Rating: 
Summary: Amazing!
Review: It was a relief to see that Mr. Card decided to write about Andrew "Ender" Wiggin's right hand man (or boy). Telling of where Julian "Bean" Delphiki comes from and the hardships that made him who he was. In my opinion the storytelling and development of characters in this fine piece of work is by far, some of the Best Sci-Fi storytelling I have ever read. This is definately a book for Card fans and fans of the Ender Saga to have!
Rating: 
Summary: Starts well but goes downhill.
Review: It is a sorry state of affairs indeed when the best portion of a Science-Fiction novel is the part that is almost completely grounded in reality. Such was the case in Orson Scott Card's Ender's Shadow, a parallel novel to Ender's Game. The first fifty pages describe the rival criminal gangs in the ghettos of Rotterdam, and they sadly represent the pinnacle of the novel. After that...everything begins to tumble.
Ender's Shadow follows the life of "Bean," (his name is revealed in the latter part of the novel but it's fairly irrelevant) an extremely intelligent young child who, as the book opens, is on the brink of starvation in the streets of Rotterdam. He cunningly manipulates people to feed himself, and eventually gets out of the ghetto. Through the help of a nun, Sister Carlotta, he goes to Battle School (an orbital in the sky devised to train children to be officers in the 3rd Alien-Human War) and then the plot adapts to Ender's Game, Card's superior, albeit flawed 1977 entry.
Although "Shadow" was far from boring, and I would certainly reccomend it to someone on a long plane or train ride, it is too flawed to trully reccomend as a good book. For one thing, the main character is not a likeable character, and spending 400 pages with him is not an enviable sitation: he is a sullen loner bent on success, and he quickly grows irratating. Secondly, the subplot on Earth of Sister Carlotta attempting to see if Bean was a clone or a victim of genetic adaptation is irrelevant and brings the narrative to a screeching halt. The conclusion, although better than Card's attempt at profound philosophy evidenced in "Game," still leaves much to be desired. Card's biggest acheivement in "Shadow" is acheving the rare paradox of managing to alienate both people who read his other works and those who havent. He gives too little backround information on Battle School and all the peripheral settings for the novice to be entertained, and does not show much of Battle School that one who has read "Game" does not alrady know, so someone who was looking for more will not get what he or she wished. I would not reccomend to book to anyone aside from someone who needs easy entertainment...novices will likely be confused and Ender's Game fans will be dissapointed.
Rating:
Summary: Great complement to the Ender series
Review: Orson Scott Card continues to impress me. With the masterful novel of Ender's Game he follows with this great story. I would recommend reading Ender's Game first, however. This story is a great complement to the original story. I thought Bean was a fascinating character in Ender's Game. Bean is a very likeable character, very entertaining. I thought it most interesting to see Battle School from another perspective as well. After reading Ender's Game it is fascinating to see how Bean viewed Ender and what he was doing at Battle School. At first I avoided this book because I thought it was an attempt to squeeze more out of a classic novel, but I was dead wrong. This book I thought was almost equal to Ender's Game, and I have since read every book in this series, Shadow of the Hegemon, and Shadow Puppets. What a great franchise, full of action and very thought provoking. I highly recommend this book and this series to anyone.
Rating: 
Summary: Great
Review: I really really liked Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card. It is hard to say if I like it better than Ender's Game, also by Orson Scott Card. Ender's Shadow is more of a tag along to the first book, it really just shows another point of view in the same situation. In this book it tells of Bean's struggles when he lived in Rotterdam, and because Bean was so little he had to use tactics, which caught the eyes of the battle school recruits. Bean was eyed by the recruits and then was brought up to battle school where he first met Ender. He and Ender became good friends and Bean was Ender's's right hand. It was different from the first book, this book seemed, to me, to have more feeling, deepness, and more realness to it. Ender's seemed to not know how to feel and Bean wore his emotions more on his sleeve, that's why I think I liked Bean better than Ender's sometimes. Bean was a little boy who packed a big punch, so to speak, and he was a little ruffian and I really enjoyed reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: Why Won't They Make It Unabridged?
Review: Ender's Game is my favorite book and Ender's Shadow is one of my favorites. I was real excited to see this audio book and picked it up the first chance I had. The reader does a fantastic job, but there are so many key elements of the novell that are missing. If you haven't read Ender's Shadow, or even worst... haven't read or listened to Ender's Game (the novel, not the short story) then there will be a lot of things you don't understand. I picked this because I loved the novel and thought I might listen to it from time to time (I've read Ender's Game twice and loved listening to the audio book as well) but I wish that they would produce an unabridged version as well. Other than that, I just love this adaption and am glad I've added the audio version to my collection (I spend a lot of time in my car). If you've loved the book, this is a great listen. If you haven't read the book, I would suggest doing so over listening to this abridgement.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Retelling of My Favorite Story
Review: Ender's Game is my favorite book of all time and I was very excited when this book came out. I would have been happy if this novel were half as good as Ender's Game... and it was more than that. This was fantastic, a real page turner that you can't put down. If you loved Ender's Game, you'll love Ender's Shadow. This is a parallel novel (not a sequel) to Ender's Game. It is the same story only told from the perspective of Ender's right-hand-man, Bean. Only it isn't the same story because there is a lot about Bean that Ender (and therefore us) don't know about. Where did Bean come from? Who is he? Why is he so smart? These questions and even more are answered in this story as we find out that Bean had more influence that we had thought by only reading Ender's Game. If you have not read Ender's Game I would suggest reading it first. The real story is about Ender, and while Bean is just as interesting a story, the story is best seen through the eyes of Ender Wiggin first. But if you love Ender's Game, pick this one up and read it. This only adds more life to the story. Orson Scott Card, the master at creating loveable, believable, and fantastic characters, does an incredible job of bringing Bean to life.
Rating:
Summary: A great book, but not out of the shadow's yet.
Review: This was a very good book, but not quite as good as Ender's Game. This follows the same story, and takes place during the same time period, but it is told from the perspective of Bean, the best soldier in Ender's Dragon Army. It tells of his childhood in a place called Rotterdam, and reveals his true origins. Pick this one up if you can.
Rating:
Summary: Ender series.. absolutely SPELLBINDING~!!
Review: Ender¡¯s Shadow is like a parallax of Ender¡¯s Game. This book is another telling of the same tale, with many of the same characters and setting, only from the perspective of another character. Bean, the one who was Ender¡¯s right hand, his strategist, and his friend, is the main character of this book instead of Andrew ¡°Ender¡± Wiggin, the best of the best in Battle School, who is the main focus of the Ender¡¯s series.
I have already read the first original book, Ender¡¯s Game and it became my all-time favorite book. I have read it several times, and never got tired of the story. I had an immediate interest in reading Ender's Shadow when I found it. Although I knew Ender¡¯s Game inside and out, Ender¡¯s Shadow gave a different, but as intriguing taste.
The starting of the book was what really caught my interest. It starts out in a whole different perspective from Ender¡¯s Game. They introduce the main character, Bean, in the streets of Rotterdam, a tiny child with a mind of perfect memory, with no known past. Starting with the very significant setting, and character, the book holds my attention with the telling of Bean¡¯s desperate struggle, and his astonishing success. Not only telling one story of Bean¡¯s ingenious mind and his struggle of life in Rotterdam, there is also another side of the story that Bean doesn¡¯t know of, the conversations of the IF and Sister Carlotta. The showing of Bean¡¯s incredible talent and his strategic mind brings my attention to the book and of the Battle School¡¯s recruiters, those people scouring the planet for leaders, tacticians, and generals to save Earth from the threat of alien invasion. The behind of scenes of his Bean¡¯s life, knowledge, his inside thoughts, and reasons of action while he¡¯s on the streets of Rotterdam and in Battle School, the points that you can¡¯t know in Ender¡¯s Game, is what really kept me reading this book.
Ender¡¯s Shadow was an incredibly captivating book. Its different sides, and conversations of the story keeps the reader fascinated. Although being a retelling of Ender¡¯s Game, a book in which I¡¯m very familiar with, I was absorbed in its new, yet spellbinding taste. Orson Scott Card, the author of the Ender¡¯s series and many other best-selling science fiction and fantasy novels, did a very nice job telling same story twice, but differently. Both books draw on the same memories of childhood, but from a different perspective. Ender and Bean, standing a little ways apart as they move through the same events, create the parallax. The new flavors of the book are the reasons why I enjoyed this book as much as Ender¡¯s Game.
Rating:
Summary: a remarkable tale
Review: This book is great for the average Sci-Fi fan. It's got your basic setting in a futuristic space station where kids are training to fight an alien invasion. The main character of this book is incredible. He's just a small boy with extraordinary intelligence. It's great to see him overcome many obstacles that are seemingly insurmountable. His hardships may make you cringe and feel sorry for him, but in the end, like all good books, he comes out basically unscathed. I recommend this book along with the rest of the Ender Series; especially because they all tie in together with each other, and they make for a superb story.
Rating:
Summary: good character development but not so good plot
Review: if the second half is as good as the first half, I will give it five stars. The life of Bean is more realistic than that of Ender. A genius and an urchin, Bean had all the ability to survive. He is not perfect, but is real. One example is his coward behavior before the Dragon Army's first fight. This is what most kid will do before exams, no matter how smart he is. However, I don't like the second half of the book, in particular when they were commanding the real ships. It would be a good time to explain some mysteries in Ender's Game. For example, why adults picked kids to command the war. In addition, the logic of Bean's reasoning is too rough. Since Card pictured Bean as a sensitive person, it is also very strange that Bean didn't show any empathy to those men died in the war, which was played by Ender. In addition, Bean's ability as an extremely intelligent person was somewhat negelected during the real war. No real example was provided for Bean. It seems that Card confined too much what he had written in the Ender's Game when he was writing the second half of the Ender's Shadow. I think there may be a mistake how Bean caught Achilles. Previous chapters already said Bean grew so big that it is very hard for him to crawl in the air duct. During this episode, however, not only Bean, but also other five kids were able to crawl in the duct. This is interesting. Overall, this is a book worth reading and the characteristics of Bean were well developped, but the second part of the novel may be disappointing.
|
