Shadows in Flight

Many people have complained that the Ender series has gone the way of all series - each entry lesser than the last. However, I think those people look for the wrong things in their fiction. As such, Shadows in Flight has disappointed many - but I found the book incredibly moving, and beautifully written.The Ender series has been marked from the beginning by extreme shifts in tone and subject. The first novel is a Heinlein-esque (though much more philosophical and literary than its famous predecessor) military science fiction young adult novel, followed in succession by an anthro-scifi novel, a philosophical scifi tome, and something that is...really hard to describe (but lovely - Children of the Mind is probably one of my favorite sequels). Card's Shadow series is much more uniform - though still something of a shift from the Dickensian scifi feel of the first parallel novel to the just moments in the future game of Risk that characterize the last three novels of that series. Now that each series has concluded, Card has been wrapping up various ends of both series with linking novels - Ender in Exile ties up several characters and points from both series, and now we have Shadows in Flight, which attempts to further bridge the 3000 year gap between the two (and, happily, develop heavily a concept hinted at in Xenocide and then more substantially in Children of the Mind - and given that the book tying from this one to after Children of the Mind, Shadows Alive, will hopefully grow out of the interplay between these two, I'm extremely excited about both this book and the next).While I thought a bit of excessive "previously on" (though perhaps necessary for the non-Ender/Card-completist, unlike myself) marred the beginning, and there were a few too many references to other works Card is working on in this universe (particularly the Formic Wars series, the 100-year-prequel to the entire metastory of disastrous First Contact), Shadows in Flight delivers exactly what I wanted: a look at the consequences of being a hyper-intelligent family. Not to mention a fitting send off to my favorite character in the universe.Each of the four characters lives sharply in connection to each other and in their own heads. The events which surround and sometimes overtake them play believably, and most importantly, Card manages to examine the central conceit of his famous series - what does it mean to be a child with the reasoning powers greater than most adults. He achieves this by having, for once, an adult who is as brilliant as the children - Bean's struggle to parent his hyperbrilliant offspring are tragic, hilarious, touching, and in the end, limpidly beautiful. Ender, Carlotta, and Sergeant all struggle to find themselves and the right thing to do as they hurtle at near-lightspeed towards an impossible-seeming future - which is cut short by the appearance of a mysterious ship.As various early aspects of the Ender Universe open up with the new Formic Wars comics and novels, this side of the universe is drawing to an end. Fortunately, it appears that Card is being as careful with the resolution and send-offs of his favorite characters as he is with showing the beginnings of others. I sincerely hope that Card is able and willing to finish the final volume (at least chronologically) in the series with Shadows Alive, which I hope unites my two favorite strands of his work - the computer Jane and Bean's children.

Anyone familiar with the Enderverse will feel right at home here. The brilliant children, the stream of consciousness, the desolation and largeness of space are all here, along with plenty of references to Ender himself and Bean.As Orson Scott Card says himself in his afterword, this book was intended to be shorter than a normal novel. As such, complaints about its length should be taken with some salt. Was it too short? Maybe. With the plot kept as is, making it longer would feel stretched, although I would love to see more events.Other's have complained about Bean's death, but I say its in keeping with all other natural deaths in the series, quiet and simple. As such, it fits right in.A couple of complaints:-Many (many) times in the book, Bean or another character will speculate as to what their new species should be called. "Antionites" is always put forward, but then over-ruled by "Legumenotes". Now, I'm ok with the imagery, but what bothers me is its repetition. By the 3rd chapter I was like "OK, we get it! Smart people know that beans are legumes. And Bean is his name. WE GET IT!"-We discover a BIG SECRET that calls into question much of what we learn in Speaker for the Dead about the Hive Queen. Ok, very nice. The problem is that they really don't consider the discover from all angles. They just assume the worst. Aren't these kid supposed to be smart? Shouldn't they consider other viewpoints?-And here's the big one... They travel for between 5 and 6 years at near light speed, right? Well assuming (generously) that they are moving at lightspeed the furthest they could travel would be 5-6 lightyears, and the closest star like ours is Alpha Centauri A, which does not have any earth-like planets! So unless our astronomers are wrong about Alpha Centauri A, Bernard's Star, or Proxima Centauri (of course possible), there aren't any planets within the Herodotus's range! Come on, OSC, how about a wormhole, or some explanation for this!All in all, I find the book engaging as part of the Enderverse, but not anything special on its own. If you consider the saga as a whole, it fits right in, although I can't recommend it as a starting point. To me there is only one.

Being a big Orson Scott Card fan I would have jumped into any new book of his and anything Ender Saga related especially. He seems to be coming out with quite a few new books around the Ender Saga and, although that may not be a bad thing it might just feel like a bit of a cash in, especially with a new movie out next year based on Ender's Game. Much of the reviews for this book were not positive which worried me just slightly and much of the comments where if this is something of a cash, is there more story to be taken out of Bean's life? It started out fine as a spin off but it still felt like a story that should have been told but now this far in, is it?Well, there is a story to be told but I just don't know if it should have been sold as a novel. The book is very short at just over two hundred pages and that's in large type. Still, is that so bad? Maybe not. But it really is a short story sold in a hard cover.Bean will be familiar to any readers of the Ender Saga as well as any readers of the spin-off shadows series and this seems to set up the end of his story. He is dying and in a space ship going at near light speed. As time passes normal for everyone inside, outside hundreds of years have passed in the hope that scientists will be able to come up with a cure for his and his three kids disease. But they haven't and what does that mean for Bean and his children?I liked this story and it had a bittersweet ending. Although short in length there is a good story here and it even managed to come up with some answers about the alien race from Ender's Game which was unexpected but good that it was included.Its worth a read but not really worth the money for a full priced novel.

Card's writing is hugely varied. The first three books of the Bean saga post-Ender, were deeply plotted, well considered and engrossing. By contrast Shadows in Flight which picks up the baton 6 years (subjectively from Bean's perspective) after the third book is lightweight, superficial, and unsatisfying. At best it seems to take the position of a reboot - resetting some of the "facts" set in the increasingly disappointing Ender saga, to provide a new branch to pump out new books from.

The enhanced edition was probably a poor choice. The illustrations do not reproduce well on a Kindle and the abridgement shortens an already short book. That said, the book was if anything over-long when the slenderness of the plot is considered. The characters were unlovable and reminded me of Peter Wiggin as a child, Valentine and a weaker version of Ender rather too much. Not OSC's best work. It could have been much better and should have been. It is also overpriced.

This book wasn't nearly as good as the 4 before it. It feels like a half hearted effort to give a "happy" ending to the characters in flight, but over all it is missing the soul of the previously published saga. The story feels almost forced rather than fluid, and the characters are difficult to relate to. Even the giant, Bean, doesn't feel the same as before.Not good at all.

I am a huge fan of the Ender and Shadow series of books by Orson Scott Card, i have followed the story since Enders game and have enjoyed the story lines and the style of writing.Unfortunately this book is a bit of a disappointment, the plot is shallow and rushed, the whole book took me 2 nights reading, i would say 4 hours in total so either Mr Card rushed the book to fill a gap in the whole Ender / Shadow saga or he is losing interest in the series.The enhanced edition on a classic kindle is poor, the pictures are so dark that you cannot see them very well, the extra chapters in the enhanced edition were at the end of the story, I only found them when i finished reading the book, reading them after the whole story was like picking a book up and randomly opening pages to read.If i could i would ask for my money back.