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Ender's Shadow (Ender, Book 5) (Paperback)
by Orson Scott Card
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Fiction |
| Market price: ¥ 108.00
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¥ 98.00
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Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
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 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
A spectacular parallel novel to Ender's Game, Shadow is a strong story with a rhapsodic prose. |
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Author: Orson Scott Card
Publisher: Tor Books
Pub. in: December, 2000
ISBN: 0812575717
Pages: 480
Measurements: 6.8 x 4.3 x 1.3 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA00556
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- Awards & Credential -
The New York Times Bestseller |
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- MSL Picks -
The release of Ender's Game, Card's first novel, firmly established him as a major talent in the science fiction genre. Card wrote several sequels to Ender's Game, but they took place thousands of years in the future due to the quirks of faster-than-light space travel. As a result, many fans felt unsatisfied with the sequels, even though they loved the original novel.
In a vast departure from the norm, Card wrote Ender's Shadow, a parallel novel to Ender's Game. A parallel novel takes place at the same time as the original novel, but is written from the viewpoint of a different character. This is a very difficult type of novel to write since presumably the reader already knows how the story will end. However, Card brilliantly executes this story by using a relatively minor (but engaging) character from Ender's Game and providing enough new material that the novel never feels repetitive.
Twice the Buggers, an insect-like alien race, have attacked the human race. The first two wars went poorly for Earth and so a battle school has been established to train new leaders for our military forces. An invasion fleet has been launched towards the Buggers' home worlds. Because of the vast distances of interstellar space, the battle school has time to turn out the supreme commander and his lieutenants before the fleet is in position to attack. The best and the brightest of Earth's children are recruited and brought to battle school to be trained as the future Napoleons of Earth.
Although Ender Wiggin eventually became the supreme commander, there were other candidates at the battle school. Bean, a small child even younger than Ender, possessed an uncanny strategic intellect and eventually became Ender's right hand man during the war against the Buggers. Card now tells the story of Bean's early years and his recruitment to battle school.
Barely surviving amongst the street gangs of Rotterdam, Bean used his vastly superior intellect to gain acceptance into a children's gang. Eventually, he molded his gang into a template for all other street gangs in the city. Bean's exploits attracted the attention of a battle school recruiter and he became the youngest person ever to enter the school. Once there he must use all his mental might to ensure that he becomes one of the few leaders that will have the chance to save Earth from destruction at the hands of the Buggers.
The first half of the book covers Bean's life before battle school and therefore covers totally new ground. Once Bean is recruited and sent up to the school, the action begins to overlap with the original novel. However, Card does a masterful job of constructing the action from Bean's perspective. Even some scenes that were included in the original novel seem fresh and new this time around. This is a very difficult type of novel to write, but Card executes it flawlessly. While this book did not have the surprise ending of Ender's Game (same ending, but we already knew the surprise), it is still a well-paced novel that did not fail to hold my interest. If you enjoyed Ender's Game, you'll love this book too!
(From quoting Tony Hecht, USA)
Target readers:
General readers
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Born in Richland, Washington in 1951, Orson Scott Card grew up in California, Arizona, and Utah. He lived in Brazil for two years as an unpaid missionary for the Mormon Church and received degrees from Brigham Young University (1975) and the University of Utah (1981). The author of numerous books, Card was the first writer to receive both the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel two years in a row, first for Ender's Game and then for the sequel Speaker for the Dead. He lives with his wife and children in North Carolina.
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From the Publisher:
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…
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| View all 12 comments |
Jeremy Smith (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-12 00:00>
Orson Scott Card's Ender's Shadow is a parallel novel to Ender's Game. It takes place at the same time as Ender's Game and the events fold out in the same way but from the viewpoint of a different character, Bean. The book tells us how Bean survived on the streets of Rotterdam as an orphan at the age of 1 and how the nun Sister Carlotta (a recruiter for the International Fleet) found him and he tested as a genius. He was then sent up to Battle School to train to command the fleet that would destroy the Bugger home world and save Earth once and for all. When he was in Battle School, he quickly became the best student next to Ender and even better than him in some ways. Bean is quickly shipped off to Command School to be Ender's right hand man and replacement years before his age would usually make him eligible. Then, the teachers at Command School start throwing ultra realistic "training" battles at Ender and his crew. Bean, being as smart as he is, even figures out the conspiracy the teachers have going but must hold inside everything he learns less he jeopardize the last hope for all of Earth. If you wish to know what Bean learned I guess you're going to have to read this book! |
Travis (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-12 00:00>
Although the reviews now indicate how I feel about the book. But at first many probably doubted that card could essentially tell the same story twice. However, the story while similar to Ender's Game, does a brilliant job in its own right in becoming a separate book from it's original predecessor. The storyline of Bean from his struggles on the streets of Rotterdam to his acceptance and difficulties in Battle School , is extremely compelling. If you loved Ender's Game, you might like Ender's Shadow even more. What makes it unique is the fact that not only does it tell some of the events but besides the plot of the Bugger War (Called Formics in Ender's Shadow) and Bean's original struggle to stay alive, is the subplot of his origins. Without giving too much away (possible spoilers ahead), Bean is not a normal child in any sense of the word normal. The source of Bean's intelligence is gradually unraveled throughout the book by the International Fleet and Sister Carlotta (Bean's mentor and protector during his time on Earth before Battle School). I found this subplot to perhaps be the most exciting of all. It gave the original Ender's Game a new dimension to look at. Ender's Shadow not only gives the reader some of the events that the reader read about in Ender's Game but fills in alot of the gaps as well that are told from the standpoint of the people on the "other" side of the equation.
Bottom line is if you haven't gotten this book yet, you are missing out on all the magic that made Ender's Game great and Ender's Shadow even better. Pick it up, you won't regret it! |
Eric Terrell (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-12 00:00>
As you probably know by know, Ender's Shadow was written by Orson Scott Card to be a companion volume to Ender's Game, one of the most popular works of modern science fiction. What Card has actually created is the story of Ender's Game from a completely different perspective and thus gives us what is in fact a totally different story. Ender's Shadow is the story of Bean, who like Ender Wiggin is an extremely bright young lad who winds up as one of Ender's captains in the final battle with the Buggers. While this is a fascinating story that seems fresh and new when told from Bean's perspective, it has one major drawback: Bean is just too smart. I had real problems connecting with Bean as a character throughout much of this book, especially when he arrives at Battle School. His actions just didn't make sense to me. He seemed way too adept at figuring things out, way ahead of even Ender. Many times he seemed to guess at things that he could have no way of knowing and come up with the right answer. This issue knocked the book down to 4 stars instead of 5 for me. Other than that this is an excellent work that stands well as a sequel to Ender's Game. I found myself becoming engrossed with what was happening and reading for hours at a time. I highly recommend this to anyone who loved Ender's Game! |
G. Liwerant (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-12 00:00>
In the future, mankind's only hope in a desperate war against an alien species is its children. The young and brilliant are shipped to Battle School in Earth orbit to learn the skills needed to lead Earth's defense force. But what happens when the Battle School instructors, the Earth governments, and the fellow students become the most dangerous forces that they must learn to fight? Orson Scott Card returns to the Ender universe with a "parallel" novel that takes place at the same time as the original Ender's Game. The hero is the young genius that Ender met in Battle School: Bean. Bean earns his name in the hellish streets of Rotterdam where Poke declares that he isn't even "worth a bean." Well, is he? And is Ender's Shadow as good as its predecessors?
Bean's psychology is given a few logical glances and then disregarded in lieu of the advancing plot. Card is capable of far more philosophical engendering than he infuses into Ender's Shadow. What was more of a disappointment was the careful dance Card initiates in attempting to save his former novel from that most horrible of fates in the artistic world - the remake. Bean seems to have trouble escaping the shadow of Ender from Card's earlier novels - as the title might suggest. Card seems aware of the possibility for this detraction; the text tries too hard to make both Bean and Ender the simultaneous heroes of the plot. The characters should speak for themselves; but too often, Bean is speaking for Ender in an attempt to reassure the readers of Ender's Game that Ender's accomplishments will not be diminished.
Does Ender's Shadow escape the gravity of Ender's Game? Card makes a good attempt at separating the two novels while retelling essentially the same story. As always, his prose is excellent, his skills of characterization are immense, and his insights into the minds of children are luminous. Card's ability to write a fast-paced, intellectually stimulating parallel to a former work is astounding. Bean is worth a bean after all. Despite its small but noticeable shortcomings, Ender's Shadow is worth reading whether or not you have read any other novels from the Ender Universe. |
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