Transferred Enders Game + Shadow Series (Book Review)

Book Series: Enders Game + Shadow Series
Author: Orson Scott Card

Enders Game is soon to be a movie, so this review needs to be published.  :-)

Enders Game doesnt appeal to everyone.  There's no question about that.  Everyone can find something in the book, but some people cannot suspend their disbelief.

Lets start from the beginning.  Ender's game is a book about a child named Ender.  And part of the book is from this child's point of view.  This is where readers differ on how they react or take in this main character Ender.  Some can call him cold hearted, some can call him efficient.  But that seems to be what the author intends.

These questions are questions that people dont normally think about.  How far is too far?   It would be an injustice to give too many details since further generations will be reading this book and this series.   However, we can cover the greater topics.

Enders Game covers the idea of controlled births, one world government, alien attack, and children trained to fight.  It covers friendship, sibling relationship, parent/child relationship, and even mentor/student relationships.  Maybe the book reaches too far, but Enders Game isnt a story about humanity's survival, it isnt a story about some kid growing up.  It's the story about the relationship people can have with each other.

You can get attached to any one of the characters in the series.  Interestingly enough, I got attached to "Bean" a minor character in Ender's Game but a really major character in Ender's Shadow.

Enders Shadow isnt an original  idea.  We have other books that cover minor characters as main characters, for example Rosencrantz And Guildenstern are Dead.
But here, Orson has taken the idea to a further extereme.  He's taken Bean, the character that has a pretty minor role in Ender's Game, and has created whole new point of view and essentially, world.  Especially as the series continues, it leaves the world of Ender behind and brings about the world of Bean.

The interesting paths that Scott Card takes in his books are facilitated by the great fan base the books have generated.  When a reader reads Ender's Game, Scott Card provides a base.  From there, a reader can follow Ender through the universe, with a more philosophical understanding through the Speaker of the Dead book series.  A reader also has the possibilty of going through the political path with the Shadow series.   Bean's world is a world of political intrigue and a world full of international powerplays by whole countries.  Thriller readers would love it.

In the end, Scott Card has written a scifi thriller without the tech fluff.  He doesnt beat you over the head.  He lets the relationships between the characters do the talking.

No matter what you've heard, it's still worth the time to read both of these books (Enders Game and Enders Shadow).  Think about the questions that they inspire.  Maybe you'll learn something about yourself that you never dared question...

~F.Zver