Search advanced search
 
Books
Search:
x dismiss this message

Did you know you can edit this page?

Ender's Shadow
  • Rated 0 stars
Read Ender's Shadow
Ender's Shadow: Book 1

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

by Orson Scott Card (Author) (edit contributors)

Share this book on:
see page history

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 from the perspective of one of Ender's teammates.

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... 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 from the perspective of one of Ender's teammates.

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 in hopes of becoming a Commander to defeat the "Buggers"
  • Andrew "Ender" Wiggin: Believed by the Teachers of Battle School he may be "the" Commander to defeat the "Buggers". Bean is often described as being like Ender.
  • Poke: The girl whose crew Bean joins in Rotterdam.
  • Seargant: A young boy of Rotterdam in the crew with Bean. Poke's second in command.
  • Achilles: A bully on the streets of Rotterdam. Suffers from a gimpy leg.
  • Ulysses: A bully of Rotterdam.
  • Helga Braun: Soup kitchen worker in Rotterdam.
  • Sister Carlotta: A Catholic nun who acts as a Battle School recruiter.
  • Pablo de Noches: The Janitor who found Bean as an infant hiding in a toilet from Dr Volescu's staff who would have killed Bean.
  • Dr. Volescu: Geneticist who worked in Rotterdam.
  • Anton: A Geneticist.
  • Colonel Hyrum Graff: The Commander of Battle School.
  • Major Anderson: One of Colonel Graff's superiors.
  • Captain Dap: Teacher at Battle School
  • Captain Uphanad: Teacher at Battle School.
  • Captain Dimak: One of the teachers at Battle School. The Teacher to accompany Bean's Launch group to Battle School.
  • Mazer Rackham: The hero of the Second Bugger Invasion. Half-Maori New Zealander.
  • Bernard: A launchy who was made legendary for having been the first person to bully Ender Wiggin.
  • Nero Boulanger: A member of Bean's Launch Group.
  • Nikolai Delphiki: A member of Bean's Launch Group also assigned to Dragon Army. Bean's friend. Greek.
  • Vlad: A Toon Leader of Dragon Army.
  • Dumper: A Toon Leader of Dragon Army.
  • Fly Molo: A Toon Leader of Dragon Army.
  • Hot Soup: A member of Dragon Army.
  • Crazy Tom: A Toon leader of Dragon Army and a friend of Ender Wiggin. Australian
  • Ducheval: A member of Dragon Army known as Shovel because the name Ducheval sounds like Shovel.
  • Bonzo Madrid: The Commander of Salamander Army at Battle School and a bully. Spanish.
  • Petra Arkanian: A sharpshooter, originally in Bonzo's Salamander Army later given Command of Phoenix Army. A close friend of Ender Wiggin. Armenian.
  • Dink Meeker: Commander in Battle School.
  • Carn Carby: The Commander of Rabbit Army.
  • Itú: Member of Rabbit Army.
  • Ambul: Member of Rabbit Army.
  • William Bee: Toon leader of Rabbit Army.
  • Alai: A friend of Ender Wiggin. Muslim.
  • Shen: A friend of Ender Wiggin. They were members of the same launch group. Japanese.
  • Demosthenes: Pseudonym used by a political commentator on Earth.
  • Locke: Pseudonym used by a political commentator on Earth.
  • Julian Delphiki: Nikolai Delphiki's father. Greek.
  • Elena: Nikolai Delphiki's mother. Greek.
  • Peter Wiggin: The elder brother of Valentine and Ender Wiggin.
  • Valentine Wiggin: The elder sister of Ender Wiggin and the younger sister of Peter Wiggin.
  • Dr. Vivian Delamar: Doctor on earth who corrected the leg of Achilles.
  • Ender Wiggin: Add a description of this character.
  • Colonel Graff
  • Cam Carby
  • Cariotta
Show all 46 characters
Popular Covers

Loading covers…

Choose your book’s cover

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

  • Rotterdam: A city in the Netherlands, where Bean comes from.
  • Earth: Home planet of the human race.
  • Battle School: A space station orbiting Earth built to train and mold young children into Commanders of the IF.
  • Tactical & Command School: Secret Location. The next step above Battle School for successful recruits.
  • Eros: Secret Location.

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.
  • merda: Swear word essentially meaning crap.
  • toon: Short for Platoon.

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 6 in Ender's Shadow. (standard series)

Followed by Shadow of the Hegemon.

This is book 5 of 15 in Enderverse. (universe)

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

Awards edit see section history

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

We’re hiding the errata, movie connections, books that influenced this book, books influenced by this book, books that cite this book and books cited by this book sections. If you would like to add content to them, you must first make them visible.

Alex Schiffer

You were just viewing this book on Alex Schiffer’s shelf.

 

© 2006-2013 Shelfari | Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Copyright Policy

Close