Shadow of the Giant

By: Orson Scott Card

Narrated by: David Birney, Scott Brick, Full Cast

Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

The Ender Saga continues with Shadow of the Giant, which parallels the events of Ender's Game from a different character’s point of view.

Bean's past was a battle just to survive. He first appeared on the streets of Rotterdam, a tiny child with a mind leagues beyond anyone else. He knew he could not survive through strength; he used his tactical genius to gain acceptance into a children's gang, and then to help make that gang a template for success for all the others. He civilized them, and lived to grow older. Then he was discovered by the recruiters for the Battle School.

For Earth was at war—a terrible war with an inscrutable alien enemy. A war that humanity was near to losing. But the long distances of interstellar space has given hope to the defenders of Earth—they had time to train military geniuses up from childhood, forging them into an irresistible force in the high-orbital facility called the Battle School. That story is told in two books, Orson Scott Card's beloved classic Ender's Game, and its parallel, Ender's Shadow. Now, in Shadow of the Giant, Bean's story continues.

Bean was the smallest student at the Battle School, but he became Ender Wiggins' right hand, Since then he has grown to be a power on Earth. He served the Hegemon as strategist and general in the terrible wars that followed Ender's defeat of the alien empire attacking Earth. Now he and his wife Petra yearn for a safe place to build a family—something he has never known—but there is nowhere on Earth that does not harbor his enemies—old enemies from the days in Ender's Jeesh, new enemies from the wars on Earth. To find security, Bean and Petra must once again follow in Ender's footsteps. They must leave Earth behind, in the control of the Hegemon, and look to the stars.

THE ENDER UNIVERSE

Ender series

Ender’s Game

Speaker for the Dead

Xenocide

Children of the Mind

Ender in Exile

Children of the Fleet

Ender’s Shadow series

Ender’s Shadow

Shadow of the Hegemon

Shadow Puppets

Shadow of the Giant

Shadows in Flight

The First Formic War (with Aaron Johnston)

Earth Unaware

Earth Afire

Earth Awakens

The Second Formic War (with Aaron Johnston)

The Swarm

The Hive

Ender novellas

A War of Gifts

First Meetings

Browse more titles in the Ender Wiggin series.

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

Critic reviews

“The novels of Orson Scott Card's Ender series are an intriguing combination of action, military and political strategy, elaborate war games and psychology.” —USA Today

Bittersweet and existential

By far the most preachy of these pseudo-Risk novels but also the one with the most emotion. Even though much of that emotion is existential sadness. This would/should be a worthy end to the Shadow series.

Card does it again

I just finished listening and had to voice my opinion. Orson Scott Card has another winner in the Ender series. Giant continues with the characters that we have grown to know and love from the previous books and continues to build possibilities for future novels. The narration is fantastic and keeps you in the story from beginning to end. Worthwhile reading!

excellent book, well read

there's a few audio glitches, but the artist is excellent and so is the performance

great book small audio issues.

there were a few points where audio tracks were transitioned and it sounded like two people were talking at the same time slightly out of sync. otherwise everything's fantastic.

makes one remember

very few books dredge up great and terrible memories from my past but this one did and blessed me with the ability to look at them from a different perspective.

Great Finish to the Story of Bean and Petra

Where does Shadow of the Giant rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I am a big fan of Orson Scott Card and the way he brings characters to life and never cheats just to end the story.
The performance of the talent was great at bringing the personalities of the characters to life.

What did you like best about this story?

Very entertaining.

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have listened to Scott Brick before. I find his voice acting accurate and enthralling. He did well in this book but I think he was better in a Princess of Mars.

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

Yes.

Wonderful

All these books are so much fun. They reach into the best and worst parts of humanity and tell a story of future and past. Alexander and Julius Ceaser to Julian Del Phiki (didn’t read it so I don’t know how to spell it).

i disagree

Would you listen to Shadow of the Giant again? Why?

not a waist of time, interesting story. i just think that the smartest person on earth, Bean, would make a better father then described. he's such a failure in this book that it's hard to believe the author spent 3 volumes building him up just to tear him down like this. i am just mad on Bean's behalf ;)

wow, just wow

This is one of the best books I have ever read, and being able to listen to it has been incredible.

poor audio

Overall a great story. However, there was multiple places where the audio went to crap.