldiers. His size and his brilliance form the basis for Ender's Shadow--along with a lot more. The events from Ender's Game are repeated in some places in the novel, but from Bean's viewpoint. This "Rashomon" style of story telling is always exciting--you get the story as told by two different participants and witnesses to the same events. We also get two important new characters here; Sister Carlotta, a feisty, brilliant nun and Achilles, Bean's nemesis and all-around nasty guy.The opening chapters that describe Bean's first years are... read more