The other day during my lunchbreak I stopped by the ABC in The Hague and even though I had stuff to read in my bagpack (Jacqueline Carey’s Banewreaker, which is a decent read) I finally caved in and did what I’ve been avoiding like the plague for the past… I don’t know, year and a half? I bought Orson Scott Card’s Shadow of the Giant, the last installment in what they call the side-quel to the Ender Saga.

You will find a VERY LENGTHY essay/review on this book and basically my whole reading experience on this book saga under the Read More link.

Now, when I read Ender’s Game originally, it was in the dutch translation (‘Ender wint’, it is called) I was fifteen years old and it was because Olli told me I’d really enjoy it. I did. From the first sentence on, even, it was as if a bomb hit. The book completely gripped me by the throat. I fell head over heels in love with Ender and Valentine, and was so engrossed in Ender’s turmoil that I completely didn’t see coming what I should have. I’ve read the book many times since and it’s never lost any of its power. Perhaps it even tops my list of best books of all time. The dialogue is cutting, the characters are crystal clear, and Card understood people with such remarkable empathy. When the big revelation came, I literally nearly choked on it. I remember misty eyes because of it.

So in short, Enders Game is one of the best pieces of fiction that is out there, in my not so very humble opinion. I read the rest of the Ender saga right afterwards, naturally. The rest was great as well, but not so jarring as the first book had been – it was just different, because the setting was so completely different and the characters had grown up. It had some interesting philosophies in there (the whole philote thing still makes me feel all warm inside) and some great character interaction and concepts. The last book, Children of the Mind made me cry again, because of how the characters could inflict so much pain upon one another with scathing words (it’s a lesson I took to heart as a writer. Think my own Accidents Happen here). And later, the resolution of the conflict was well done and poetic, or so I thought. A good ending to the story.

And then it was announced that there would be a side-story to Enders Game, written from the point of view of Bean, who actually was a minor character during the events in the first book. The book was called Ender’s Shadow and dealt with largely the same events during the Second Bugger War. I thought it would be interesting, and it would allow me to spend some quality time with Ender again, so of course I picked it up. While the book was great and offered some very interesting insights in the story, I’ve never much liked Bean. He always was too rational for me, and an arrogant little twit to boot. What really jarred me sometimes was how he was smarter than Ender. That he was the one who understood everything, saw everything. While I understood that they fed Ender the wrong information and that they told him they didn’t have a backup, and that of COURSE there was a plan B, it annoyed me that Bean was the one who figured things out and he was somehow, according to Card, the better one. He was just not as loved. It always grated a little, to me. Perhaps it was a bit of jealousy, could be. But I’ve always doted on the Wiggin kids. Anyway, I thought it was a damn good book, and was anxious to pick up the second. Because, what happened when the battleschool kids all returned to earth?

This series, the “Shadow” series, which dealt with Bean, answered that question. It started off in Shadow of the Hegemon and it had two very important things that made me enthusiastic about this series. This series had Petra Arkanian, which I always thought was kickass and continued to be so during book 2, and Peter Wiggin, Ender’s older brother who would take over the world.
The political machinations were interesting, and the premise of the plot was a bit like a real live Risk game that was played between the Battleschool graduates. The enmity between Achilles and Bean was fun, too. I kind of liked Achilles as a villain, although his rise to power was a bit unbelievable.

And then Shadow Puppets came about, and that was a disappointment, to say it lightly. Oh, we still had the Risk game and some great scenes with Peter Wiggin (who made a HORRIBLE mistake which was totally not in line with his character, I thought) – but wtf happened to Petra?!
I was never much of a Bean/Petra shipper, I have to admit. I never thought they had much chemistry to begin with and that they were placed together for plot convenience rather than character will, but hey.
But then it happened. You see, the premise of Bean is that he has this genetic disorder (which also makes him so freaking smart) and that he is dying. And suddenly, Petra – who married him at the end of book 2 at age fucking sixteen or something, wants his children before he dies. And only that motivates her through book 3. Like that, out of nothing, she turns into a whiney bitch who only cares about her babies (which are still IVF-made embryo’s at this point). Never mind that Achilles does a coup, that half the world is burning, but she wants her embryo’s.

Where is the awesome Petra that totally outsmarted her psychologist kidnapper and managed to break free by shit-talking and ass-kicking? Card totally twisted her in some sort of uber-mother who only lived for her children. That was my biggest disappointment, and the whole premise of this book didn’t interest me all that much either. First Peter messes up, then Achilles rises to power in unbelievable fashion, he torments Bean and Petra with the kidnapping of embryo’s – and Achilles is killed. Exit book 3, enter a very disillusioned Lannie. We are talking summer 2002 here, by the way.

So when Book 4, Shadow of the Giant was released, you can imagine why I waited for a year and a half before I dared to pick it up. I just finished the book. It was an easy read, I breezed through it like I always do with Card’s books. And thankfully, the book is better than Shadow Puppets.
The political stuff is cool to read, once again. And Peter’s struggle to keep the world together before the Battle School graduates nuke the snot out of one another is nice once again.
I loved the ending; which had the ansible conversation between Ender and Peter that I always had wondered about. They parted on good terms, but I’ve always wondered what they’d said. I also liked the limelight there was for the rest of Enders jeesh, the way Bean’s genetic disorder was handled in the end (although there’s still an opening for a possible sequel. Please mr Card… don’t go there), and how Petra ended up eventually.

But the whole thing about having babies, and the NEED everyone feels to reproduce – that gives me a bad taste about the whole series. The inklings of it where there in Children of the Mind already, but they were acceptable. Over here, Card’s mormon ideologies were presented with the subtlety of a sledgehammer.And as someone who does not feel the need to reproduce anytime soon and very likely not at all EVER, it gets on my nerves.

It seems like all the cool characters turn into some sort of breeding factory at some point, and I wonder why Card thought it was necessary.  It’s such a damn shame of two perfectly fine characters (most importantly Petra, but also Bean) – and a fine storyline.

So in the end the Shadow-saga was a disappointment… and I’ll try to ignore the fact that there ever were two books after Shadow of the Hegemon. I’ll just add a few of the facts that the series has given me (regarding the fate of the characters) as a given to what I already knew from the Ender-saga, and leave it at that.

Filed under: Books