Shadow of the Giant : Orson Scott Card
On his good days Orson Scott Card is one of the best science fiction authors out there - interesting thoughtful stories and realistic characters with believable motives and flaws. Even on his bad days his work is better than most of the science fiction out there.
Ender’s Game has to be one of the classic science fiction works and I was very happy to see OSC write more books in the same universe. After Ender’s Game OSC wrote 3 more books following Ender Wiggan after the Bugger War when he is no longer remembered as a hero but instead the man responsible for the death of an entire species (this is not entirely fair since Ender was unaware at the time that he was doing anything more than participating in a strategy game).
The Shadow Saga follows on from Ender’s Game but does not feature Ender at all, instead OSC explores what happens to some of the other major characters, particularly "Bean" the boy genius instrumental in Ender’s victory over the buggers. I have to say that I prefer the books that feature Ender as some parts of the Shadow series do drag a little and do tend to harp on about the amazing tactical skills of the Battle School graduates (Book 3: Shadow Puppets was one of the least impressive IMO).
OSC has set himself a challenge since he has to describe the campaigns fought by military geniuses while not (presumably) being one himself.
This book wraps up most of the loose ends but not all which makes me wonder if there are more books on the way even though this book appears to be the last in the Shadow saga.
Worth reading if you enjoyed the Ender books.
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What happens to Bean?
Hey there I just finished reading all of the the books in the "Ender's Universe" (both the Ender's side and the parallel ones) But I got a question: What happens to Bean after Shadow of the Giant? He drifts through space and dies later leaving behind his children -on an endless but "short"- voyage for their entire life?
I wondered about that too. I
I wondered about that too. I remember that in Xenocide there was a planet, Path, inhabited by people with unusually high IQ. I did wonder if the unusual population of that planet was due to Bean's children having arrived there but on second thoughts it might be the planet where Bean's missing child was taken (we know the woman caring for him left on a colony ship).
So we have at least 2 loose ends. Apparently OSC is planning at least tewo more books in this universe : "Ender in Exile" which will be a prequel to "Speaker for the Dead" and another "Shadows in flight" which will link the shadow series to the Ender series. I guess all will be revealed in time...
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