Heads up: I strongly advise reading Ender’s Game before reading this
post, as it’ll make a lot more sense. Having read Ender’s Shadow would be a bonus but is not necessary for
understanding it. This review is difficult to write without giving spoilers,
but as I was so excited to read Ender’s
Shadow, I’ll give it a go.
Ender’s Shadow (Orson
Scott Card, 1999) describes mainly the events of Ender’s Game, but from Ender’s subordinate Bean’s perspective.
Despite this, there is a huge amount of new material in it.
It begins with Bean near starvation as a street urchin, using his
brilliant mind and cunning to keep himself alive and eventually get himself into
Battle School – no small feat when he’s abandoned before he can walk and gets
into Battle School around four.
On the surface, he tends to remind people of Ender – smart even for
Battle School; small and young; intentionally isolated from his launch group by
the adults; not fond of authority; promoted rapidly – but on the inside, he’s
disconcertingly different.
Used to fighting for survival, Bean seems unscrupulous – he will do
anything to stay alive. He scored even higher than Ender did on the entrance
tests, getting the highest score in the history of Battle School by a wide
margin (and at what age, 4?). To put it shortly, Bean is extremely intelligent.
And he has few of Ender’s lofty moral ideals, and little to none of his
compassion (arguably Ender’s greatest strength). He is eely analytical and
excels at extrapolating the information he needs from what little he is told.
You might have thought Ender was cautious, suspicious, but Bean blows him out
of the water on that front. He won’t even play the fantasy game for fear that
the adults will use it to psychoanalyse him (funny, that). I wouldn’t necessarily
say he’s self-absorbed, but his survival instinct is incredibly strong.
While I praise Card for having the skill to create characters so
seemingly alike and yet so different underneath, I didn’t always enjoy it. When
I was reading Ender’s Game I was quite fond of Bean and had a nice idea
of him in my head. He seemed plucky, daring, adventurous, lovable. But here was
a story told from his point of view and the author smashed my mental image of
him from the last book (which I didn’t appreciate). He came across
manipulative, calculating, cold – perfectly content to fade into the
background at Battle School until he figures out the adults are expecting him
to excel, only getting close to Ender because he thinks it’s his best bet of
getting ahead.
Also, while Ender’s isolation leads to him becoming a leader, Bean doesn’t
have that leadership quality. Perhaps it’s because he’s lacking in compassion,
but whatever the reason, Bean gets ahead much more in his studies than in the
Battles. (Although he’s such a genius that he does end up with his own army in
the School).
Enough about Bean for the moment. The overarching plot is largely the
same, but the timing feels off (which makes sense, as Bean reacts to and prioritizes
things differently, but it’s disorientating). I sometimes think Ender may
represent humanity’s sense of duty and Bean our self-preservation.
I thought we might see what happens to the other kids (excluding Ender)
when they return to Earth, and was disappointed not to. Perhaps that’s in
another book in the series – I hope so.
There was a certain subplot about Bean’s heritage that was just very
underwhelming for me. I felt that (a) it didn’t really fit with the story (b)
it’s not tied up at all in the end, in my opinion.
I was so uncomfortable with the sort of things Bean was doing and finding
out towards the end of the book (and even in the middle, with the air ducts).
The thing regarding Ender’s Game’s
plot twist was manageable, but it seemed like things were shifted around a lot.
Anyone who’s read the first book knows that Bean is seen as having a lot of
potential and is slated as Ender’s Second for the Third Invasion, that role was
really played up in Ender’s Shadow. I
was also left confused by the fact that Bean, as far as I’m aware, never had a
monitor, nor did any of the street urchins – how could Battle School accept
him? The resolution of this book was messier than Ender’s Game, I felt.
I enjoyed reading it, but not as much as Ender’s Game. While the urchin background was interesting and
really made me sympathise, I didn’t find it as compelling as Ender’s Game’s main plot or even its
Demosthenes and Locke subplot.
All the books in the Ender’s Game series(es?) throw up
incredibly interesting questions and themes, so hopefully I can explore some of
those in the future.
PS: I loved the movie, even though it left out so much - what did you think of it? I boycotted it in the cinema because of Card's homophobic behaviour, but I saw it on someone's DVD and really enjoyed it. Plus, Asa Butterfield is fantastic.
