Shadow of the Giant (Ender)

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable
Review: I enjoyed this book, though I'm fairly particular about what science fiction I will read. If you liked Ender's Game, I suspect you'll like this book too.

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: Take a chance
Review: I was utterly dissapointed by Card's "Xenocide." I was even reluctant to pick up "Ender's Shadow." Something about Bean, though, was intriguing enough to make me want to read the fifth novel in this series.

It was *beyond* worthwhile.

"Ender's Shadow" does, in fact, draw a parallel to "Ender's Game," but it is nothing like the first novel. Bean's experiences are so different and they add layers upon layers to the dynamics that were developed in the first novel.

If you are simply interested in the bugger action present in the first novel, then no, this book is not for you. You already know the punchline. But if you've developed any interest in the children, in Ender, Bean or even their superiors then I *highly* reccomend "Ender's Shadow."

As you get further into the book and find out more things, more "secrets" that Card has hidden, you feel like you're getting rewarded! Constantly, the author reveals more information from the first novel, allowing his audience to get a better feel for what was going on and to see the situation from entirely new angles.

Try it!