Ender's Shadow (Ender, Book 5) by Orson Scott Card
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Book Reviews of Ender's Shadow (Ender, Book 5)
Book Review: Excellent but read Ender's Game first!
Summary: 5 Stars
This sci-fi novel is basically Ender's Game as told from the point of view of one of his lieutenants, the boy known only as Bean. It tells of his early hard life struggling to survive on the streets of Rotterdam, how he is noticed by a recruiter for the International Fleet (the international military machine assembled to fight against the aliens called the Buggers) a nun called Sister Carlotta, his life at the Battle School space station training to fight in the war against the Buggers and how he becomes the closest confidant and right hand man of Ender Wiggin, the boy who is destined to lead humanity's fight against the Buggers. This was an excellent book and much more in depth than Ender's Game. Bean is an extremely intelligent character (apparently more so than a human being can be) because his genes were altered when he was conceived and a lot of the book is spent in Bean's head so you see just how intelligent he is. The first part of the book, set in Rotterdam, is very good, and you come to care for Bean and the supporting characters such as Poke and Sergeant, and we are first introduced to the murderous Achilles (who I understand will become Bean's nemesis across the rest of the Shadow saga (this was book one)). We then meet Sister Carlotta and Bean's educative process with her is illuminating. Most of the book, however, is set in the Battle School space station (although the book's climax takes place on an asteroid called Eros) and of most importance is the time that Bean spends in Ender's army, for this is when he grows the most as a character and comes to love Ender. I would have liked to see Bean make more friends during his time at Battle School, but nonetheless I really liked this book and it has a happy ending. The author Orson Scott Card claims in this book's foreword that you can read this book without first reading Ender's Game but in reality Ender's Shadow makes more sense if you read Ender's Game first. All in all, Ender's Shadow was an excellent book. Just make sure you read Ender's Game first.Book Review: Deserves not to be "shadowed" by Ender's Game
Summary: 5 Stars
I have read and re-read Ender's Game; it is a book that I love and recommend over and over to friends. But Ender's Shadow is perhaps even richer. Where Ender's story is in some ways the tale of a golden boy with problems finding his task, Bean's story is far more the rags-to-riches tale, with greater adversity to overcome, and an even greater internal struggle to reach the moral nobility he does finally attain.
The title of Ender's Shadow is doubly poignant. Not only does Bean, the character, struggle to emerge from Ender's shadow within the story, but the book itself will likely always be overshadowed by it's predecessor. But it is truly a great story. Anyone who has ever met with the ugly social pressures generated within groups of children on the playground, or the competition of the modern workplace, will be engrossed by the insights and maneuverings of Bean.
Let me step aside here and say that I have never agreed with typing either Ender's Game or Ender's Shadow as YA books. These books are written for adults. They are active and episodic enough to hold younger readers, but most young readers will not be able to fully appreciate them.
Card has done an amazing job creating a convincing picture of the underworld of the future city of Rotterdam. The modern political conscience will hopefully eradicate such hells as orphaned children struggle in - someday. Right now, I strongly suspect that life for too many kids in some parts of India, Africa, Peru, and many more heavily populated financially divided countries of the third world are very much like this...
The genetic speculations that Card raises are fascinating as well. This story succeeds on its human drama, but the science fiction behind it is another engrossing layer. All in all, this is a book to read and re-read just as frequently as Ender's Game, with all the stimulation and satisfaction of its companion book.
Book Review: A brilliant mind a terrible war
Summary: 5 Stars
Ender's Shadow is a book about a boy named Bean who goes from a life on the streets to training in military schools in space to defeat an alien race known as the Buggers. The buggers have attacked Earth twice and the students at these military schools are Earth's last hope of survival.
At the military school (a.k.a. Battle school) Bean quickly ascends the ranks and quickly surpasses his teachers. However there is one student who even Bean can't keep up with, Ender Wiggins. Ender is a genius, like all the kids at Battle school: only Ender is more brilliant than any student ever to attend Battle School. Bean quickly grows jealous of Ender but soon grows fond of Ender as they become more acquainted, specifically when Bean is placed in Ender's Dragon army. Dragon army is quickly turned from worst to first and Ender soon realizes just how important Bean is when Bean comes up with plans that almost always work.
Unbeknownst to Bean and even Ender is the oncoming threat that looms just around the corner. The threat that is pushing the students at Battle school beyond their limits, and pushing fast. Bean and Ender are two of Earth's greatest minds but even they might not be ready for the dark truth that Battle school is hiding from them. On top of everything else the Generals of the school grows ever weary of Bean for the General discovers Bean's secret, the reason why Bean is so smart, why he could walk and talk when he was just months old a secret that could destroy Bean's future at Battle school and maybe his life.
Ender's Shadow is definitely one of the better books out there. The many twists and turns throughout the story keep you guessing about what's going to happen next. The way Bean handles his situations and thinks is amazing. The things he goes through and his dark past make Ender's Shadow a definite must read for all audiences.
Book Review: Pick up a copy of ENDER'S SHADOW.
Summary: 5 Stars
Growing up is never easy for anybody, but it would be that much tougher if you were living on the streets as a child, begging for food, and fighting with ruthless street gangs who would beat the living daylights out of you for a scrap of that food. Well, that's exactly how nine-year-old Poke and her crew are living on the streets of Rotterdam. One day Poke meets a four-year-old boy who has learned to survive on the streets by using his brains. He gives her advice on how to get a bully to keep her crew safe, so Poke names him Bean and lets him into her crew. She also finds a twelve-year-old bully named Achilles to protect her crew and help them find more food. Achilles does his job well and manages to get them into a charity kitchen every day. Helga Braun, the owner of the charity kitchen, calls Sister Carlotta, a recruiter for the International Fleet's battle school for children, and tells her about Poke's family of kids. But tragedy strikes, when Achilles turns on Poke and kills her, so Sister Carlotta ends up taking Bean into her home and prepares him for battle school.
Life is very different in battle school --- it's up in space, and there is always food and shelter. Bean is so smart and learns so quickly he is soon promoted to higher and higher levels until he finally reaches Command School under the leadership of Ender. As they prepare for war with the Buggers, Bean learns many surprising secrets about himself including his real name, and that he has a twin brother. Pick up a copy of ENDER'S SHADOW to find out if Bean and his army win the battle against the Buggers!
--- Reviewed by Ashley
Book Review: Excellent companion novel that stands well on its own, too
Summary: 5 Stars
Bean, a small boy struggling to survive on the streets of a future and pitiless Rotterdam, casts his lot with Poke - a young girl who leads one of the city's bands of homeless, starving children. When they cross paths with the lame bully Achilles, Poke does as her brilliant little comrade suggests; she takes him into her band, to give all of them his protection. Achilles swiftly pulls leadership away from Poke, but he also does a superb job of keep the children fed and safe...never mind that it's Bean's ideas he uses to do this. When Bean is taken in by Sister Carlotta, one of the many adults doing their best to help Rotterdam's wild children despite that task's impossible scope, he hopes his life can become different. But Battle School, where he is sent when he is at 5 years old the youngest student ever admitted, proves to be one more arena where he has to use his extraordinary wits to survive. At least the mentally unstable and now vengeful Achilles cannot follow him there, though! Or can he?
This companion novel to Card's classic "Ender's Game" surprised me by being a fresh read. The author accomplishes this by using mostly Bean's viewpoint to retell that tale's events, interspersed with the viewpoints of adults concerned with Bean and not (or not primarily, at least) with Andrew "Ender" Wiggin. The result is a poignant and exciting story, readable for young adults but an equally fine yarn for adults, too. I'm glad I decided to buy it anyway despite fearing it would be - well - a rehash.
--Reviwed by Nina M. Osier, author 2005 science fiction EPPIE winner "Regs"