Ender's Shadow (Shadow, #1) (Ender Saga)

by Orson Scott Card

The novel that launched the bestselling Ender's Shadow series.

The human race is at War with the Buggers, an insect-like alien race. As Earth prepares to defend itself from total destruction at the hands of an inscrutable enemy, all focus is on the development 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 them into an irresistible 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 Ender's Shadow, 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. 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....

THE ENDER UNIVERSE

Ender series
Ender's Game / Ender in Exile / Speaker for the Dead / Xenocide / Children of the Mind

Ender's Shadow series
Ender's Shadow / Shadow of the Hegemon / Shadow Puppets / Shadow of the Giant / Shadows in Flight

Children of the Fleet

The First Formic War (with Aaron Johnston)
Earth Unaware / Earth Afire / Earth Awakens

The Second Formic War (with Aaron Johnston)
The Swarm /The Hive

Ender novellas
A War of Gifts /First Meetings

• ISBN10: 0812575717
• ISBN13: 9780812575712
• Publish Date: 15 December 2000 (first published 1 September 1999)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 13 July 2011
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Tor Books
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 467
• Language: English

Reviews

A good refresh on the series since I hadn't read the original in a while. Sets up for the sequels well. I almost want to go back and read the original.

[dokie80]

I think authors should do this more often. Writing same story with different point of view, from other character.
anyway, better read ender's game first before this book.
I hope ender's game's movie director read this too.

[adamfortuna]

Beans character is an oddity. I enjoyed the character in this one, but less so in the political intrigue that came up later in the Bean series. For the Enders Game story though, this one was impressively fun. The thought of reading the same story from another character was not at all exciting to me, yet this was a fun read.

[empressbrooke]

This book is a testament to Card's talent and skill. Since it runs parallel [b: Ender's Game|375802|Ender's Game (Ender's Saga, #1)|Orson Scott Card|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1408303130l/375802._SY75_.jpg|2422333] and even shares some of its scenes, it ran the risk of being redundant. However, not only does seeing Game from Bean's eyes bring an entirely new meaning to Ender's story, but it builds Bean's background and fills in the time at the Battle School after Ender's departure.

One thing that impressed me was Card's handling of the Fantasy Game. In Game, a good portion of the book was spent on Ender playing it and the adults analyzing what his choices meant. Rather than rehashing it in Shadow, Card chooses to have Bean refuse to play it and shows us what the adults make of that refusal. I thought it was a particularly brilliant choice that kept the book fresh.

Bean's view of what Ender thinks of him is especially surprising after reading Game. I never got the sense in Game that Ender shares these views, so it was interesting to see the differences in their thoughts.

After spending some time with the rest of the Ender books, I'm especially eager now to go back and read Bean's series to see what sort of person he becomes after Battle School. Even though the title suggests he is only a shadow of Ender, Bean is even more fleshed out than Ender was.

[remo]

después de haber disfrutado como un enano de El juego de Ender, Orson Scott Card nos da la oportunidad de revivir la historia desde los ojos de otro protagonista. La misma historia. Parecería que nos aburriríamos, pero no. La mejora mucho, nos da mucha más información sobre cosas que Ender no vio pero Bean sí. Otra obra maestra.