Shadow of the Giant

About this book

Card s latest installment in his Shadow subseries (Ender s Shadow, etc.), which parallels the overarching series that began with Ender s Game (1985), does a superlative job of dramatically portraying the maturing process of child into adult. The imminent death of Bean, a superhuman 20-something Battle School graduate who suffers from uncontrolled growth due to a genetic disorder, leaves little time for Peter the Hegemon, Ender s older brother, to set up a single world government and for Bean and his wife and former classmate, Petra, to reclaim all their stolen children. When Card s focus strays from his characters into pure politics, the story loses power, but it s recharged as soon as he returns to the well-drawn interactions among Bean s Battle School classmates whose decisions will determine Earth s fate. They were trained to fight a (literally) single-minded alien enemy, but that war is over. Now, as young adults in command of human armies pitted against each other in messy conflicts with no clear solutions, Bean s old cohorts must help create a peaceful future for Earth after they re gone. Card makes the important point that there s always more than one side to every issue. Fans will marvel at how subtly he has prepared for the clever resolution.