Published in January of 2012, Shadows in Flight tells the story of Bean and his kids as they are in at near light speed waiting for a cure to their condition. Hundreds of years have passed on Earth and they have been all but forgotten.
I liked this one better than the last. It seemed to wrap things up a bit better and was pretty interesting.
If you are this far into the series, it was worth the read.
Published in March of 2005, Shadow of the Giant is the fourth book in the “Shadow” series by Orson Scott Card. These books continue and deepen the story found in the “Ender’s Game” series.
This book finds Bean as an ever growing giant and watches the critical stages of Peter as he is trying to unite earth and end war forever. However, the question keeps coming up, “What to do with the Battle-school graduates?” They just keep stirring up trouble.
This book closed up a bunch of gaps and brought some good closure to the series. There is another book so I will read it but this would have been a good stopping place for me.
Pretty good. Worth the time.
Published in August of 2002, Shadow Puppets is the third book in the Orson Scott Card’s Shadow Series. This installment follows Bean and Petra through their marriage and sees the resolution of their conflict with Achilles.
Not a bad book but again it seems to give so much power to Achilles were it doesn’t seem to make much sense. Peter Wiggin continues to be more understandable and we see continued redemption of the Wiggin parents. All made the characters more human and therefore more likeable. Well done!
Good book
Published in December of 2000, Shadow of the Hegemon is the second book in Orson Scott Card’s Shadow series. While we know the Hegemon will be Peter Wiggin (older and more aggressive brother of Ender Wiggin) the book primarily follows Bean and Petra through their lives after the great battle of Ender’s Game. It raises the specter of war on Earth after we ran out of others to fight.
While it made sense the nation-states would fall back into war, I was surprised the main villain turned out to be Achilles who grew up on the streets with Bean. I just didn’t see him as that much of a character. Peter Wiggin becomes more reasonable now that he is overmatched and knows it. Also, we finally see the Wiggin parents weren’t quite the 2-dimensional characters they were made out to be.
Not a bad read
Published in August of 1996, Children of the Mind is the final book in the Ender’s Game series. It finishes the tale of Ender Wiggin and shows what happened to the 4 sentient life forms they knew about. Is there another?
It was well written and I enjoyed the experience. Some of the ideas presented were one’s I hadn’t really thought about before (e.g. communicating via ingestion). All of which is fun enough. However, there was something about this book that was tugging at me and I haven’t been able to really put a finger on it. I don’t believe I will read it again though I will likely read Ender’s Game a few more time as least. Perhaps I will revisit this at another time.
On the fence. It was worth closing out the series but it left me wanting.
Originally published in 2018, the book had a huge bump by Oprah endorsing it for her book club in Jan 2020. It is the story of a mother and her son fleeing from the cartels in Mexico to seek refuge in America.
Pure crap. I didn’t like the book at all. The story does move you forward and keeps you wondering what comes next until you stop and think about what stereotypical drivel you are reading. It is obviously a bleeding-heart dig at the situation at the border and was written during the Trump administration. (I doubt it would be as popular if released today.) The characters are overblown and they try so hard to make them relatable. However, it is so over the top, I just couldn’t buy into it.
My mother-in-law is reading it for her book club so I decided to read it. I didn’t know what it was or what it was about when I picked it up. It was extremely validating to see all the controversy about it and how many others shared my thoughts. I particularly enjoyed watching Oprah try to back-peddle and saw how it blew up in everyone’s face.
Pure crap. Don’t even bother with it.
Tales as old as time… The Iliad, also known as the “Song of Ilium”, is an epic poem traditionally attributed to Homer in the 8th century BC. However, all of it is debatable. What isn’t debatable is it tells the story of the Trojan War, the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles, the climatic fight between Achilles and Hector, and all the Greed gods causing issues.
My first thought was the translation I had was hilarious in terms of the wording. “Bite the dust,” “hurly- burly,” and other such gems were fun to come across in the Trojan setting. There were several Roman crossovers as well, “Juno” rather than “Hera” and so on. The biggest stars of this book was really Zeus and the rest of the gods. Everything was blamed on them and they were in every detail. They were constantly fighting and picked sides in the conflict.
It was pretty underwhelming to read but so important to Western culture that it is worth the time.
Published in 1992, it is book 3 of the Ender’s Game series and was originally a larger story. However, the second half of Xenocide was split into another book published in 1996. This book brings in the story of another world called “Path” that was originally populated by people from China. However, they become pivotal to the fate of Lustitania and the 100 colonies.
I’m confused about the cover-art as the ship on the cover and the setting it is in doesn’t really come up in the book. Oh well, it was the same with the last book. This was an interesting book. I liked the narration between the hive queen and Rooter. That was a fun literary device to push us to another perspective.
I was an enjoyable read but left me wanting.
Speaker for the Dead is the book following Ender’s Game and, according to the author, the real story he wanted to tell by writing Ender’s Game. Published in 1986, it is the story of another world where there are sentient beings nick named “piggies” who the humans have been studying. Over 3000 years after the events of Ender’s Game, Andrew “Ender” Wiggin is still alive due to the time dilation of light speed travel. Traveling with him is the hive queen who is the last of her kind and wants to establish a new colony. Will this world be the right one for both of them?
I enjoyed the book but not as much as Ender’s Game. After thinking about it, there just isn’t much hope put into the future of humanity. I’d guess I like the optimism of the Star Trek universe over the possible future of ever-increasing factions and biases. Still, it was a good story and I will read the next book.
I’m on the fence with this one. If you are a more casual reader, I would say, skip it. Reading it has committed me to the next book and it may lead me to disappointment.
Published in 2003, The Crystal City is the sixth and final installment of the “Alvin Maker” series. Alvin finds his people and begins the city. He also teams up with Abraham Lincoln who is down on his luck in this version of history.
While I’m happy it is over, it wasn’t an enjoyable end. We finally see what the plow is for and that was pretty anti-climatic. Calvin is still a pain in the rear and there isn’t any resolution there. Alvin is still overpowered… Again, I’m glad the story is wrapped up but it left me wanting.
Not the best.