Books — hermiene.net

Three brilliant children, Ender, Peter, and Valentine Wiggin, all rise to excellence and help the human race in their own ways. The book primarily follows Ender as he advances to become a great military leader and strategist. It is set against the backdrop of a major inter-stellar war with the Buggers, a hive-mind entity of insect-like beings, who, humanity believes, wish to wipe them all out.

The military leaders in the International Fleet (I.F.) monitor children and pick out exceedingly bright ones to go to Battle School to become commanders, and Ender is picked out after he successfully defends himself against a school bully, determined to beat him down so badly that neither he (nor his entourage) would dare mess with him again. He accepts and is shipped to the Battle School, where he rises through the ranks quickly and starts winning more and more mock battles.

The book follows a family on the Catholic colony planet Lusitania and centers around the xenologers who find an intelligent porcine alien race there which does some (to them) bizarre things. In a manner that I won't spoil, Ender is entwined into the story.

I like Speaker for the dead better than Ender's Game. There are more major characters, which is good, but also many more minor characters, which I didn't like. But the porcine alien race, which the inhabitants of Lusitania call pequeninos, were interesting enough to save the book for me. I also think Ender is an excellent speaker, and he's a likeable character.

Ender's Shadow follows Bean, a friend of Ender's in Battle School, as he grows up on the harsh streets of Rotterdam, gets accepted by the I.F., and is taken to Battle School. From there it's basically another view of Card's first book in the Ender series, Ender's Game.

Card is very good at drama and dialog, and I think this book showcases that very well. I also like the characters he develops very much. A good read.

The novel follows Bean, Petra, Achilles, Peter, and Suriyawong and the political developments on Earth after the Formics are defeated.

The story of Ender's jeesh (comrades) is further elaborated, taking place entirely on Earth.

I hesitate a little to classify this as science fiction, because it feels more like a political thriller. It was a good read, but in the end I was left disappointed. I'm no Card fan, but if you are, perhaps you'll get something more out of it.