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Ender's Shadow
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Ender's Shadow: Book 1

Ender's Shadow (1999) (edit title/settings)

by Orson Scott Card (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

The human race is at War with the “Buggers”, an insect-like alien race. As Earth prepares to defend itself from total destruction at the hands of an inscrutable enemy, all focus is on the development of military geniuses who can fight such a war, and win. The long distances of interstellar... read more

Summary edit see section history

This is the first book of the Shadow Series, and is a parallel story line to Ender's Game.

This is the story of the strangely small, but incredibly intelligent, Bean, who first appeared in Ender's Game. It starts with his early life on the streets of Rotterdam, and the origin of his... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

This is the first book of the Shadow Series, and is a parallel story line to Ender's Game.

This is the story of the strangely small, but incredibly intelligent, Bean, who first appeared in Ender's Game. It starts with his early life on the streets of Rotterdam, and the origin of his name. While developing a system to ensure he and a gang of other street children have food, Bean makes an enemy of an older boy, a bully named Achilles. With the help of a nun named Sister Carlotta, Bean takes the entrance exam for Battle School, and escapes from Achilles. After he passes through the mandatory harassment period for launchies, however, he finds that the International Fleet has also brought Achilles to Battle School, despite Sister Carlotta's recommendations. Bean, along with the other members of Ender's Army, then fight two enemies: Achilles, and the IF officers, who seem bent on driving everyone (but especially Ender) to insanity with their tests.

Characters edit see section history

  • Bean: The main character. He is a small but highly intelligent boy living in the streets of Rotterdam. He is eventually sent to Battle School.
  • Andrew "Ender" Wiggin: Commander of the Dragon Army at Battle School. Bean cannot tell how Ender feels about him.
  • Achilles: A bully on the streets of Rotterdam.
  • Colonel Hyrum Graff: The Commander of Battle School.
  • Nikolai Delphiki: One of the first friends Bean makes at Battle School.
  • Sister Carlotta: A Catholic nun who acts as a Battle School recruiter.
  • Dimak: One of the teachers at Battle School.
  • Bonzo Madrid: Pronounced "Bone-zoh." His real name is Tomas Benedito Bonito de Madrid y Valencia. The Commander of Salamander Army at Battle School and a bully.
  • Petra Arkanian: A sharpshooter, originally in Bonzo's Salamander Army.
  • Crazy Tom: One of Ender's toon leaders. Originally from Australia.
  • Major Anderson: One of Colonel Graff's superiors.
  • Mazer Rackham: The hero of the Second Bugger Invasion.
  • Poke: The girl whose gang Bean joins in Rotterdam.
  • Carn Carby: The Commander of Rabbit Army.
Show all 14 characters
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Quotes edit see section history

  • “Remember, the enemy's gate is down.”
    Bean
  • “"I’m not stupid!” In Bean’s experience, that was a sentence never uttered except to prove its own inaccuracy.”
  • “"In my view, suicide is not really the wish for life to end.” “What is it, then?” “It is the only way a powerless person can find to make everybody else look away from his shame. The wish is not to die, but to hide.””
  • “"An eye for an eye? How Christian of you.” “Unbelievers always want other people to act like Christians.””
  • “You can’t rule out the impossible, because you never know which of your assumptions about what was possible might turn out, in the real universe, to be false.”
    Bean (thinking)
  • “Only a fool closes the door when the wolf is already inside the barn.”
    Sister Carlotta
  • “Only a fool closes the door when the wolf is already inside the barn.”
    Sister Carlotta
  • “It is one thing to train soldiers and quite another to wear them out.”
    Bean
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • If you did not in your own mind distinguish between useful and erroneous information, then you were not learning at all, you were merely replacing ignorance with false belief, which was no improvement.
    Highlighted by 173 Kindle customers
  • One mind can think only of its own questions; it rarely surprises itself.
    Highlighted by 151 Kindle customers
  • Don’t be one of the scurrying, struggling ants. Be the shoe.
    Highlighted by 128 Kindle customers
  • The result was that you ended up with a command structure that was top-heavy with guys who looked good in uniform and talked right and did well enough not to embarrass themselves, while the really good ones quietly did all the serious work and bailed out their superiors and got blamed for errors they had advised against until they eventually got out.
    Highlighted by 124 Kindle customers
  • I’m not stupid!” In Bean’s experience, that was a sentence never uttered except to prove its own inaccuracy.
    Highlighted by 111 Kindle customers
  • He pretended all this time that humans were rational beings, when we are really the most terrible monsters these poor aliens could ever have conceived of in their nightmares.
    Highlighted by 91 Kindle customers
  • “In my view, suicide is not really the wish for life to end.” “What is it, then?” “It is the only way a powerless person can find to make everybody else look away from his shame. The wish is not to die, but to hide.”
    Highlighted by 91 Kindle customers
  • “Do you know why Satan is so angry all the time? Because whenever he works a particularly clever bit of mischief, God uses it to serve his own righteous purposes.”
    Highlighted by 89 Kindle customers
  • Two trees—knowledge and life. You eat of the tree of knowledge, and you will surely die. You eat of the tree of life, and you remain a child in the garden forever, undying.”
    Highlighted by 85 Kindle customers
  • “When you’re as gifted as Bean, accurate self-assessment looks like vanity to other people.”
    Highlighted by 79 Kindle customers
Show all 18 quotes from this book

Setting & Locations edit see section history

Organizations edit see section history

  • International Fleet: An international navy created as a coalition among many nations to protect Earth (from the buggers and other threats).
  • Hegemon: Leader of the world below, as the International Fleet is the leader of the world off-planet, with as much power as other nations will concede.

First Sentence edit see section history

"You think you've found somebody, so suddenly my program gets the ax?"

Table of Contents edit see section history

Foreword

Part I: Urchin
1. Poke
2. Kitchen
3. Payback
4. Memories

Part II: Launchy
5. Ready or Not
6. Ender's Shadow
7. Exploration
8. Good Student

Part III: Scholar
9. Garden of Sofia
10. Sneaky
11. Daddy
12. Roster

Part IV: Soldier
13. Dragon Army
14. Brothers
15. Courage
16. Companion

Part V: Leader
17. Deadline
18. Friend
19. Rebel
20. Trial and Error

Part VI: Victor
21. Guesswork
22. Reunion
23. Ender's Game
24. Homecoming

Acknowledgments

Glossary edit see section history

  • hegemony: 1. Leadership or predominant influence exercised by one nation over others, as in a confederation. 2. Aggression or expansionism by large nations in an effort to achieve world domination.
  • jeesh: A term for a group of friends/close supporters/associates. This is only used in association with Ender.
  • launchies: The new arrivals to Battle School. The equivalent of being "green" soldiers - they've just come off the launch.
  • Buggers/Formics: A sentient species of aliens. "Buggers" might be considered a politically incorrect term, but this is the term by which they are most often called.

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

  • For the good of humanity: The IF administration occasionally wonders if it is exploiting the children at Battle School, but justifies it "for the good of humanity".
  • War: Exemplified by: 1) Bean's life on the streets of Rotterdam, 2) life in Battle School, and 3) the struggled of humanity against the Formics.

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 1 of 5 in Ender's Shadow. (standard series)

Followed by Shadow of the Hegemon.

This is book 5 of 14 in Enderverse. (universe)

Preceded by Children of the Mind, and followed by Shadow of the Hegemon.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Orson Scott Card (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Country: USA
Publication Date: 1999
ISBN: 031286860X
Page Count: 379

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PS3553.A655 E58 1999
  • Dewey: 813.54

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Young Adults

This is a little dark in comparison to Ender's Game, with descriptions of illegal genetic labs and the grim realities of life in the streets of a major city.

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • Ender's Game
  • Speaker for the Dead
  • Shadow Puppets

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history

   
  • Ender's Game

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