Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Shadow of the Giant by Orson Scott Card




Title:
Shadow of the Giant by Orson Scott Card

Pages:
367.

How it was obtained:
Checked it out from the library.

Time spent on the "to read" shelf:
0 Days.

Days spent reading it:
3 days.

Why I read it:
I packed most of my books from "The Patrick Challenge" and shipped them to Thailand. So I had to fill in with some books. Shadow of the Giant is the fourth book in the Ender's Shadow series by Orson Scott Card, I figured I would finish up this series before I left to go to Thailand. I'm glad I did.

Brief review:
Shadow of the Giant is the final (as of right now, and probably ever) installment of the Ender's Shadow series. I have enjoyed this particular series quite a bit. It recounts the events on Earth after the events in Ender's Game. We follow Bean and Petra, but the real star of this show (and perhaps the real "Shadow" of Ender) is Peter Wiggin. We follow as Peter continues in his quest to become the Hegemon (the world leader) and to have actual authority over the whole world. The political and military maneuvers and manipulation that make this a reality for Peter are fun to watch unfold.

This series has been easy to read, but still full of great ideas by Card. Shadow of the Giant makes us think about contemporary events, even though it discusses them in playful science fiction. Card brings up issues about Muslim, Chinese, and United States politics from current headlines and stretches them to their logical conclusion. What if the Muslim world united under one head? Or if the massive Chinese population began an offensive against an almost equally massive Indian nation? In this book Card examines these possible political situations, but he does so within a very entertaining novel.

Shadow of the Giant is clever and thought provoking. If you have not read any of the rest of the series, this would not be a good place to start. But I would highly recommend picking up Ender's Game and then Ender's Shadow, because these books (and especially Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow) have been worth it.

Favorite quote: Life is full of grief, to exactly the degree we allow ourselves to love other people.

Stars:
4 out of 5.

Final Word:
Huge.

1 comment:

Rob said...

I was wondering what moving to Thailand would do to the Patrick Challenge. I'm glad to see that it will continue!