Ender's Shadow

By: Orson Scott Card

Narrated by: Scott Brick, Gabrielle de Cuir, full cast

Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

The novel that launched the bestselling Ender's Shadow series—available for the first time on audio

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....

Browse more titles in the Ender Wiggin series.

©1999 Orson Scott Card (P)2005 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC

Critic reviews

• Alex Award Winner, 2000

"An exceptional work." (School Library Journal)
"An absorbing, near-flawless performance." (Kirkus)
"As always, everyone will be struck by the power of Card's children, always more and less than human, perfect yet struggling, tragic, yet hopeful, wondrous and strange." (Publishers Weekly)

Just Great!

Would you listen to Ender's Shadow again? Why?

I've already listened to this book twice and will listen to it again.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Ender's Shadow?

The whole story is great.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I loved the different readers.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

I'm not sure how this could be a movie

Any additional comments?

I have told my family and friends about this book. I have listen to " Ender's Game" after Enders Shadow and I enjoyed the Enders Shadow series better. I think the author became a better writer.

Great!

This was a great book. I loved Ender's Game and this was just as good.

A must have if you love Ender's Game

If you could sum up Ender's Shadow in three words, what would they be?

A new perspective

Who was your favorite character and why?

Bean

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Many different voices and a ability to close your eyes and imagine

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It brought back the same feelings i first had when i first read enders game

Adds depth to Ender's Game

This story is of course a retelling of Ender's Game, as advertised. But it was done artfully and it developed a lot of depth to augment that original story.

It is hard to imagine that anybody might read this book before reading Ender's Game, and it is furthermore difficult to imagine that anyone who did not enjoy Ender's Game would then take the trouble to read this book! And so, this review is written with that in mind. A reader of the preceding book, and more likely of the whole Ender Quartet, would surely come to Ender's Shadow with an enthusiastic and sympathetic mindset, hungry for additional depth and detail. And that is precisely what he or she will get here.

The story and the characters are the same, but this time, the telling is more nuanced. It seems that on revisitation, the author naturally is interested to look deeper into the subtext and motives. This is in some ways surprising since the protagonist is even younger, but the child Bean is more subtle and less superficial than child Ender. But even with a child's perspective, the more analytical approach to the story remains compelling.

The majority of the time, it was fun to read a retelling of a scene from Ender's Game that was experienced and interpreted entirely differently by other perspectives. Only on a few occasions did this feel repetitive, and generally only when there was no new insight or interest in the retelling. I would therefore recommend that an enthusiast should wait a few months, and read a few unrelated books, between these two, in hopes that this might reduce the feelings of repetitiveness.

Regarding the audio, the same voice actors from the Ender Quartet audiobooks are brought back for this one, which keeps things nicely cohesive and makes for an enjoyable listening experience.

A damn good book on character development

It's a great book, but I wished for more action included with the character development package. It's not often I can genuinely get the impression of genius even when the author desperately tries to form that mental image, but I this case I was very impressed with the main character, and by extension the author's mental faculties. The only thing I was missing was more action and sense of dread to complement the mind games.

Same story, new view

I really enjoyed this story as a supplement to Ender's Game. Here we explore roughly the same timeline, but through the eyes of Bean. This book added to my overall positive feeling of Ender's Game, and it was satisfying enough that I don't feel compelled to continue in this series, but I feel invited to do so. I like that balance.

Amazing, Incredible book

-I usually get restless after reading for more than an hour at a time; I was completely enthralled and listened to this for 11 hours in a day.
-This book is completely parallel to Ender's Game, covers a ton of new ground and fills the gaps.
-It improves on Ender's Game and delivers an even more gut-wrenching, well-thought-out, and inspiring story.
-Much darker than its predecessor.
-Loved it from beginning to end; nothing I would add or change.
-I don't typically take the time to write reviews, for anything.

An amazing character

At first I thought, oh, a rewriting of Ender's Game, just through the eyes of another character. Hm. But it is so much more than that. The characters crackle with life, most especially Bean, the young child whose story is being told. This book stands on its own, and like Ender's Game, is page-turning reading, or, in this case, can't-turn-it-off listening! The use of more than one reader was especially fun. Highly recommended! This from a grown adult :)

Brilliant

What did you love best about Ender's Shadow?

I loved this book and the narration was the icing on the cake. Not only is it brilliantly written, but the narrators' exciting voice acting kept me hooked the entire time.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

The variance in narrators kept me from growing bored of a single voice actor.

Any additional comments?

My first audiobook and certainly not my last.

$$$$

As good as Enders Game! Get it!!