Ender's Shadow
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| Ender's Shadow | |
 Front cover. |
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| Author | Orson Scott Card |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Ender's Game series |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Tom Doherty Associates, LLC |
| Publication date | 1999 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| Pages | 480 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-312-86860-X |
| Followed by | Shadow of the Hegemon |
Ender's Shadow (1999) is a parallel science fiction novel by Orson Scott Card with a plot covering some of the events in Ender's Game from the point of view of a supporting character named Bean. This book was originally titled "Urchin", prior to release.
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[edit] Plot summary
Bean, the main character in the book, is an orphan living in the hellish streets of a future (roughly 2170 A.D.) Rotterdam, after escaping as an infant from an illegal genetic engineering laboratory. Being hyper-intelligent but extremely young, Bean's experiences all center around his need for food. He joins a small gang of children led by Poke and sets up a system in which they can all receive nourishment at a local soup kitchen. His incredible mind, creativity, and determination bring him to the attention of Sister Carlotta, a nun recruiting children to fight a war against the Buggers. At the training facility, Battle School, Bean meets Ender Wiggin, upon whom the fate of the world has been rested. From hacking through the system's computers, to drafting Ender's famous Dragon Army, Bean becomes Ender's friend.
He also makes friends with an older boy named Nikolai Delphiki who is drawn to Bean because of their similar looks. It is soon discovered, through Sister Carlotta's research, that the two boys are actually genetic twins, except for Bean's genetic enhancements. Back in the lab, the scientist Volescu had turned Anton's Key, which means Bean's body will never stop growing - including his brain - until a premature death between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five. Sister Carlotta manages to ensure that Bean will get to live with Nikolai and his parents after the war. Important characters that will probably be revealed are Petra, and Peter Wiggin, though Valentine Wiggin is only Demosthenes, the critic writer of the Warsaw Pact. Locke also is Peter Wiggin, the more sophisticated writer. Bean has also sworn to meet Peter Wiggin (a.k.a Locke), who kept Ender away from earth. Bean silently promises that if Peter Wiggin did so that he could take over, Bean would destroy him. Locke will later become Hegemon of Earth.
This story takes the reader through Bean's experiences in Battle School and shows how Bean, though apparently peripheral in Ender's Game, is much more important to the fate of Earth than he originally seemed. In addition, the book depicts the first of Bean's encounters with Achilles, a prominent antagonist in the following books. At the very end of the story, Ender leaves on a colonization ship and never returns to Earth as part of a treaty. (After the war with the buggers, there is a war between several nations on earth. In the Locke Proposal, Peter writes terms for a treaty, including that Ender will never be allowed on earth, as everyone fears he will become a general and other nations can use him to take over the world.)
Ender's Shadow is the first of a series that includes Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, and Shadow of the Giant.
[edit] Translations
Chinese: "安德的影子" ("Ender's Shadow").
Czech: "Enderův stín" ("Ender's Shadow").
Hebrew: "הצל של אנדר" ("Ender's Shadow").
Dutch: "ender's schaduw" ("Ender's Shadow").
Polish: "Cień Endera" ("Ender's Shadow").
[edit] See also
- List of characters in the Ender's Game series
- Concepts in the Ender's Game series
- List of works by Orson Scott Card
[edit] External links
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