Preview
  • Ender's Shadow

  • Ender's Game
  • By: Orson Card
  • Narrated by: Michael Gross
  • Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (502 ratings)

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Ender's Shadow

By: Orson Card
Narrated by: Michael Gross
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Publisher's summary

From the author of Ender's Game, the Hugo and Nebula award-winning international best seller, comes the parallel novel, Ender's Shadow. In the first book, child-hero Ender Wiggin battles a deadly alien race and wins. But Ender wasn't the only child in his Battle School. There was also Bean, the one who became Ender's right hand, his strategist, and his friend—the only one who was with him in the final battle. Now Bean's whole story is told.

©1999 Orson Card (P)2022 Phoenix Books

What listeners say about Ender's Shadow

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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Story
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

GO for the unabridged version

Great story, good writing, I've read it in print, but poor audio recording and too much left out in the abridgment process, this version was disappointing. Get the unabridged version!

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Harsh on the ears

While I love Orson Scott Card's books, this production, which was recorded in the highest compression--lowest quality audio, is painful to listen to even if the story fills in many gaps that the other Ender series don't. The sound is tinny at best--like listening to it through a cheap phone. Nonetheless, this will set you up for Shadow of the Hedgemon, which was a terrific book that I listened to out of order because I didn't know that this Shadow book existed.

Until they come out with a version that is unabridged and recorded in higher fidelity, or you want to read the book, this may be the best you can get. I've not completed my listening, but wanted to warn others about the audio quality and not the story itself.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great story/ horrible recording

Recorded with 2 empty tin cans and a piece is string. I feel like I was listening to a story from the other side of a thick door.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

don't download this version

amazing writer fantastic voice actors terrible sound quality. popping peas in the mic loud tease hard case General static noise in the background honestly just all-around low-quality sound. get a different version

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

I Don't Agree

I don't agree with some of the reviews saying this was a terrible audio book. If you don't intend to read the books, and just listen to them, as I do, there is nothing wrong with this book. I enjoyed just as thoroughly as I did Ender's Game. Of course I'd love the unabridged version of any book, but this was a great story--it was very fun learning about Bean's story and a good prelude to the next book. I also had no problems hearing the recording.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Too much is cut out

As a fan of the shadow series, I was looking for a new way to enjoy a classic story. However, this version cuts so much important information out of the story but does nothing to piece the remaining parts together coherently. important events that took up pages of text are whittled down to barely a sentence. important plot points are glassed over and some changes make no sense. They don't improve a first time reading and infuriate someone familiar with the book.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Flows poorly

If you have listened to the other Ender books then you might find this one a little disappointing. The story is fine and the narration is good, but you can tell that this book is abridged.

While the style is like Card's other Ender books, this one seems rushed and does not flow like the others.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

excellent complement to Ender's Game

Great storytelling - and character development. Read/listen to Ender's Game first.

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22 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

If you hunger for more of Ender's Game

Ender's Shadow is a nice companion book to Ender's Game. If after reading Ender's Game you hunger for more of the same "like I did" Ender's Shadow will do. Although, I was disappointed that it wasn't unabridge, I felt the need to go out and buy the book to fill in the obvious gaps. The next book in the Shadow series is Shadow of the Hedgemon, and It is excellent! The weakest and latest book in the series is Shadow Puppet, But you get so attached to the characters that you just have to buy it. I suggest reading the shadow series before buying Speaker for the Dead, if you have a hard time with Ender's character aging significantly by the time Speaker for the Dead takes place. The Enderverse book also helps to bridge the age gap.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

awesome and exciting

this book was true to the original and just as exciting. The story delved into another primary character with an equal struggle yet alternate problems that thrill the imagination.

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