Rating: 
Summary: Ender and Bean - Subject and Shadow
Review: Once again Card has succeeded in surpassing what we thought was his best work. Standing about two to three feet tall at the self-proclaimed age of four years old, the main character starts out with no name at all. The "little boy" seems too small and took weak to ever amount to anything but a common street urchin - that is, if he can survive at all. Eventually named Bean by Poke, the 12 year old female leader of a street gang, this little boy turns out to be the key to a door that Ender's Game readers didn't know was locked.
Card's introductions promises that this is not a sequel to Ender's ame but a parallel novel. He does a magnificent job of keeping his promise. Bean trails Ender in gaining admittance to the Battle School by only a year or two, the main difference between the two being that Bean's purpose in getting there (with the help of Sister Carlotta) is to give him the chance to survive and Ender's purpose being to prove that he is the best.
A glimpse into the beginnings of Bean's life shows him outsmarting the smartest, going places that are off-limits to the normal-sized children and ultimately gaining knowledge that the other students are baffled by. Bean spends his time in the school hearing of the legendary Ender, cracking teacher password codes, climbing in and out of air ducts and shocking the faculty at how much information he knows - or guesses at, as the case is frequently.
The book is written from enough points of view to know which characters have what information and how Bean uses their knowledge to fulfill his personal agendas. It shows an alteration take place inside of Bean from looking out for number once to becoming the caretaker of all knowledge and number people both in the battle school and in the universe at large.
Card has astounded his audience once gain with a whole new view of an already best selling novel. The story of Ender becomes the story of Ender and Bean and their quest to save the universe.
Rating: 
Summary: Hard start but worth it
Review: I'm guessing it was a hard start because it was my introduction into the Ender series. I was a little lost at first and felt like I'd missed a chapter or two. (Actually, that would be a few books.) Once I picked up, though, it was an engrossing tale.
Rating: 
Summary: Card Writes Ender Re-do Without Heart
Review: After reading Ender's Game, I was hungry for more about Ender and his mates at Battle School. I was delighted to learn about Ender's shadow, because I had really liked the character of Bean in "Game".
After reading "Shadow," however, I wished I had read "Game" and left it at that. Card disappointed me with what he chose to reveal about Bean and Ender. What I love about Ender as a character is that despite his extraordinary intelligence and willingness to crush any opponents in his way, his ability to love is his greatest power. At each obstacle in the book, it is his connection with and understanding of his friends and enemies that helps him succeed. Also, it is his large heart that makes us as readers want him to succeed. Heart is also Card's most powerful tool in writing "Game". Ender would not have been as successful as a hero to the reader if Card wouldn't have written Ender with such emotion.
In contrast to Ender, Bean acts and thinks like a robot. He is everything Ender is not. He neither loves nor hates-- he displays only cold indifference. He makes no attempt to form attachment with any characters in the book, and because of this we as readers feel no connection with him. In writing Bean, Card mirrors Bean's traits. He puts no heart into creating "Shadow," and his writing blatently reveals this fact.
My advise to those who want to know more about Ender, Bean, and Battle School? Read Ender's Game again.
Rating:
Summary: an awesome new view
Review: i read ender's game and absolutely loved it and was dying to read more about battle school and the bugger war. i also wanted to see ender from someone else's point of view. so, needless to say, i was very pleased when i found this book. it gives you a great taste of a different sort of life and a very different kind of person. this book was at least the equal if not better than ender's game (i say that b/c it doesn't have a long sappy bit at the end like ender's game...card keeps it short and sweet at the end of this book and you learn more about what the world is like and how the teachers work at the school). overall this book was really, really good with no competition.
Rating:
Summary: A new perspective
Review: After reading Ender's Game, I picked up "Speaker for the Dead," the sequel, and found that it was nothing like it. I wanted to read more about Battle School and the people who went there. When I found out about "Ender's Shadow," I was very excited- Bean was one of my favorite characters and I was eager to read about Ender's experience at Battle School through Bean's eyes.
I got a lot out of Ender's Shadow. I gained a whole new perspective on the story and the characters, and I also learned a lot just by reading about Bean's time there. Bean was a child genius- almost impossibly smart. I really learned that being intelligent isn't getting good grades at school or thinking ut witty remarks; I learned from Bean that being smart is a lot more than that. The book was highly engrossing and hard to put down, the characters are memorable and surprisingly down-to-earth.
So why did I give this book 4 stars? Well, some parts, especially the ones with Sister Carlotta, I thought were drawn out and unnecessary to the story. I also thought that the VERY end of the book (not the part where Ender plays his last "game") was rushed and a little unrealistic. But these didn't take away from my enjoyment of the book.
Even though this book is not as good as it's "companion book," anyone who read Ender's Game and enjoyed it will like this book- it brings you back to good ol' Battle School and gives you a whole new twist on the story.
Rating:
Summary: A good companion
Review: I'd sworn up, down, and sideways not to pick up Ender's Game again (I love Card's writing, but his language in E.G. bothers me) but on vacation I ran across Ender's Shadow and decided to give the book a chance. I liked it well enough that I skipped the cursing and went on to buy Shadow of the Hegemon. This is not Ender's Game, but it is a great book and good setup for Shadow of the Hegemon.
Rating: 
Summary: A heart-wrenching disappointment
Review: I wanted to love this book. I was so excited when it first came out -- ecstatic, really. "Ender's Game" has been my favorite book since I first discovered it over 10 years ago, and I couldn't imagine anything better than rereading my favorite story through another character's eyes.Boy, was I wrong. The story itself was well told, and if I had read this before "Ender's Game," I would have loved it. Unfortunately, what the book did for me instead was ruin the character of Ender. I loved Ender, his gifts and his faults, his failures and successes. I love his story and I've read it countless times. I didn't like the view I got of him from Bean, who according to "Ender's Shadow" was smarter and faster than Ender, who was ready to step in any time Ender stumbled, and who was basically just all around "better" than Ender. It felt like I was reading the self-absorbed biography of a jealous child trying to knock Ender off his pedestal, and I was left actively disliking Bean a whole hell of a lot. This book has colored everything I ever loved about Ender and "Ender's Game"; I pretty much am trying to just forget I ever read it.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible and touching
Review: In Ender's Shadow, Orson Scott Card struck a much deeper cord with me than he did in Ender's Game. This isn't to say that Ender's Game wasn't a wonderful book; quite the opposite, in fact. But telling the story from Bean's point of view gives it incredible depth. I felt as though I was inside Bean's mind more than I did with Ender, and it was absolutely fascinating to follow Bean's brilliant reasoning and trains of thought. Card also tells the story with a bare minimum of detail; the reader is given no hints nor guidelines in picturing Bean or Ender's faces, and a great deal about the Battle School and the Battle Room is left to the imagination. It's an unusual style of writing and it's extremely effective here. In all ways, it is an outstanding book intellectually. But the real strength of Ender's Shadow lies in its emotional side. Seeing Ender from Bean's point of view is vastly different and allows you to understand why it is that Ender's army loves him so fiercely and devotedly. Bean evolves a great deal throughout the book, from a calculating, cold little machine to a boy who feels genuine anguish and love. I read over and over the scenes where Bean realizes Ender's danger from Bonzo, and when the teachers take Ender away to Command School. In the simplest of words, Card evoked the most complex, raw emotions I have ever felt while reading a book. It's the kind of book that literally gets inside my heart and makes it feel as though it's swelling and bursting, while at the same time leaving me with a deep, inexplicable kind of sadness that words really can't describe.
Rating:
Summary: A great addition to the Ender Series
Review: This story parallels Ender's Game, but is told from the view of Ender's sidekick, Bean. We learn about Bean, what makes him tick and why we should even care. We also see Ender from another perspective. As with Orson Scott Card's other books, it is exciting, suspensful, and thrilling. It was difficult to put the book down and I anxiously awaited the sequel. If you liked Ender's Game, you will like this series too. If you didn't like the sequels to Ender's Game, you will still like this one.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad
Review: I enjoyed this book, although it was nothing new. More like reading old journal entries in a way. Enjoyable. However, I felt the last 75-100 pages was more set up for the sequels which sort of turned me off. Otherwise, not bad.
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