Ender's Shadow
Ratings230
Average rating4.1
This is a perfect book to follow a reading of Enders Game. At first, I was skeptical, but the “same” story from a different perspective was even more compelling.
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.
This was better than I expected, a worthwhile read after Ender's game. The author really nailed it. Great new origin story around Bean, great new villain story thread, great additional perspective on the Enders Game story.
Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, and Speaker of the Dead were all fantastic, each in their own way. I decided to stop reading Enderverse books at those 3, the main story is covered nicely, and I hear the other books aren't as good.
The same basic events as in Ender's Game - from the viewpoint of a different kid. This novel seems darker than the original short story.
More of the same for fans of Ender's Game. While it treads the same ground, it finds a new path as the novel it parallels. Bean provides an interesting second viewpoint for the story, and helps to shed new light on the same topics. The fact that all of the details of the story are already known does lessen the intensity, but the insight is strong nonetheless.
A nice addition to the Enderverse and I”m happy to see it's not a big overlap of Ender's Game. People don't see the same events the same way so why should that happen in a book?
Although there's alot of time spent in the mind of Bean, it's not so much that it gets boring and slows down the movement of the story and thankfully not any wandering off into ideas and thoughts that don't have anything to do with the main storyline. In the last chapter of the edition I listened to, the author mentions he's written plays and participated in the screenplay so he knows how to keep the presentation focused.
I read this right after Ender's Game, which was interesting to compare and see a more fleshed out view of the story. It's a good read, but where Ender is logical and emotional, Bean is pure logic so I wasn't as drawn in to his character as I was with Ender.
Bean's story is almost more intriguing than Ender's; his origins are a mystery and future even more uncertain. Ender's Shadow has the advantage of not needing to establish a whole world, which allows the story to focus solely on characters. Bean is a formidable character, but also such a victim that I was even pulling for him to exact revenge on a few characters. The end was believable and made me misty-eyed, which I never expect from sci-fi.
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.
A great parallel story to Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow is the story of an orphan from the streets of Rotterdam, Bean. Watch Bean develop from a baby barely getting by to commander of the human fleet.
I liked this book almost as much as Ender's Game. I certainly liked it a lot more then Speaker for the Dead, etc..
It really gives you a whole new perspective on the original. Now I want to go back and re-read ender's game, as well as read the next shadow book, to find out what happens to bean.
While still enjoyable, Bean suffers from the same problem as Ender. He is too perfect. Too smart. Just too everything. The book is still good. I enjoy the parts before battle school in Rotterdam far more than the retread of the events of Ender's Game.
A great example of how much you can get out of retelling of a story from a different angle.
Lacks the more philosophical stylings of the later Ender books but an entertaining page-turner that sets things up well for the rest of the series.