ENDER’S SHADOW – or – The Shadow Series Reviewed

The Title of the first book of Orson Scott Card’s “Shadow” series of books “Ender’s Shadow” is well deserved. This series will be forever compared to the 1980’s novel which spawned their universe “Ender’s Game”, and rightly so. “Ender’s Game” is an amazingly complex novel written at a third grade reading level, until you reach the end and realize, no, its not. The trilogy that followed, “Speaker for the Dead”, “Xenocide”, and “Children of the Mind” were captivating, although sometimes bizarre metaphysical stories, but they always had the heart (Ender and Valentine).

The Title of the first book of Orson Scott Card’s “Shadow” series of books “Ender’s Shadow” is well deserved. This series will be forever compared to the 1980’s novel which spawned their universe “Ender’s Game”, and rightly so. “Ender’s Game” is an amazingly complex novel written at a third grade reading level, until you reach the end and realize, no, its not. The trilogy that followed, “Speaker for the Dead”, “Xenocide”, and “Children of the Mind” were captivating, although sometimes bizarre metaphysical stories, but they always had the heart (Ender and Valentine).

Having just finished “Shadow of the Giant” tonight, I can tell you that the second series of books is better than the first. Still READ ENDER’S GAME FIRST!! “Ender’s Shadow” takes place at the same time as Ender’s game, but from a different point of view, and it is as good a book, if not a little better, a little darker, a little more adult. (There will be no spoilers here, and Ender fans, you know what I don’t want to spoil). The trilogy of books that follow “Shadow Of the Hegemon”, “Shadow Puppets”, and “Shadow of the Giant”, play out like a big game of Risk, with major military moves played out on a global scale.. yet underneath it, like the “Ender Series”, there is heart, in the characters of Bean and Petra.

I closed the cover of “Shadow of the giant” tonight and my wife was asleep, and I was choked up and had to tell her I loved her. It is that kind of storytelling, and it is heartwarming, and heartwrenching (from th every beginning). For Ender fans, the supporting cast of “Ender’s Game” is all here.. the Wiggins, Peter, the whole Jeesh… but you will soon want to spend your time with the other characters, mostly bean and Petra, and the vile Achilles, from the first moments of “Ender’s Shadow”.

For the uninitiated, here’s the best order to read the books..

Ender’s Game Ender’s Shadow Shadow Of the Hegemon Shadow Puppets Shadow of the Giant Speaker for the Dead Xenocide Children of the Mind

This is also the chronology of the books, although not the order they were released. You could also read them in the release order, but either way, pick up Ender’s Game, and if you “used to be a fan” but got lost in the Piggies and the Ansibles.. then come back, start over with Ender’s Shadow (which you can totally do and skip the Ender series) and go from there. Its worth it..

Okay.. time to finally crack “The Half Blood Prince” and see what everyone is talking about.

5 thoughts on “ENDER’S SHADOW – or – The Shadow Series Reviewed”

  1. Bean

    I like Bean better than Ender, now. He never got weird and all interested in the “greater good” like Ender, he stayed grounded the whole time. Even though he was obviously a good guy, he managed to rationalize everything into his own self-interest, which I thought was pretty cool.

    —
    Matthew P. Barnson

  2. What if…

    One didn’t really like Ender’s Game?

    I read that one and was mildly disappointed so I’ve never gone on to read any of the others.

    I thought Ender’s Game was pretty juvenile and had a lame Deus Ex Machina ending. Do the other books get better?

    1. They get…

      Do the other books get better?

      Well, if not better, they definitely get weirder. However, Card seemed to have grounded himself pretty well with the Shadow series, which I found far more enjoyable than “Children of the Mind” and “Xenocide”.

      Freaking mutually-masturbating pig-creatures turning into big trees? What’s up with that?

      —
      Matthew P. Barnson

    2. Deus Ex Machina..

      Hrm.. the ending (and no spoilers here, but if you want to be surprised, stop reading) was the big surprise, and was the big dark turn a lot of people liked. You’re right, it is written for kids, but the undertones made it fun for me (of course I was 17 the first time.. and now I read it differently).

      The Shadow series is darker and more adult, but is cut from the same cloth, so I cant give it a reccommendation to anyone who didn’t like Ender’s game. I can, however reccommend it to people who liked ender’s game but didn’t like the Rest of the Ender books.

      I actually liked both series a lot, and I’m sad they’re done.. but I’m reading “Make love the Bruce Campbell way” and it makes me laugh, so i feel better.

  3. ENDER’S GAME

    was great when I was 14. Read Speaker for the Dead immediatly after and could not, for the life of me, get into Xenocide. 70 pages into the book, I had to put it down. You get older and the books becomes books of the past.

    Recently read Ender’s Shadow without knowing it would be so closely related to the Ender’s series and loved it. I didn’t know there were follow ups to the book and will definately look for them now.

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