PG13- Ender's Shadow (v,some b)
Card has written other series, but he really made his name in Sci-Fi with the book Ender's Game, beloved by fans of all ages, winner of both the Hugo and the Nebula awards for best novel of the year. He followed up that triumph with Speaker for the Dead, which garnered the same awards, though perhaps less hype. This is probably the only author whose latest masterpiece has been advertised on movie theater screens. Card's combination of clear writing style, sympathetic but intelligent child characters, and demanding plots have produced at least 3 gems in this series. Though some of his other series are not as good, they nonetheless stand out when placed against the backdrop of most sci-fi today.
Ender's Shadow: rating 4 3/4 stars. He knew that if he didn't get some food he would die, so he approached Poke's group. She gave him six peanuts and a name: Bean. Bean was 4 years old, and yet he knew enough to analyze the children's society. He knew how to read.. he could speak several languages, and above all, he knew how to survive.
(I don't want to give the plot away!)
Set in the Ender's Game universe (in which the Buggers have invaded Earthspace twice, and nearly killed humanity), the childern grow up (Bean is 7 at the end of the book) on the International Fleet's Battle School. Ender Wiggins, humanity's only hope for saving itself from the buggers , is at the battle school, and already legendary by the time Bean shows up.
Bean's character is an interesting complement to Ender's because Ender's character is strongly empathic, and Bean's character is mildly empathic, and even more intelligent than Ender. I must say that I identify more with Ender than with Bean as I'm not the cold-calculating sort of person.I didn't care for Bean quite as much as I did for ender, because Bean didn't care as much for the people around him as Ender did.
Nonetheless, the story is spellbinding. (A wonderfully dramatic backdrop, ne? Saving the human race is always an important goal!).
The end is not final by any means.. It most definately feels like a sequel will be coming someday. (But who knows? ;) )
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Last Updated: September 11, 1999
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