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miscamy's review
3.0
Fine. After being resistant, I did actually shed a few tears at the last scene. However, this is it for any of his books... I like the concept, but I'm not invested in the rest of Card's world. Of course, this was all in the name of getting ready for the upcoming film, too.
midwifereading's review
5.0
Incredible. I finished it in less than two days, and loved it every but as much as Ender's Game. I cried.
protoman21's review
5.0
It was interesting reading this the second time and not just seeing it as the companion to Ender' s Game, but as the beginning of the Shadow series
mrbear's review
4.0
July 2020 - listened to this again when older, and it was a lot worse than I remember. Sad how some things age badly. The audiobook in particular makes the writing hard to bear.
adammuly's review
4.0
If you love the way you view and feel about Ender’s Game, then don’t read this book. It will change your outlook on the original story, strengthening portions and weakening others. However, it presents a much fuller picture of the events in Ender’s game, expanding upon them and their complexity. In the end, it is a really good book. It’s not as good as the original, but the whole idea of it being a “parallel novel” is really interesting and entertaining. Card does a good job revisiting events without making it feel too redundant along with Ender’s Game. Plus, Ender’s Shadow gives readers more time in battle school and all that goes with that, which was my favorite part of the original story!
jklingsporn's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
roseleaf24's review
4.0
I found the street violence at the beginning of this book very difficult to get through. The rest of the book is brilliant. It has been several years since I last read Ender's Game, so in my desire to read the rest of the series, I decided to start with this one to review what had happened. The ending was as spectacular as in Ender's Game, with an additional Bean only scene that made me sob.
ponch22's review
5.0
Listened to the audio version of [b:Ender's Game|375802|Ender's Game (Ender's Saga, #1)|Orson Scott Card|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1408303130l/375802._SY75_.jpg|2422333] years ago, but it was just after watching the film that made me want to finally dig out this "parallel novel."
Anyone who knows the original story may remember a small (in more ways than one) character, named Bean. This is his story.
From his days as an urchin on the streets of Rotterdam through the armies of Battle School we've already seen, to a new perspective of the final "training" sessions Ender led against Bugger armies, we have another great story about a world relying on its children to survive.
Bean is hyper-intelligent and he often knows more than the adults realize and it's a great look at stuff we already knew. The final few chapters did have a LOT of internal struggle while Bean debated how much he knew/inferred/could handle. It was a little too repetitive in this finale but overall, it was great to revisit Battle School with a new protagonist. It's very interesting to have someone else to root for. I knew how the story ended, but I kept wondering how things could have turned out if the adults would have chosen Bean to be their hero. It's almost as if [a:J.K. Rowling|1077326|J.K. Rowling|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1596216614p2/1077326.jpg] had written seven follow up novels from Neville's point of view, showing his home life and struggle to come to terms with possibly being the Chosen One.
Anyone who knows the original story may remember a small (in more ways than one) character, named Bean. This is his story.
From his days as an urchin on the streets of Rotterdam through the armies of Battle School we've already seen, to a new perspective of the final "training" sessions Ender led against Bugger armies, we have another great story about a world relying on its children to survive.
Bean is hyper-intelligent and he often knows more than the adults realize and it's a great look at stuff we already knew. The final few chapters did have a LOT of internal struggle while Bean debated how much he knew/inferred/could handle. It was a little too repetitive in this finale but overall, it was great to revisit Battle School with a new protagonist. It's very interesting to have someone else to root for. I knew how the story ended, but I kept wondering how things could have turned out if the adults would have chosen Bean to be their hero. It's almost as if [a:J.K. Rowling|1077326|J.K. Rowling|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1596216614p2/1077326.jpg] had written seven follow up novels from Neville's point of view, showing his home life and struggle to come to terms with possibly being the Chosen One.