Ender's Shadow (Ender, Book 5)
by Orson Scott Card
List Price:
Our Price: $1.14
You Save: $6.85 (86%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Orson Scott CardEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Published: 2000-12-15
ISBN: 0812575717
Number of pages: 480
Publisher: Tor Books
Book Reviews of Ender's Shadow (Ender, Book 5)
Book Review: The author abondoned his storyline
Summary: 1 Stars
I am amazed at all the positive feedback about this book. In Enders Game Card repeatly justifies the rigorous isolation and abondonment of Ender to achieve the type of commander needed to lead the final battle. But then in Enders Shadow Bean is able to replace Ender as commander without any of the trama that Ender was forced to endure. Bean is smart, clever and clearheaded "always" whereas Ender looks hesitant and overwrought, with Bean looking over his shoulder, he's been given the authority to decide if Ender is competent to lead or should he step in and take over command. Where does Bean get the experience to become Enders "supervisor?" I don't know but he is deemed fit enough with a couple months as a team leader to be fleet commander.
I think that Card has over time decided to "dumb down" Ender so that there can be remarks like "Bean is better than Ender." Enders Game was an emotional rollercoaster of deception, but Enders Shadow showed the greatest deception of Ender was by the author himself.
I just hope that Sherwood Smith doesn't deny Inda the way Card did Ender.
Summary of Ender's Shadow (Ender, Book 5)
Ender's Shadow is being dubbed as a parallel novel to Orson Scott Card's Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Ender's Game. By "parallel," Card means that Shadow begins and ends at roughly the same time as Game, and it chronicles many of the same events. In fact, the two books tell an almost identical story of brilliant children being trained in the orbiting Battle School to lead humanity's fleets in the final war against alien invaders known as the Buggers. The most brilliant of these young recruits is Ender Wiggin, an unparalleled commander and tactician who can surely defeat the Buggers if only he can overcome his own inner turmoil.Second among the children is Bean, who becomes Ender's lieutenant despite the fact that he is the smallest and youngest of the Battle School students. Bean is the central character of Shadow, and we pick up his story when he is just a 2-year-old starving on the streets of a future Rotterdam that has become a hell on earth. Bean is unnaturally intelligent for his age, which is the only thing that allows him to escape--though not unscathed--the streets and eventually end up in Battle School. Despite his brilliance, however, Bean is doomed to live his life as an also-ran to the more famous and in many ways more brilliant Ender. Nonetheless, Bean learns things that Ender cannot or will not understand, and it falls to this once pathetic street urchin to carry the weight of a terrible burden that Ender must not be allowed to know.
Although it may seem like Shadow is merely an attempt by Card to cash in on the success of his justly famous Ender's Game, that suspicion will dissipate once you turn the first few pages of this engrossing novel. It's clear that Bean has a story worth telling, and that Card (who started the project with a cowriter but later decided he wanted it all to himself) is driven to tell it. And though much of Ender's Game hinges on a surprise ending that Card fans are likely well acquainted with, Shadow manages to capitalize on that same surprise and even turn the table on readers. In the end, it seems a shame that Shadow, like Bean himself, will forever be eclipsed by the myth of Ender, because this is a novel that can easily stand on its own. Luckily for readers, Card has left plenty of room for a sequel, so we may well be seeing more of Bean in the near future. --Craig E. Engler
Orson Scott Card brings us back to the very beginning of his brilliant Ender Quartet, with a novel that allows us to reenter that world anew.
With all the power of his original creation, Card has created a parallel volume to Ender's Game, a book that expands and compliments the first, enhancing its power, illuminating its events and its powerful conclusion.
The human race is at War with the "Buggers", an insect-like alien race. The first battles went badly, and now as Earth prepares to defend itself against the imminent threat of total destruction at the hands of an inscrutable alien enemy, all focus is on the development and training of military geniuses who can fight such a war, and win.
The long distances of interstellar space have given hope to the defenders of Earth--they have time to train these future commanders up from childhood, forging then into an irresisible force in the high orbital facility called the Battle School.
Andrew "Ender" Wiggin was not the only child in the Battle School; he was just the best of the best. In this new book, card tells the story of another of those precocious generals, the one they called Bean--the one who became Ender's right hand, part of his team, in the final battle against the Buggers.
Bean's past was a battle just to survive. He first appeared on the streets of Rotterdam, a tiny child with a mind leagues beyond anyone else's. He knew he could not survive through strength; he used his tactical genius to gain acceptance into a children's gang, and then to help make that gang a template for success for all the others. He civilized them, and lived to grow older.
Bean's desperate struggle to live, and his success, brought him to the attention 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. Bean was sent into orbit, to the Battle School. And there he met Ender....
With all the power of his original creation, Card has created a parallel volume to Ender's Game, a book that expands and compliments the first, enhancing its power, illuminating its events and its powerful conclusion.
The human race is at War with the "Buggers", an insect-like alien race. The first battles went badly, and now as Earth prepares to defend itself against the imminent threat of total destruction at the hands of an inscrutable alien enemy, all focus is on the development and training of military geniuses who can fight such a war, and win.
The long distances of interstellar space have given hope to the defenders of Earth--they have time to train these future commanders up from childhood, forging then into an irresisible force in the high orbital facility called the Battle School.
Andrew "Ender" Wiggin was not the only child in the Battle School; he was just the best of the best. In this new book, card tells the story of another of those precocious generals, the one they called Bean--the one who became Ender's right hand, part of his team, in the final battle against the Buggers.
Bean's past was a battle just to survive. He first appeared on the streets of Rotterdam, a tiny child with a mind leagues beyond anyone else's. He knew he could not survive through strength; he used his tactical genius to gain acceptance into a children's gang, and then to help make that gang a template for success for all the others. He civilized them, and lived to grow older.
Bean's desperate struggle to live, and his success, brought him to the attention 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. Bean was sent into orbit, to the Battle School. And there he met Ender....
Science Fiction Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Books to change your mind
The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics)by Walt Whitman
Penguin Classics; Published: 2005-03-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.43
Price in other shops:
The Major Works: Including The Prelude (Oxford World's Classics)by William Wordsworth
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2000-11-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.41
Price in other shops:
Swann's Way: Remembrance of Things Pastby Marcel Proust
Vintage; Published: 1989-03-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.30
Price in other shops:
Galaxiesby Barry N. Malzberg
Carroll & Graf Pub; Published: 1989-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $25.00
Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (Routledge Classics)by Judith Butler
Routledge; Published: 2006-05-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.57
Price in other shops:
People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present (P.S.)by Howard Zinn
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2005-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops:
The Man Who Laughsby Victor Hugo
Norilana Books; Published: 2006-08-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.15
Price in other shops:
Ender's Shadow (Ender, Book 5)by Orson Scott Card
Tor Books; Published: 2000-12-15; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.75
Price in other shops:
Ender's Game (Ender, Book 1)by Orson Scott Card
Tor Science Fiction; Published: 1994-07-15; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.00
Price in other shops:
The Longest Journeyby E.M. Forster
Vintage; Published: 1993-12-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.38
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Beyond Ender's Game: Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mindby Orson Scott Card
Tor Books; Published: 2001-10-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.86
Price in other shops:
A War of Gifts: An Ender Story (Ender)by Orson Scott Card
Tor Books; Published: 2007-10-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.50
Price in other shops:
First Meetings: In the Enderverse (Enders, 3)by Orson Scott Card
Published: 2003-08-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.85
Price in other shops:
Shadow of the Giantby Orson Scott Card
Published: 2005-03-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.75
Price in other shops:
Ender's Game (Ender, Book 1)by Orson Scott Card
Tor Science Fiction; Published: 1994-07-15; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.00
Price in other shops:
Shadow Puppetsby Orson Scott Card
Tor; Published: 2002-08-19; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.86
Price in other shops:
Speaker for the Dead (Ender, Book 2)by Orson Scott Card
Tor Books; Published: 1994-08-15; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.02
Price in other shops:
Xenocide (Ender, Book 3)by Orson Scott Card
Tor Books; Published: 1992-08-15; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops:
Shadow of the Hegemon (Ender)by Orson Scott Card
Tor Books; Published: 2000-12-31; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.43
Price in other shops:
Children of the Mind (Ender, Book 4)by Orson Scott Card
Tor Science Fiction; Published: 1997-06-15; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.84
Price in other shops: