This sequel to Ender's Shadow continues the story of Bean, while bringing over some plot that started in Ender's Game. The members of Ender's "Jeesh" (or group who fought with him in the invasion of the formics) are held in the highest esteem of battle school graduates. They are considered the elites or the best to come out of Battle School, and every country jockeying for world leadership wants one, or all, of them to lead their armies. All members of the Jeesh are kidnapped by one ambitious nation; all members with the exception of Bean. Bean now tries to free his friends by teaming up with Ender Wiggins older brother Peter.

I first chose to read this because I loved Ender's Shadow and I wanted to read more about Bean. Bean was always my favorite character, so I was very excited when I learned he had his own series.

One of the major things I liked about this book was that it was able to successfully tie in Peters work in Ender's Game and bring it over into this series. I also love the story line in this series, and I think this book does a very good job to start it off.

I am a major fan of this book and series so it is very hard for me to say anything negative about it. The only things that I would like to see differently are very small things that would be hard to describe in this manner. For the most part though, this book is very good with no major flaws I can detect as a very biased fan.

My overall impression of the book is that it is a good start to a series that is branching out, with the same characters, to a different environment than we know them from. Orson Scott Card does a good job telling stories, while keeping them interesting to most audiences.

I think everyone should read this book. I think it would be interesting to most people. I suggest this series to all those who have read any books from the Enderverse (All the books that have to do with characters involved in Ender's Game).

I believe the only things to be aware of before reading this book is that there is some mild language, but it is not vulgar. The other thing to be aware of is that it is a book that is war centered.

I have several gripes with this book, although I did devour it in less than three days so it couldn’t have been that bad. I know that the author intended it to be a completely different kind of novel from Ender’s Game/Shadow. But in my opinion, it’s just too different.

Part of what makes the original book(s) so fun and intriguing is that it takes place in a totally made-up place (Battle School/Eros) around a totally alien (pun very much intended) scenario. This book, on the other hand, is a novel about an imaginary World War 3 that seems a lot closer to home and ironically enough more far-fetched as such. It takes place entirely on earth, between humans in real places, and because of that the tone shifts. It lacks the coldness and alien-ness of the original. It’s very grounded, even though it’s also outlandish. Not only that, but almost all of the characters that we know and love from Battle School are missing (other than Bean and Petra of course) and other than making occasional mentions of the events from the original, it feels completely separate.

I don’t have a problem accepting that a bunch of kids are in control of the fate of humanity in the first book because it’s taking place in space, they are playing video games, and the enemy is a bunch of aliens. In this one though I find myself balking every time their ages or the word “kids” comes up. It is so difficult for me to imagine pre-teens in command of armies on earth. The cognitive dissonance is rough.

The second big thing that I hate is that we end up having to root for Peter. Little explanation needed here. After reading Ender’s Game there’s just no way you can read about this guy and not detest him. The moment when his parents tell him “we’re just as proud of you as we are of Ender” and he goes off crying and we’re supposed to sympathize with him really fries my onions. We know this guy is a psychopath. Don’t try to to back out of that pre-established fact from the first book now.

The third thing I don’t like is the villain. Achilles is the lamest, flattest, excuse for a bad guy. He’s your typical Marvel-style psychopath who wants to kill everyone for no great reason. The compelling thing about the first book is that the villain is not so much the awful bullies (the Achilles-types, like Bonzo and Peter), but Ender himself. The struggle he experiences between his killer instinct and great compassion for his enemies is extremely thought provoking and moving. The struggle against Achilles is just plain boring and also unrealistic. Again, I do not buy that a kid of his age could end up with the political and military influence that he has, especially since he was only in Battle School for three days. I’m also sooooo annoyed that he’s still at large at the end of the book. That fact alone is enough to make me yawn and give up on this series. Another whole book spent chasing this kid around sounds completely uninteresting to me.

But I think the biggest thing I struggle with in this book is the main character, Bean. I like Bean a lot, I don’t mean to hate on him, he’s fun, witty, and super super smart, but I really wrestle with caring about him enough to want to continue reading his story. I find myself feeling slightly similar about him in Ender’s Shadow, which is why Game will always be my favorite, but when I read Shadow it’s not enough to bother me too much because Ender is there to push him to grow.

I think that sums up my biggest issue with this book, and I guess the rest of the Shadow series at this rate… the lack of Ender. He’s the most compelling character in Shadow/Game and the reason that all of these side characters are brought together. It’s the fact that they all leaned on one another as part of his team that made them lovable and interesting. It’s the classic dilemma in literature/film… in order to get side characters to stand on their own a lot of work has to be done to prove that they aren’t flat. It’s like when Michael Scott leaves the Office (a funny comparison, I realize)…none of the side characters, no matter how fleshed out or lovable they are, are designed to carry the show. Bean just doesn’t carry the show for me in this book. If anything I was more compelling by Petra.

The reason why Bean works as a main character in Shadow is because Ender is there, which keeps him humble, forces him to grow, and teaches him what friendship and sacrifice are. As the title suggests, he has to live in the shadow of another who, though no more of a genius, has compassion and love where Bean does not. In this book, now that that comparison has been removed and Bean has learned his lessons, he’s just another classic Marvel-style superhero who’s always right about everything, can see what nobody else can, and will always win because of that. He doesn’t seem to have many struggles or weaknesses (other than his stature, which he still manages to make up for). OSC works really hard to make us empathize with him by bringing up Poke and Carlotta, but for some reason I never believe it. He’s definitely learned some things since Shadow, but his main character traits are still just being calculating, smart, and super skilled at every he does. He’s still not all that compassionate. You can’t write that he’s only about his own survival one minute and expect us to believe that he cares about others the next.

That’s the key difference between Ender and Bean. Ender shows weakness, despite his genius. His struggles, though nothing we would ever face, are somehow familiar. Bean, despite his horrible upbringing and difficult life, seems just fine most of the time and rarely shows any sign that he’s been affected by it. Ender is relatable, and thus he (or even just his shadow apparently) can carry a story. Bean is just not.

Great sequel to Ender's Shadow, which I absolutely love. Can't wait to see where this series goes next

(2.7/5)

This was alright. I’m barely interested to continue in the series, and I probably will since my library has all of these on audio.

The world is in chaos after the events of Ender’s Game and who is coming to rescue but a bunch of little kids! Ender’s Game was a stretch in terms of what the kids became conditioned to do, but this is a new level of ridiculous.

We have kids manipulating the world’s politics via an online pseudonym and leading armies. Kind of hard to believe.

Ignoring all that, the political maneuvering was somewhat interesting but nowhere near someone like Frank Herbert, who OSC seems to be inspired by sometimes. The inner monologues are OSC’s strong suit so that helped with a generally generic and unbelievable plot.

I enjoyed learning more about Bean and the Battle School kids post Formic war, and am looking forward to seeing where they go from here in the next installment. Bittersweet moments and action, as well as logistics -- Great!

Wow. This book was fantastic. I read some negative reviews that disparaged all the political stratagey but I loved that about it. I listened to the audio book version non stop for days. It made me glad for my mediocre geographical knowledge and wished that I had a better understanding of borders in Asia since most of the conflict happens there. In the post script after the audio book Card explains his passion for playing Risk as a kid and how that influenced this book. I love maps, and I loved the risk like feel of this narrative.
When I read Ender’s Game as a teen I remember being absolutely fascinated and even slightly attracted to the character of Peter Wiggin. (I realize that is an embarrassing confession and I hope the internet doesn’t mock me too much for it) but as an adult the character of Achilles (also a psychopath and killer) was absolutely repulsive. Card had to make someone worse that Peter, and he succeeded. (Happily I grew out of being attracted to psychopaths before I married and chose a husband who never tortured squirrels as a child.) Achilles is a whack job. But he is less interesting that Peter. The fascinating characters of Sister Carlotta and Petra make up for having a less interesting child killer character, and I was happy to see Card’s book have more focus on female characters. I’m still mulling over if I like this book better than Ender’s Shadow. I think I do.
One last thought; In all of his Ender books, Card talks so much about innate intelligence. In our current zeitgeist innate intelligence is as taboo a subject as sex in Victorian England. I want to give Card the benefit of the doubt, and say that he doesn’t mean to make his readers feel stupid, but the way he exalts intellectual abilities and makes a distinction between those who can and those who can’t, gets a little exhausting. But maybe I’m superimposing my father’s thoughts here, he said he knew Card in college, and that Card was kind of arrogant. But my Dad is hardly a reliable source, and I don’t remember the specifics, but I think maybe my Dad went on a few dates with Card’s wife (before she was his wife) and that some past drama was the reason he disparaged Card to his teenage daughter decades ago. Still, I do find that intellectual hierarchy exhausting, not even Sister Carlotta’s sense of moral fairness compensate.
When to read it:
Read it right after Ender’s Shadow.

When I read it:
Age 43. Spring of 2022. I’ve been on a science fiction spree since I decided to take a break from my own writing and just relax and enjoy other’s creativity. I started with a re-read (listening) of Dune, then Ender’s Game, then Ender’s Shadow, then Shadow of the Hegemon. I always desire to be a better book reviewer on Goodreads, so I forced myself to review these past few books before I listened on with Shadow Puppets. (book no. 3 in the shadow series) But hurray I finished the reviews! Now I’m shutting my laptop, and I’m going to go listen to Shadow Puppets as I wash last night’s dishes in my kitchen.

This book moved along at a pretty good clip. It was easy to read and kind of entertaining. I like Bean. So it was OK.

Except that it was really pretty terrible. All the Battle School kids are back on earth and they are basically shunted away as being "just" children. That means that all the kids who won the war for mankind's survival now have subordinate roles. And that's just fine.

But then there's Achilles. He got into Battle School, and was there for a couple of weeks. He got kicked out and sent to a mental hospital because he has this slight problem that he's a sociopathic serial killer. So naturally, first Russia and then India and then presumably China put him near the top of their power structure and allow him to get them into major wars and to negotiate critical non-aggression treaties. The adults thus all trust the proven sociopathic killer with no track record of competence, while they all seem to mistrust the Battle School vets?

Somehow, in his incredibly annoying afterward, Card seems to justify all this by the examples of other great men like Alexander and Napoleon. (I may have Card's position wrong. I couldn't bear to do anything but slightly skim this afterward. It read sort of like the end of War and Peace. Mercifully not as long, but also seemingly devoid of content. For me, all it showed is that perhaps Card is even more arrogant than his main characters.) But Alexander was the son of Philip of Macedon, and the student of Aristotle. There's a reason he was leading armies. Napoleon may be a better example, but he at least proved himself in some engagements. By contrast, Achilles sole claim to fame was that he was thrown out of Battle School and into a mental hospital.

Finally, this thing takes place at least 100 years in the future. There's space travel, communication faster than the speed of light, etc... It's supposed to be science fiction. But for all practical purposes, there's no science fiction in it at all. Here, I give Card a pass, because it's pretty clear that he's just not interested. And yet, I still have a problem with it. The Battle School environment in Ender's Game and in Ender's Shadow is pretty cool. But in terms of how things work, it's really hard to square that environment with the state of technology here on Earth, which is pretty much straight from the mid-nineties. And it's also troublesome because they do have instant communication, not restricted by the speed of light. Thus, if Ender could command the fleet in the fight against the Formics, then he and Valentine could also at least have some contact or input into the Earth's events. Instead, its just ignored.

Yeah, this book was OK, but I'm no longer excited to continue the series. Maybe someday.

2.25

Card seems determined to make interesting ideas uninteresting with multiple locations and unnecessary explanations of back alley scheming and thirty to forty page chapters. Seemingly detached from humanity, Card seems more comfortable in space as this attempt at displaying struggling world views is dire. Moments of impressive dialogue is present but is overshadowed by ludicrous scenarios and not a shred of realism is left as this grape has had all its juice squeezed from it.

No one writes a first book of a series like Card and no one implodes with greater dramatics after that one is published like him.

Great Book!

God! I‘d been having an Orson Scott Card’s books marathon these last few weeks. So far, since there is nothing left of his books in my hand that I haven’t read yet, I’ll have to take a pause reading his books and resume till I find his other books then—especially the sequels of this book.

After checking the rating details of this book on Goodreads, I found out that I belong to those people who are twenty-two percent addicted at this. Unfortunately, since before reading a book, I always refer the rating detail before I read a book, this turned out a not-so-good logic to me. For this mean I shouldn't have rely my preference of picking a book at the rating detail nor should I be persuaded by the negative reviews of other readers.

After the successful battle of defeating the buggers, Ender’s Jeesh has been brought back to earth—to be with their respective families—except for Ender Wiggin who never has had the chance to be with his own family because his been exiled by Locke, who’s Peter Wiggin, his brother, behind the curtain. Contrary to what his brother has done to Ender, Peter Wiggin has a greater reason for him to do that, for he has foreseen what is coming to the lives of heroes who killed the buggers and sent down to Earth to join their family. Now, the beginning of what he saw is coming. The Ender’s Jeesh has been kidnapped, and
soon be doomed.

Bean has been in a trip with his family. After hearing the kidnapped of Petra Arkanian, he knows that the rest of Ender’s Jeesh will join her. For he knows and has foreseen it also what has to come, one reason could because on the current situation the most influential people are the heroes of the Earth. Because of Bean’s advance thinking, he has escaped from the people who want to kill him instead of kidnapping him. Now, the question that floats over the situation are: what nation is behind the kidnapping: Could it be the nation that offers to arbitrate and thinks they should rule the world, or those aggressive nations that think they have grievance, and also thinks they’re undervalued—belligerent and snappish?

For Bean, there is only one clue that serves right to conclude who’s the person behind it. Why would someone kill him instead of kidnapping him, like others? Unless, the person behind it is the person who hunts Bean since then—Achilles.

Again, Card impressed me with this book. I thought I could have thrown this away like his other book, Empire, but I was stunned at how my suspicion of inconsistency subsided. His latest characterization is fully equipped and tough. The development of the characters has obviously shown in this book, likewise the evolvement of the circumstances and emotion.

Card is at his best when Bean is at his peak. I deeply admire how Card created Bean and his personality—unruly, straightforward, brave, certain, genius, honest and sometimes innocent. I’m sure this is why I’ve fallen myself on this series. Bean becomes matured here and yet, he’s still the unbeatbale genius with the innocent looks I admire. His analogy of circumstances is quite exceptional. His weakness may be his physical features but his attitude and intellect make up for it. Add the innocence of his feelings and you can have the summation of a perfect hero.

I liked how Card expanded the personality of Petra Arkanian through giving her more exposure in this book. Her character as if hadn’t been valued well enough in Ender’s Shadow and Ender’s Game. But her existence here suggests how she’ll play the rest of the books of Shadow Series.

This book is majorly rotating on politics issue. But dare me, this book is different from other political books I’ve read and hated. I did find this book very much interesting in any form—politics, heroism and brain. The core of this book is how the kids managed to rule the world instead of grown-ups. The heroes have faced a harder problem here where they have to battle a war in a different field. It’s still admirable how the nations heed the plan to defeat another nation from the children who haven’t gotten their teenage years yet, except for Peter who’s thirteen.

In other way, I believe that those who hated this book are just being cynical for having Bean as the main character of this book instead of Ender. However, there are things I considered doing before I read and while reading this book. I had to lessen my interest due to some negative reviews. I had to be patient in order to catch up what they were talking about, and rereading the previous page is part of it. I had to search for political terms for me to understand the situation, otherwise I’d be lost. Lastly, I had to get into the characters and situation for me to never get bored. Overall, I did get into the story.

This may not be as page-turner as the Ender’s Shadow, but this is as interesting as its best. The complexity of the story aspect is not hindrance for a reader to like this book, unless since from the beginning he/she didn’t like this book. And yeah, that reason will really make sense even if you look at the rating details (again sorry, I shouldn’t have suggested that but it’s the only fact that I hold to convince you.) only one percent of readers dislike this book and some them are reasoned out the difference of Bean and Ender. The complexity of the aspects thus expands the learning of a reader on tactics and strategy—like playing chess. This book is also worth page-turning if you want to learn the histories of war. Another thing that makes this not-a-boring book I’ve read this year because of the witty shots of the characters.

This book is another reason for me to read the rest books of Card. And yes, rationally, it deserves my twinkling five stars. Watch out Card, for here I am to hunt down the rest of your best books.

Another excellent entry to the sender universe, but more specifically in the Bean world. Following the events of both Enders Shadow and Enders Game, we have the rest of Enders Jeesh back to earth where they deal with the repercussions of becoming the most successful and brilliant military minds the world has. The story predominately follows Bean and Petra, as well as bringing back the villain of Bean’s past and the previous book - Achilles. My only complaint at this juncture hardly counts as a real complaint, but it’s that there are a statistically unlikely amount of genius children/people in these novels. But I enjoy it, because that’s the way Card writes and I think it works. I’m not one for global politics or anything of that sort, so it’s possible that Card has woefully inaccurate assessments here and shallow views, but I think it’s works for the book and feels fine for the level of depth he’s going for here - it’s not really the purpose of the novel.

Reasonably well written, but not as enjoyable as Ender's Game or Ender's Shadow.