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Summary: Great Book, but Ender isn't as great as we thought
Review: One thing we learn is that Bean isn't as human as the rest of us. That is bad part about his character, we can't relate enought to him. Ender was the bright child in us all, I know most of my class (I read it in 9th grade GT English) felt like they were Ender. I didn't get as Emotionally wrapped up in Bean.Bean accomplishments felt like they were taking away from the original book. Everything he did at battle school made Ender less brilliant and, at times, even more miserable. I went back and read Ender's Game to see what my impression were from both sides of the story. The book is written extremely well though. Card creates an interesting look into the other countries of the world. I love the Sister in her endearing efforts to save Bean. Their dialogue made the book engaging (as well as her dialogue with the Colonel). Writing from her perspective seem better that that of the rest of the ender series (Xeno, Mind, etc). I feel like I can see Card's writing improving. The book really was well written, but there is a lack of emotional connection.
Rating: 
Summary: Best Ender Yet
Review: This book was one of the best yet. Good plot and catches your attention quickly. Easy to follow yet keeps you hooked. Lots of suspense and action, with mystery mixed in. Wonderful book.
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Summary: Excellent re-examination of Ender's Game
Review: Ender's Shadow is exactly as the name implies: the identical, yet different, counter-entity of Ender that is Bean. Bean is in many ways Ender's superior, yet mature enough beyond his years to know who is the key to humanity's future (namely, Ender). Without giving away too much of the book, it is basically the story of Bean, barely rising off the streets of Rotterdam, and making his way to Battle School a little behind Ender, but quickly catching up to be Ender's "second." The story is well written, and gives a new twist to many of the same scenarios from the original Ender's Game, with many of the same characters, as seen from another's point of view. By far, the first half of the story was the best. Showing Bean single-mindedly raise himself off the streets, using just his amazingly superior wit, is a brilliant piece of writing. Getting into Battle School, using every tiny scrap to his advantage in ways others could not even dream about. Bean was the perfect "robot." The rest of the story is still good, but in many ways, seems almost "cut too much," as if this was a movie and the director realized a two hour movie was fast becoming a four hour epic at the pace it was going. Card was obviously trying to humanize Bean, but in many ways, this tended to clash with the Bean we learned of in the first half of the book. Still, it was well worth reading, especially if you are a Card fan, and specifically an Ender's Game fan. Now if only Card would write the story of the First and Second Formic Wars....
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Summary: Human Bean
Review: If names like "Ender" and "Battle School" don't already excite you and bring back memories of a powerful, touching, and exciting novel, then a title like ENDER'S SHADOW is unlikely to evoke much, either. For you who have already enjoyed ENDER'S GAME, don't waste time with reviews, just order the book already. It shares those same qualities that made ENDER'S GAME so riveting and so endearing. But, ENDER'S SHADOW stands on its own. It needs no other book to introduce its universe. If you have read neither book yet, this one provides a different, but equally moving entre to the ENDERverse. It, too, is the story of a precocious child, picked on and threatened by peers and adults. It is the story of learning and overcoming, not just external challenges, but also internal threats. During much of the book, Bean, the protagonist, kept reminding me of Okonkwo, the hero of Achebe's THINGS FALL APART (also a very worthy read), trying to use personal achievement to weave himself into community. But, Card moves Bean beyond this, and develops his character in unexpected ways. I devoured this book in two days. My thireen-year-old son beat me to it by months. He had already read ENDER'S GAME and kept hounding me to read ENDER'S SHADOW. He was right--I very much enjoyed reading it. It's one of those books that is not only fascinating to read, but somehow leaves one fealing a little more whole, a little more healed for having read it.... Five more stars for Orson Scott Card. Just read the book. None of these reviews will do it justice.
Rating:
Summary: Quick read and can stand alone
Review: I read the book on flights to/from Europe. My paperback edition had nice large font, and Card's writing style flowed well, so the book is actually a quick read compared to Ender's Game. I was surprised how well the book stands on its own. Yes, you won't have the coplete picture unless you read Ender's Game, but don't let that stop you from recommending this book. Some readers have complained that the book merely retells the same story. I think that's like complaining when an author writes one book about Grant and another about Lee. Yes, there is some overlap, but most of the book does not overlap Ender's Game, and those parts that do cover the same events, have a different perspective. I only have one minor quibble with the book: I didn't agree with a few of the actions performed by one or two characters; I simply thought they would have acted/done something differently. But, that's my personal feeling. After all, I'm not the author. Finally, because of information presented in this book [stuff figured out by Bean], if one plans to read both books, one should definitely read Ender's Game first.
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Summary: a well-crafted addition to Ender's universe
Review: Ender's Shadow is a well-crafted companion plot that complements the original Ender saga, both by filling in details of the first installment and spinning off several new threads of its own. Although there are fewer plot surprises than in Ender's Game the additional intrigue and Bean's savage-but-fascinating origin compensate well. Bean's story is fundamentally darker than Ender's. His origins are completely unknown until the investigations of a Catholic Nun and a Battleschool Commander reveal one disturbing layer after another. It also adds a visceral counterpoint to the final battle with the Buggers and blazes a trail for Shadow of the Hegemon. One note of caution: While Ender's Shadow is worth the read in its own right I would still recommend that readers new to Ender's universe read Ender's Game first.
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Summary: truly incredible
Review: I first read Ender's Game a couple of years ago, but I didn't really like it, it just didn't seem realistic, or relevant. The characters didn't behave as anyone I knew would, and the plot was simply... rediculous. Various life experience have changed my mind about the Ender series, or at least Enders Game + Ender's Shadow, and i can now truly appreciate Orson Scott Card's brilliance. I had trouble identifying with Ender, but I could understand Bean, and I began to realize how incredible his character was. Bean is brilliant, and logical, almost like Spock, but he is very small, and he begins as cold-hearted, a survivor, thrust, as an infant onto life on the streets of Rotterdam (funny how the only part set on mildly familiar ground, as in our planet :), is the most unrealistic). Within a few blissfully short pages he gets recruited as a potential military commander and trained at The Battle School, in space with the other best and the brightest kids in the world including, the all-powerful Ender Wiggin. Bean is bold, and curious, as he crawls through the airducts, trying to figure out exactly WHAT is going on... With Bean we have something that I never really got in Ender, a "real" gifted kid, psychologically complex, confused, brilliant, yet troubled, my hat is off to OSC on this one!
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Summary: Why *Ender's Shadow* is better than *Ender's Game*
Review: Most reviews so far seem to praise or blame this book because it is or is not the same as *Ender's Game.* I read *Ender's Shadow* first, and went on to *Ender's Game* afterwards. *Ender's Game* is an apprentice work. *Ender's Shadow* is a masterwork. *Ender's Shadow* presents a brilliantly original character brought up in an extreme situation. To survive, he has to be a cognitive master, and so he is. Much of the book is taken up with Bean's thought processes. The emotions are often implied. There are a few passages where this made the book dry for me, but overall, I found this technique lent the book enormous emotional power. Bean is not very moral at the beginning, as why would he be? There is very little dream-imagery to make his emotional make-up clear, because his intellect *is* his emotional make-up, and his emotions drive his intellect. Out of the wirey emptiness of an intellectually rigorous loneliness, Bean reasons his way to a moral understanding of what he's doing in fighting the Buggers. When he evokes the words of the Bible in the final scene, the dramatic impact is wrenching. This character uses intellect to get through to a moral understanding of military force. *Ender's Shadow* is original. To me, this sets it off from *Ender's Game*. There was certainly originality to that novel, too, but it also had similarities to lots of other military-training novels and films. The trainer with his heart in the right place, who does horrible things to the soldiers because it Must Be Done. Anyone remember similar scenes in *Starship Troopers*? What about all those tough sergeants in military films from the fifties? And how many times in those old movies was Our Hero victimized by a vicious other soldier? Many interesting parts of *Ender's Game* were left undeveloped. I am not satisfied by Peter Wiggin, and even Ender himself is a mere sketch compared to the full characters of *Ender's Shadow*. I love, too, the presentation of Sister Carlotta, the finely ambiguous combination of self-deception and real penetrating knowledge. *Ender's Shadow* is true to itself to the end. This, too sets it off from *Ender's Game*, which has an ending that doesn't fit the book. The issue of the morality of the war comes up suddenly, and when we hear that the Buggers had not known humans were sentient, and had made a decision not to invade again when they realized.... If this was going to be a major theme in the ending, we should have heard a lot more about it earlier in the novel. It fudges the moral questions, too, by making the Buggers suddenly into innocent victims. Well, what if they *weren't* innocent victims? Kill'em all, right? *Ender's Shadow* sticks to the justification of absolute necessity, while raising questions about it. Also, Ender's apparent ignorance of his role in the deaths of both humans and aliens fudges *his* responsibility. Bean makes it his responsibility to understand. This is not to argue that Bean is a better person, but rather that the issues of the second novel are more interesting and more strongly set out than in the first. Both books benefit from very careful, beautiful structuring, but *Ender's Shadow* more than the other. The extreme situation of survival at the beginning, and Bean's readiness to kill Achilles relates very directly to the situation of the human race Bean encounters at the end. Ender's situation was different, because he kills in hot blood at the beginning and in the middle, and thus has diminished responsibility, and his responsibility is also diminished at the end. Bean stands in for a survivor character that has used his intellect to get through from a difficult begining, and this matches many, many people in the world today.
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Summary: Great companion to "Ender's Game"
Review: As this book traces the story of Bean (one of Ender's friends in "Ender's Game"), the world of Battle School and the whole Ender universe is expanded greatly. The story is deftly crafted to fit nearly flawlessly beside the original book, and it is enlightening to get inside the heads of the other Battle School characters more thoroughly. I'd say definitely read "Ender's Game" first, if you haven't already, but this book can stand alone. My biggest problem with "Ender's Shadow" was that I nearly have "Ender's Game" memorized, so every tiny flaw or stretch was very blatant to me. I know many people, though, who love "Ender's Shadow" very much, and for whom this was not a problem. And I, even with this small problem, enjoyed the book very much. A welcome edition to the Ender Universe.
Rating:
Summary: A great page¿turner, but it's still Ender's game.
Review: Don't be fooled by the heading, this one is a great book by its own merit. It is a great page-turner indeed but Bean cannot be or beat Ender Wiggin in his game. Ender's Shadow is a good story very well told, however it has its ups and downs. First and foremost, for any reader who is captivated by the Ender Quartet, it is annoying to see too many things that make Ender Wiggin look like second-rank to a better and nicer genius, that is, to Bean. Ender, for many, is a god-figure, a never-do-wrong (though my favourite character is Peter Wiggin and not his kid brother and I dislike very much how Ender the Speaker had reacted to the resurrected Peter in the Xenocide). In that context, the book has parts that really make one think if OS Card really wanted us to hate Ender or that he does so himself after his name overshadows all the others, including Alvin Maker, surely the one of his fictional characters that he likes most. Secondly, Bean seems, most of the time, a project which went wrong while in development, and that Card's insistence to make him be very, very young -7 years old at the Command School is too young, really, perhaps one more year would make it more plausible- makes the story too much of a legend than a possible tale. Even Ender had to spend years to become where he was. So, with Bean so emphasised (OK, Ender's always better, and Bean admits to it, too, but then again Ender is a full 4 years older than Bean, too!). Besides that, the surrounding characters seem to be more detailed at parts, and the the school environment is given better. However, one must point out that some characters are too shallow to be true. Dap and Dimak are really bad caricaturisations of men in uniform and Achilles and Sister Carlotta also have not much work spent on them, though they are key characters. Especially Sister Carlotta is a mirror-image of the fat lady -whose name eludes me now- in the story of Jamie Teague (West) in the book Folk of the Fringe. On the other hand, compared to the realness of Bean, of Ender, and few others like Lighter, the others seem to be caricatures themselves; just there to fulfil a duty, and that makes the book less appealing than it could have become. I wish Card worked a bit harder on them. That is a deficiency I hope I won't see reading Shadow of the Hegemon. Overall, however, this is one book I'd recommend to anyone -even if they're from Rotterdam! Just don't expect to find another Ender in it, for there can be only one book that can face up to Ender's Game and it's Ender's Game.
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