Shadows in Flight

By: Orson Scott Card

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Emily Janice Card, Scott Brick, Orson Scott Card, Kirby Heyborne

Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

Ender's Shadow explores the stars in this all-new novel...

At the end of Shadow of the Giant, Bean flees to the stars with three of his children—the three who share the engineered genes that gave him both hyper-intelligence and a short, cruel physical life. The time dilation granted by the speed of their travel gives Earth's scientists generations to seek a cure, to no avail. In time, they are forgotten—a fading ansible signal speaking of events lost to Earth's history. But the Delphikis are about to make a discovery that will let them save themselves, and perhaps all of humanity in days to come.

For there in space before them lies a derelict Formic colony ship. Aboard it, they will find both death and wonders—the life support that is failing on their own ship, room to grow, and labs in which to explore their own genetic anomaly and the mysterious disease that killed the ship's colony.

Shadows in Flight is the fifth novel in Orson Scott Card's Shadow Series.

©2011 Orson Scott Card (P)2012 Macmillan Audio

A great story with an abrupt end.

I have loved all the books created to show a fully realized world, with complex people, in the Ender universe. This book describes Bean’s hopes and his love for his children and what he must suffer in the meantime. The ending is abrupt but it still leaves you with Bean’s life complete and with hope for his children. If you love the Ender universe you definitely need to read this book!

Excellent!! I loved this book

Excellent! I loved this book, it was as good as the first book. Sorry it ended

Too Short, Pun Intended

A clean ending novel for Bean's original 4 books with a noticeable difference in writing style that leans more heavily into sci-fi tropes than the Shadow series.

I didn't realize I liked Bean this much.

Hello. I am a fan of fantasy books but I often delve into the scifi genre, especially when Orseon Scott Card is the author. I am a huge fan of Ender's Game and the sequels involving Ender and Valentine. I stayed away from the other books involving Peter the Hegemon and Bean because they didn't involve Ender, at least not directly. Boy, was I wrong to do so. I sampled the free preview for this book and found myself wanting to know more. I really enjoyed this book and although I wish it had ended differently (I won't say how because I don't reveal spoilers) butI'm hoping in the future Mr Card will continue on with this story line. It is not Ender but it is enjoyable in its own right. The characters pull you in and as always, the author's writing style keeps you reading. Often I plan on spending maybe 30 miuntes but end up putting it down 2 hours later. Card's talent shines throughout this book.

If you like Ender and his "universe", you will enjoy this book. One thing I think I should add.....I didn't read the previous (I think it was 3) books in this series and I didn't feel I missed out on anything in this book because of it. Sure, I would have known more of the back story if I had read the earlier books and sometime I will go back and read them because as the Title above states, I didn't realize I liked Bean this much.

Thanks
--Wesley

This is not a gentle book

Would you listen to Shadows in Flight again? Why?

Yes, I really enjoyed the story. The character do a lot of growing. I felt like I grew along with them.

What other book might you compare Shadows in Flight to and why?

There is a whole lot of excellent dialogue. I enjoyed that.
Another book that has lots of above average dialogue is "My Family and other Animals" by Durrell, Gerald, but "My Family..." is a delightful comedy. I guess some of the bantering is similar to Shadows in Flight. Shadows... is almost a tragedy throughout.

Any additional comments?

I am grateful for the way it ended.

Final chapter in Bean's life story

What made the experience of listening to Shadows in Flight the most enjoyable?

The book closes the chapter on Bean's life, but again leaves the door open for his legacy, his children, to explore a brave new world and shape history for their new race, so the saga must continue....

What was one of the most memorable moments of Shadows in Flight?

There was no real eureka moment for me as in previous OSC books, rather a well thought out storyline that tied up loose ends from previous adventures and sets up the landscape for new ones. I liked the legacy angle and look forward to what the offspring might get up to in future.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

All of the OSC books are well narrated by the same team, they feel like family by now.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Great way of escaping monotony for two hours of commuting every day.

Any additional comments?

Be warned, this book is shorter than normal, yet not a short story, but entertaining if you accept it for what it is. Probably more for OSC die hard fans like me.

Feel more YA than most of the Shadows series

I am a pretty big Orson Scott Card fan. I have read almost everything he has written, and he has written a lot over the last 35 or so years.

Any author that has written as much as Card has, has some uneven work.

The Shadow series, which is a complete series that is ancillary to the Ender series, has been particularly uneven. I love the characters of Bean and Petra. But the series as a whole has been far less satisfying than I would have liked. There have been plenty of books but they haven’t moved as much as I would have liked them too.

Shadows in Flight feels like a re-start to the series. Bean has left earth with his children. The story line that Card had to interact with because it covered ground that was mentioned in the Ender series is now over. Bean is in his early 20s, his children are 6. And Bean is near death. He has grown to about 25 ft tall and can only live in the cargo hold. His body is shutting down, but living at near zero G has helped him live a couple years past his life expectancy. He has tried, to the best of his ability, to raise his children well. Preparing them for life without them.

The children of course are as gifted as Bean is. They are brilliant far beyond their years, but they are still innocent, still children, and they do not know what they do not know.

I will not reveal the major plot point. But it seems appropriate and is handled well. And at the end of the book, I can see this going several books if Card has enough ideas. This felt more like a young adult book than any of the rest of the series, in fact more than any other book except Ender’s Game. I am not sure if that is because the main characters were 6 (albeit incredibly intelligent and gifted 6 year olds) or because of the length of the book.

What is a bit frustrating is that Card at the end of the book (I listened to it). He has a short section about how this book is just over half of the length of what his standard books are. I am all for authors telling a story, and expanding a book to meet a length usually kills the story. I think that this has been the problem with the Shadow series as a whole. Card should have edited down most of the books to about 2/3 of their published length.

But the length, according to Card, is not about better telling the story, it is about lowering the price point of the book. If he writes a shorter book, he can charge less for it. But the price of the Kindle book is $9.99 and $11.99 (there are two editions. One is an abridgment with 7 additional paragraphs for $11.99, and the other is the full book without the 7 additional paragraphs but it is a pre-order for Feb 2013 and is $9.99.) The Audiobook is a bit cheaper, but it is range of the price of some of his older books. The Hardcover is about the price of most hardcovers that have been out for about a year. So if his point was to produce a cheaper book, that didn’t make it to the ears of the publisher.

Digital publishing should make it easier for authors and publishers to experiment. Change the length, the style, the format, but make sure the story is worth reading or it does not really matter.

Also don’t piss off your readers. The Kindle Edition of this book is currently only available in the abridged form. The longer version is on pre-order. Amazon has the reviews all bundled so it is hard to tell what you are getting and more than a few people purchased the abridged book and felt cheated. Because it was a the price of a full book, but they only got a novella (around 140 pages). The description says 240 pages, but that is the full printed version of the book.

So my advice, if you are going to get this book, get the paper or audio versions.

Loved it!

Great book and return to one of the best characters in whole saga of books.

Not the end...

Going in I thought this would wrap up the two series, it didn't... but it was excellent and I can't wait for the next (final?) book hopefully it comes soon!

such good thought provoking and exciting reading

very engaging yet very deep and thought provoking. I just love all the books in this series.