Wonderful!

This is the fourth book in the Ender’s Shadow series – and once again, is a book that can be read as a standalone novel.

This book in many ways continues the story of Ender’s older brother, Peter, attempting to (and getting closer to success) unite the world in peace – with Bean’s and Petra’s help of course. For me, this is also a much more personal story of Bean and Petra.

While the world politics continues in the background, Bean and Petra have found love, and – more amazing still – have decided to have children of their own. For understandable reasons, they opt for in vitro fertilization and end up with nine viable embryos. Bean and Petra immediately implant one and become excited (and terrified) at the prospect of being parents, especially as their child is likely to be a genius in its own right. Unfortunately, they discover soon after implanting the first embryo that their other embryos have been stolen. When no ransom is demanded, they realize the awful truth: Someone has stolen the embryos in the hopes of raising their own small army of indoctrinated geniuses that can be raised to become the new child-warriors the world is demanding. They must get their children back…

As always, Orson Scott Card’s writing is impeccable as is his characterization. And yep, I cried my eyes out at the end. Sigh. Great stuff!

Orson Scott Card concludes his shadow series brilliantly in this novel, which details the search for Bean and Petra’s missing children and the onset of world peace under the Hegemon’s rule. Card takes us into the heart of Ender’s jeesh and the ambition that drives them. At the same time, he makes Peter somewhat more likeable as his true motives emerge.

The novel begins with a Chinese coup led by “Hot Soup,” resulting in him being crowned Emperor. Three key jeesh members now lead countries in rather close proximity, and all have aspersions of growth. Throughout the novel, Graff, Rackham, and Peter all encourage Ender’s army to abandon Earth and colonize other planets, pointing out the fact that if they do not, millions of soldiers will die in the scramble for supremacy.

At the same time, Bean and Petra are searching for the embryos stolen by Achilles and implanted in wombs throughout the world. We get only two glimpses into the mind of the woman who birthed the only unfound child. And, while the world domination comes to an end, the saga of these nonhuman children is left open, which will surely lead to another novel. I’ve found myself speculating just how far into the future space travel will make this confrontation; could it, perhaps, involve the great Ender himself? I am also interested in seeing what happens to Bean’s “alien” offspring. In short, as soon as the next novel comes out, Card has at least one buyer.

The story is fast paced and detailed. I love the fact that the solution to the problem of the Buggers has led to another problem on Earth. In short, the Battle School children, bred for a hunger to lead and an ambition for power, return to their homes and destabilize the world. But I also love the fact that the intelligence and ability to reason ultimately leads them all to the same conclusion.

Fast paced, powerful, and with a great story to tell, Shadow of the Giant keeps readers locked to its pages. The focus here is more on overall objectives and less on individual battles. Card has told yet another masterful tale. This story wraps up the life of the Hegemon, Peter Wiggin, and has humanized him. I have to wonder if it was the same story Ender might have written…but Ender’s tale was far shorter, as I recall. Either way, I look forward to learning what happens to Bean and his children, and whether young Achilles is ever found.

Shadow of the Giant is definitely my least favorite of the Shadow Series. I hate the way it ends. it is not badly written; I just hate the Bean/Petra resolution that Card decides on. The unification of the world under Peter Wiggin works for me. Sending the members of Ender's Jeesh to space makes sense. I am glad Virlomi comes to her senses. STILL I hate what happens to Bean and Petra.

Nevertheless, it is a well thought out conclusion to the series.

Glad this was better than the last one. Still said "make babies" too much but had some more of the creativity that I like from him. Hot take: Volescu made the Descolada.

Ha sido un poco decepcionante el final de esta saga o al menos de este arco argumental. Comenzó siendo muy prometedora con un personaje principal mucho más atractivo que Ender y la trama al estilo Risk donde los alumnos de la Escuela de Batalla gobernaban los distintos países de la Tierra me parecía perfecta. Pero tanto en el anterior como en este Scott Card toma unas decisiones que no me parecen las correctas y baja bastante el nivel. A los dos personajes femeninos más importantes los rebaja a meros floreros o toman decisiones sin sentido sin ningún motivo, a Bean le pone como secundario y todos los juegos de guerra que comentaba antes entre los países simplemente se esbozan o se resumen.

El final de Bean lo deja muy en el aire por si más adelante quiere retomarlo imagino, creo que hay más entregas y no sé si vuelve a aparecer pero no se merecía ese final.

Me parece mucho mejor saga la de Ender, más madura y enfocada a un público más adulto.

The ending of this book was actually very sweet, and I am here for Petra and Peter as a couple, which I wanted for a while and definitely understand in a way I never understood Bean and Petra. But overall, this part of the story still lacked the really compelling plot that I wanted. It was a very long conclusion. And the fact that there's some random woman out in space with a genetically altered baby whose real identity she doesn't know and who is going to needlessly suffer because of the ignorance of his mother feels like an unfair and unnecessary loose end.

Shadow of the Giant was much better than Shadow Puppets, but still not close to the first two books of the series. The basic plot of the last three books has been Battle School grads treating the world as their own personal game of Risk, which is so cool. But for whatever reason, some of the subplots just aren’t drawing me in as much, and some of the characters are getting really annoying. The Bean and Petra relationship felt kind of forced a few books ago, but just as I was starting to get used to it she tells Dink Meeker of all people that she’s still in love with him in an email, but not as much as Bean. Then after Bean goes off world to find a cure for his gigantism, she falls in love with Peter almost instantly, which is just ridiculous. And then at the end she says she loved him but never stopped loving Bean either, and I can’t keep up with all of it. There was Alai marrying Virlomi for reasons and then leaving in the night like three chapters later because he realized she’s actually crazy. Moral of the story, I don’t need the romantic subplots in this story (not that I don’t love them in other stories, because I really do) just give me the military genius of the greatest minds this world has to offer.

I did not enjoy this book.

Wraps up so many things from so many other books, and so beautifully done. The moment I learned what volescu was doing I couldn't stop reading and it didn't let up. I didn't know if I was going to read shadows in flight after this but now I have no choice. Loved all the character development. Just overall great book.

I couldn't be happier with how this series ended.

I feel like this book was just OSC showing off. It was as if he were attempting to write a book to show other authors how to develop characters. OSC took characters that the reader previously held in high regard and easily made them a villain as well as took previously, unlikeable characters and turned them to into charismatic heroes. It was a real treat to see these kids grow up and find out what happens to every story line.

While I don't want to give anything away, the end of this book is basically a dream for any fan of the series. Ever since I started the Shadow series, I've wanted one conversation to happen, and OSC does not fail in the powerful and moving dialogue which closes the final chapter of this series.

I'm a little torn about having Ender in Exile to follow up this book as I feel like I don't need anything else from these characters...however, as I said above, I feel like I've seen all these kids grow up and thus, I want to know as much as I can about their lives. I certainly do not expect EiE to compare to this final installment, but I am excited about it, nevertheless

I read a lot of the negative reviews for Shadow of the Giant because about halfway through I kept thinking, "Am I the only one that thinks this is pretty much garbage?"
Card built his Ender empire both through Ender Wiggin and Bean/Julian Delficki, but in my opinion starting with Shadow of the Hegemon slowly flushes his universe and characters down the toilet. I was really impressed with Ender's Game even though I got tired of hearing, "Fart knockers" all the time. Ender's Shadow is the book that really made me a fan of Card's writing. The thing that killed it was how in Shadow of the Hegemon through Shadow of the Giant, Card began to interject his useless ideology into his writing. It felt like he was policing himself and not letting his full potential come out. I know that Card is Mormon, so I am not sure (but I heavily suspect) that one of his church leaders warned him that he was treading in dangerous waters with all the violence and profanity in his books. He mentions this in his afterward in one of his audiobooks. Honestly, there really isn't any violence or profanity. I think that the conversation spooked him and he began to police himself in his writing and began to interject his beliefs into his writing. The character that I have come to loathe is Teresa Wiggin and all her babies, babies, babies talk – then with Petra talking about the same thing. I feel like he went down an unrealistic path with pretty much everything. Why didn't he just let Anton be a homosexual? Again, it mind-boggled me that he put things in there that could have been left well-enough alone. I also hated the ending. I thought Bean came off as a whiner. Card tried to write him as some sort of altruistic individual, but from me, he came off and the ultimate "woe is me" person. I feel like this could have been one of the greatest novel series ever with just a few tweakings. It would have been nice to have it end on a happy note or at least a bittersweet one, but it was almost a joke.
The one thing Card has taught me as a reader and an author is to never censor yourself; never be afraid to allow the characters to be who they were meant to be. If the characters swear – let them swear 0r at least be a good enough writer to creatively pass it off in a way that doesn't come off as fake. That is why Stephen King is my favorite author. In his writing book "On Writing," he talks about how he never censors himself, and he doesn't let other people including publishers censor him either. I didn't understand the full power of what that means until I read Card's Ender series. It is such a letdown to realize that an author has let other people's opinions and beliefs get to him in his writing. It is sad, because Orson Scott Card is a damn good writer and he basically sells himself out to himself and the people that he fears, which is pretty unfortunate. The one good thing to come out of this is that I promise that I will never do that. I have no desire to be an Orson Scott Card. This will be the last Card novel that I will read for a long time.

This was an almost completely satisfying conclusion for the Shadow series. I just wish that girl, Randi, would have gotten smacked around a bit.

But I really enjoyed that this addition to the series had more of the war games than the last. Shadow of the Hegemon and Shadow of the Giant are my favourites of the Shadow series for that reason. I also enjoyed having some sort of conclusion for all of the other characters, such as Alai. Especially Peter. I really enjoyed his character. Being a very different kind of brilliance from the other characters really made him stand out. And of course his accomplishments were the most impressive. This book made me cry alot, which is a good thing. Even when it was because of sadness it was done well, otherwise I wouldnt cry, I would just be frustrated. I was left feeling very satisfied.