Orson Scott Card [Spoilers perhaps]

[RD!]

I could have sworn we had a thread for him or the Ender series, but oh well, here it is now. This is an amazing series of books, at least the most of each series is amazing.

Anyway, I thought I'd start a thread since I had no idea at all that Orson Scott Card had released a new book (Shadow of the Giant) which I guess ends the (better) Shadow half of Ender.

[Stewie]

It does end it, but leaves some plot points unresolved. Nothing major though. It's the kind of thing where he could pick up on it in a later book, or just leave it.

Major spoilers:

Spoiler:

All the wars are settled and ended. Peter takes control of Earth before he dies. There is a thing with Bean and Petra's kids that is left hanging.

the (better) Shadow half of Ender.

Nah. I agree that Xenocide and Children of the Mind were nearly pointless pieces of paper, but Speaker for the Dead was 99% as good as Ender's Game. The only book in the Shadow series that was really worth getting into was Ender's Shadow. And that is so only because Ender was in it. It was, at best, "fun."
I just find Bean very annoying. I tolerated him in Ender's Game, when I didn't know anything about him. But once he hit Battle School in Ender's Shadow I lost it. And he got worse at Command School.

[audiecugi]

I read Ender's game a while back and really enjoyed it. But then I picked up Xenoside and I just couldn't get into it. Could I pick up Ender's Shadow and not have missed anything from not reading Xenoside and Speaker for the dead, or should I read those first?

I also really like Card's Women of Gennises Series. Differnt than his Sci-fi stuff but good non-theless. One of these day's I'm going to read his Alvin series, that looks pretty good.

[Stewie]

I read Ender's game a while back and really enjoyed it. But then I picked up Xenoside and I just couldn't get into it. Could I pick up Ender's Shadow and not have missed anything from not reading Xenoside and Speaker for the dead, or should I read those first?

Speaker for the Dead comes between Ender's Game and Xenocide. You should definitely read Speaker before Xenocide. And as I said ealier, Speaker is the only one worth recommending.
As for the Shadow series, those can all be read without having read any of the Ender series. Even Ender's Game. After Ender's Game, all of the Ender books take place long after the Shadow series, but they are basically unrelated. You don't need to know anything about either one to understand the other. They just sort of enhance each other.

[RD!]

Nah. I agree that Xenocide and Children of the Mind were nearly pointless pieces of paper, but Speaker for the Dead was 99% as good as Ender's Game. The only book in the Shadow series that was really worth getting into was Ender's Shadow. And that is so only because Ender was in it. It was, at best, "fun."

I just find Bean very annoying. I tolerated him in Ender's Game, when I didn't know anything about him. But once he hit Battle School in Ender's Shadow I lost it. And he got worse at Command School.

I read Ender's Shadow before Ender's Game, which I guess because of which Ender's Game did very little for getting me attatched to Ender. Though, I really only place Shadow over Ender because Xenocide and Children really, really disappointed me. Both series have one really stand out novel and from there they just sort of bleh. Shadow Puppets was a tad bit disappointing, but nowhere near that of the latter two Ender books.

My problem with Xenocide and Speaker is that I was willing to believe the

Spoiler:

magical world where everthing you want is yours =D =D and the second Peter and Val

with the belief that maybe there would be some payoff (which we almost had at the end). But the way everything was handled was just so annoying. If I wanted to read 750 pages of a crippled man whining that he was crippled I don't know... I'd cripple myself.

[Stewie]

I read Ender's Shadow before Ender's Game, which I guess because of which Ender's Game did very little for getting me attatched to Ender. Though, I really only place Shadow over Ender because Xenocide and Children really, really disappointed me. Both series have one really stand out novel and from there they just sort of bleh. Shadow Puppets was a tad bit disappointing, but nowhere near that of the latter two Ender books.

My problem with Xenocide and Speaker is that I was willing to believe the

Spoiler:

magical world where everthing you want is yours =D =D and the second Peter and Val

with the belief that maybe there would be some payoff (which we almost had at the end). But the way everything was handled was just so annoying. If I wanted to read 750 pages of a crippled man whining that he was crippled I don't know... I'd cripple myself.

I agree with the complaints about the last two books. They're worth reading just to see the end of Ender's story. Speaker for the Dead for me though was better than anything in the Shadow series. I see the Ender series having two great books, to Shadow's single good one.