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Ender's Shadow - Ender 5 - Orson Scott Card Book Review

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Review Summary
In this book, a boy named Bean is genetically altered at birth, increasing his intelligence substantially. He is sent to a space station called the battle school above earth where extremely intelligent children prepare for the next invasion by the buggers a sentient alien race. Instead though he soon finds out that the invasion is against the buggers this time and that earths fate rest in his along with his fellow graduates from the battle schools capable hands. In the end the buggers are destroyed and the battle school students are sent home to prepare for a civil war on earth where nations are trying to take control of the childrens military genuis's minds.
Conner, Resident Scholar

This book takes place at the same time as "Ender's Game", and the story is shown through the eyes of Bean, one of Ender's subordinates. A nun found him on the streets and brought to the Combat School where he became one of the children who saved mankind from the Buggers.
irina, Resident Scholar

The story focuses on Bean, Ender's (Ender's Game) subordinate. It shows how much of a genius Bean is, and his superhuman intellegence.

gigi, Resident Scholar

Bean is saved from Rotterdam by a nun who recognizes his genius, and is amazed by his abilities. She submits him to a space program as a potential savior of the human race. He uses his genius to analyze situations and calculate the best thing to do. The nun works hard to unlock secrets about Bean's past that might be the answers to many questions. In the end, they find that Bean has been genetically altered to enhance intelligence, the downside bring that he will never stop growing, and will die at a young age.
anonymous, Resident Scholar

Ender's Shadow is being dubbed as a parallel novel to Orson Scott Card's Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Ender's Game. By "parallel," Card means that Shadow begins and ends at roughly the same time as Game, and it chronicles many of the same events. In fact, the two books tell an almost identical story of brilliant children being trained in the orbiting Battle School to lead humanity's fleets in the final war against alien invaders known as the Buggers. The most brilliant of these young recruits is Ender Wiggin, an unparalleled commander and tactician who can surely defeat the Buggers if only he can overcome his own inner turmoil.
Second among the children is Bean, who becomes Ender's lieutenant despite the fact that he is the smallest and youngest of the Battle School students. Bean is the central character of Shadow, and we pick up his story when he is just a 4-year-old starving on the streets of a future Rotterdam that has become a hell on earth. Bean is unnaturally intelligent for his age, which is the only thing that allows him to escape--though not unscathed--the streets and eventually end up in Battle School. Despite his brilliance, however, Bean is doomed to live his life as an also-ran to the more famous and in many ways more brilliant Ender. Nonetheless, Bean learns things that Ender cannot or will not understand, and it falls to this once pathetic street urchin to carry the weight of a terrible burden that Ender must not be allowed to know.

James, Resident Scholar

This is a parallel novel to "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card. It re-tells the story of Ender Wiggin, a genius war hero who has power the power to destroy races at the age of six! Read "Ender's Game" and then read "Ender's Shadow" about Bean, one of Ender Wiggin's admirers and companions. This is a book about love without sexual complications, about power, about the pain that comes with power, about being special, about being smart and about being human. Second best book I've ever read. (The first being "Ender's Game).
Ann Anonymous, Resident Scholar

This novel is a parallel to the book Ender's Game--it focuses on the same basic events, but through the eyes and life of the character Bean. Bean is taken off the streets of Rotterdam and accepted into Battle School at a very young age, where he will be trained to fight the alien Buggers and protect Earth against invasion. Bean's past hides many secrets to be discovered as he works his way through the school quickly, his brilliant mind surpassed only by Ender Wiggin's.
Six Madine, Resident Scholar


Detailed literary breakdown of Ender's Shadow - Ender 5
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 30%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 40%
Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 30%




FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - science fiction story
Coming of age Yes
Youngster becomes - great warrior
Training/Apprent. Yes
Working up the ranks of... - armed forces
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book

Main Character
Identity: - Male
Profession/status: - student
Age: - a kid
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings - hard edged
Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters - Genius

Main Adversary
Identity: - an entire race
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a little/some

Setting
Spaceship setting: - a space station - futuristic human freighter/transport - really, really giant spaceship/station
Takes place on Earth? Yes
Takes place in spaceship? Yes
Not Earth, in Solar System? Yes

Style
Person? - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths
scientific jargon? (SF only) - some scientific explanation
How much dialogue? - little dialog
Most similar books to Ender's Shadow - Ender 5
Ender's Game - Ender 1 by Orson Scott Card
Halo: The Fall of Reach by Eric Nylund
Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
Mosaic - Star Trek Voyager by Jeri Taylor
Schism by Catherine Asaro




Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).
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