I just finished Ender's Shadow while on vacation. I really enjoyed Bean's point of view of the events of Ender's Game. The one part of the storyline that I was really getting hyped over was the reintroduction of Achilles at Battle School. With all the development and concentration on how Bean felt about Achilles' killing Poke, I thought Bean's 'resolution' with him was really lacking. Oh he trapped him into a confession. The End.
/boggle?
Other than that, I enjoyed both books tremendously!
Enderverse Discussion - Spoilers welcome here
~*~*~*~SPOILERS AHEAD~*~*~*~
You can freely discuss all things Ender in this thread, without worrying about ruining endings for new readers. Enter and read at your own risk. Feel free to bring up any of the books or short stories.
ROzbeans
15 years ago
pharren
15 years ago
i think the shadow series is my favorite for sure. it might not be as meaningful as the ender half of the universe, but damn, it sure is fun.
Verileah
15 years ago
I also found that frustrating, Roz. There are, I think, some more satisfying interactions between Achilles and some of the other battle school kids in the later books. With Ender's Game there seemed to be a lot more time to build up antagonism between Bonzo and Ender. With Bean and Achilles, the main build up was before they ever got to battle school, so when they got together again later on it was very cold and very quick. Which makes sense, since Bean isn't exactly emo boy, but it's not quite as heart wrenching to read.
Very exciting though - I like the shadow series a little better every time I read it. The first go around I was distracted by all of the moralizing, I think, which might be a consequence of knowing too much about the author. If you can look past that and just dig on the story, though, it's really well done.
Very exciting though - I like the shadow series a little better every time I read it. The first go around I was distracted by all of the moralizing, I think, which might be a consequence of knowing too much about the author. If you can look past that and just dig on the story, though, it's really well done.
pharren
10 years ago
I read the entire Ender/Shadow series for the 4th or 5th or 6th time a month or two ago, and my situation was reverse; I was never bothered by the "moralizing" (I'm calling it 'proselytizing') until this time around, when I was deeply troubled by it, especially in the Shadow series. I found myself skimming over parts because it was so overdone. What really turned me off was when (I think) Bean and Petra decide to get married, and Bean makes a comment about splitting his (her?) kingdom amongst the two of them, jokingly, and she replies, not-jokingly, that he could have the whole thing. My religion warning bells started ringing and I felt totally disgusted by the idea. From that point on the entire series wad tainted by a perhaps imaginary sense of women being equals (just not as equal as men) but subservient to them and willingly so. My only consolation was that Bean didn't become religious in truth.
Still a great series, especially the Ender side, slow as people may feel it is.
Verileah
Very exciting though - I like the shadow series a little better every time I read it. The first go around I was distracted by all of the moralizing, I think, which might be a consequence of knowing too much about the author. If you can look past that and just dig on the story, though, it's really well done.
I read the entire Ender/Shadow series for the 4th or 5th or 6th time a month or two ago, and my situation was reverse; I was never bothered by the "moralizing" (I'm calling it 'proselytizing') until this time around, when I was deeply troubled by it, especially in the Shadow series. I found myself skimming over parts because it was so overdone. What really turned me off was when (I think) Bean and Petra decide to get married, and Bean makes a comment about splitting his (her?) kingdom amongst the two of them, jokingly, and she replies, not-jokingly, that he could have the whole thing. My religion warning bells started ringing and I felt totally disgusted by the idea. From that point on the entire series wad tainted by a perhaps imaginary sense of women being equals (just not as equal as men) but subservient to them and willingly so. My only consolation was that Bean didn't become religious in truth.
Still a great series, especially the Ender side, slow as people may feel it is.
Verileah
10 years ago
What I really found cringe-worthy was Anton deciding to marry a woman to join the circle of life or some bullshit. Because that's really what OSC thinks gay people should do - marry someone of the opposite sex and deal with it. Ick.
pharren
10 years ago
Yeah, I'd forgotten about that, but it bothered me as well. That whole "the sole purpose of life is to have children" thing reeeeeeally doesn't sit well with me. Especially when part of your core philosophy is that the Earth was created for man to rule and we are superior to animals blah blah... seems hypocritical to me, for reasons I am tired of stating.