Ender's Saga Boxed Set: Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon

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Boxed Set contains Mass Market Editions of Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, and Shadow of the Hegemon

Ender's Game
Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards

In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut—young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.

Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.

Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.

Ender's Shadow
Orson Scott Card brings us back to the very beginning of his brilliant Ender Quartet, with a novel that allows us to reenter that world anew.

With all the power of his original creation, Card has created a parallel volume to Ender's Game , a book that expands and compliments the first, enhancing its power, illuminating its events and its powerful conclusion.

The human race is at War with the "Buggers", an insect-like alien race. The first battles went badly, and now as Earth prepares to defend itself against the imminent threat of total destruction at the hands of an inscrutable alien enemy, all focus is on the development and training of military geniuses who can fight such a war, and win.

The long distances of interstellar space have given hope to the defenders of Earth--they have time to train these future commanders up from childhood, forging then into an irresistible force in the high orbital facility called the Battle School.

Andrew "Ender" Wiggin was not the only child in the Battle School; he was just the best of the best. In this new book, card tells the story of another of those precocious generals, the one they called Bean--the one who became Ender's right hand, part of his team, in the final battle against the Buggers.

Bean's past was a battle just to survive. He first appeared on the streets of Rotterdam, a tiny child with a mind leagues beyond anyone else's. He knew he could not survive through strength; he used his tactical genius to gain acceptance into a children's gang, and then to help make that gang a template for success for all the others. He civilized them, and lived to grow older.

Bean's desperate struggle to live, and his success, brought him to the attention of the Battle School's recruiters, those people scouring the planet for leaders, tacticians, and generals to save Earth from the threat of alien invasion. Bean was sent into orbit, to the Battle School. And there he met Ender....

Shadow of the Hegemon
The War is over, won by Ender Wiggin and his team of brilliant child-warriors. The enemy is destroyed, the human race is saved. Ender himself refuses to return to the planet, but his crew has gone home to their families, scattered across the globe. The battle school is no more.

But with the external threat gone, the Earth has become a battlefield once more. The children of the Battle School are more than heroes; they are potential weapons that can bring power to the countries that control them. One by one, all of Ender's Dragon Army are kidnapped. Only Bean escapes; and he turns for help to Ender's brother Peter.

Peter Wiggin, Ender's older brother, has already been manipulating the politics of Earth from behind the scenes. With Bean's help, he will eventually rule the world.

1296 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1,1993

About the author

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Orson Scott Card is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is (as of 2023) the only person to have won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for his novel Ender's Game (1985) and its sequel Speaker for the Dead (1986). A feature film adaptation of Ender's Game, which Card co-produced, was released in 2013. Card also wrote the Locus Fantasy Award-winning series The Tales of Alvin Maker (1987–2003).
Card's fiction often features characters with exceptional gifts who make difficult choices with high stakes. Card has also written political, religious, and social commentary in his columns and other writing; his opposition to homosexuality has provoked public criticism.
Card, who is a great-great-grandson of Brigham Young, was born in Richland, Washington, and grew up in Utah and California. While he was a student at Brigham Young University (BYU), his plays were performed on stage. He served in Brazil as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and headed a community theater for two summers. Card had 27 short stories published between 1978 and 1979, and he won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 1978. He earned a master's degree in English from the University of Utah in 1981 and wrote novels in science fiction, fantasy, non-fiction, and historical fiction genres starting in 1979. Card continued to write prolifically, and he has published over 50 novels and 45 short stories.
Card teaches English at Southern Virginia University; he has written two books on creative writing and serves as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest. He has taught many successful writers at his "literary boot camps". He remains a practicing member of the LDS Church and Mormon fiction writers Stephenie Meyer, Brandon Sanderson, and Dave Wolverton have cited his works as a major influence.

Community Reviews

Rating(4 / 5.0, 100 votes)
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100 reviews All reviews
April 26,2025
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Enders Game by Orson Scott Card is the perfect book for anyone who loves a good science fiction novel dealing with space, aliens, and it is set in the future. In a time when aliens ("buggers") are evident, Earth relies on the protection of leaders to fight these buggers. Children who fit the right criteria are chosen to go into space and start training for a command position to be in the battle fighting buggers.
Ender Wiggin is one of these children. He is chosen to train and study to become the best hope that Earth and its people's has of surviving the bugger war. With one struggle after the next, the reader sees Ender being broken down and tested in ways that are unfair and outrageous. The reader gets to read about Enders training and see if he is the one who will command and win the bugger war.
This is the first book in a series of four books. I am definitely going to read therest of the series. I highly recommend this book and series to everyone. It has also been made into a movie. I am excited to watch the movie and see how it compares to the novel.
April 26,2025
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These are some of my favorite books of all time.
April 26,2025
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excellent series. a little self important with the 2nd book, but still very, very good.
April 26,2025
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As long as you can ignore the ludicrous ages the author gives to these children these books are a fun and original read.
April 26,2025
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Thoroughly enjoyed Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow. Not wanting to put more money in the author's pocket, will be holding off on reading anything else by him.
April 26,2025
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Card has made one of the greatest Sci-Fi books I've had the pleasure of reading. The characters are well thought out, especially Ender (of course that would be the assumption). Ender is likeable, stategic, and surprisingly dangerous, especially after breaking bones of his bullies. The latter of which seems uncharacteristic of a classic bullying situation where rarely the victim exacts physical violence against his tormentor. That was one thing I never really understood, because if Card was trying to portray Ender as a long-time sufferer of bullies, then Ender would /NOT/ have fought back. Other than those small pet-peeves, the book is great and you won't find yourself "just reading words"-- no, you will comprehend it because the story grips you that good.
April 26,2025
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i want to make it clear that although this is a "box set" i read all three books, and would recommend you doing the same. Or at least the first one. they go down hill after that.
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