It finally happens! and it was altogether marvelous. Besides Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Giant is the best book of the Shadow series so far. Still emotional and cleverly political. Not too sure where it could really go from here since so much was resolved in the conclusion, but I am eager to find out.
This book officially makes OSC my favorite scifi author. He has 4 amazing books, of which Ender's Game is not included, while Frank Herbert only really had 3 Dune books I loved. Thank you again, Card. ( )

This continues the story of Bean, Petra, Peter and other children from war. It details the search and discovery of the children of Bean and Petra all the while Bean continues to grow which gives us the Giant part of the titles of these books.
I liked it fairly well, it wrapped up a lot of lose ends and provided a nice continuation. ( )

This was an enjoyable read, and Card showed that, in some cases, heavy foreshadowing can almost replace actual character development. The book had good tie-ins to the non-Shadow Ender books and did a good job of juggling a large number of plot elements. There were parts of the book that made me uncomfortable. They were not particularly disturbing in the framework of the story, but they made me squeamish knowing (a) a little more about Card's personal beliefs than I use to and (b) that this book was written recently and, therefore, in the current political climate. It was not enough to make me dislike the book, but it was certainly noticeable.

Shadow of the Giant (Ender, Book 8) (Ender's Shadow) by Orson Scott Card (date?)

Thought experiment about a future political Earth. I don't believe it. ( )

I wish this series hadn't focused so much on the war/political side of things. I was far more interested in the personal stories, especially Bean and Petra's. I spent a good deal of this book bored with so much time dedicated to world events. But that ending. Oof. As painful as those moments are, the book would have been better with more focus on the heart-wrenching stuff. Gosh OSC, why can't you just write the book I want? :) ( )

Shadow of the Giant completes the story of the geopolitical transformation after the Formic Wars, and thus also completes the story of Peter the Hegemon and of several former battle school cadets. Well, at least as far as their Earth-wise career goes, anyway.

This is fairly interesting, but in truth, I felt it was a little bit convenient how everything just fell into place for Peter. We have this complex geopolitical situation that stretches three and a half books - powerful nations taking over half the globe, brilliant leaders forming invincible coalitions etc. Then some powerful magic from Bean, Peter and Petra and poof, we have world hegemony under a single man. Card's problem is that while his battle school children are geniuses, he is not. So he is left with the task of inventing ingenious plans for these children that then turn out to be not so brilliant that any smart person could not think of of. An execution of such a plan then requires that the battle school cadets on the other side fail to foresee them or make really pedestrian mistakes, hurting the whole brilliancy theme and credibility of the series in the process.

Of course, this geopolitical wrangling again serves as a backdrop to the story of Bean and Petra and their teenage pregnancy romance, which in turn serves as a vehicle of reader indoctrination into Mormon views on life, love and family. Thread carefully then, though in all fairness, this book is not the worst in the series in this regard. ( )

A satisfying end to the Bean chronicles. Card's ability to tell vastly different types of stories (compare the Shadow series style with the Speaker series style) while consistently proving entertaining is absolutely amazing. ( )

While reading:

-- Feels like too many plots, not enough space. Each primary plot is moving at a snails pace as he tries to give adequate details to make them work. The side dealing with Peter is detracting from the side dealing with Bean.
-- This does feel more like how the series should have gone from the beginning. The Speaker for the Dead angle never felt right to me.

Finished reading:
I've stated before that I didn't think Card was good at writing series. I stick with that assessment. He even mentioned in his acknowledgements that he's horrible at tracking time regarding his characters. This particular issue makes series difficult, since you have to know about time's passage when connecting books, or overlaying their plots.

This book suffers from trying to be the very end of a series, overlaying ideas from other books to complete the last few chapters. Yes, some of those views felt better with this view (though the final verdict on one character is never revealed) but it also made the book feel choppy. It also suffered from too many viewpoints, not enough focus. Alai, Petra, Bean, Virlomi, Suriyawong, Rackham, Graff, Peter... All had multiple primary chapters dedicated to their point of view. This meant all those plots either plodded along, or moved so rapidly you found a need to get to another view point to slow the book down.

With this book, the direction the parallel series took is over. And that is a good thing. I'd only recommend it for diehard Ender fans, who must read it all. Otherwise, I might recommend skipping it. ( )

It's hard to write a cogent review of this book because it's really just a 'tweener between Shadow Puppets and Shadow in Flight. In this one the continual reminders that Bean is dying are annoying. Interesting insight on Islam (from a Mormon?) As are the continual search for Bean's babies...as if OSC couldn't loose one and then have him/her resurrected in the next book? The geopolitical conflicts were interesting and you have to wonder where OSC obtained those ideas? This completes the "Shadow" series for me...read them all. Liked the first one best.

Although Shadow of the Giant continues many of the lackluster storylines inherited from Shadow Puppets—the hunt for Bean and Petra's "babies" being the worst offender—it also manages to not eff things up any worse than they are. Surprisingly, as the end nears, the story pivots towards a relatively strong finish. This may have saved this otherwise uneven series from oblivion.

Overall, I'm glad I read all four books. That's saying something given my impulsive habit of cutting my losses at the first sign of story trouble. Ender's Shadow kicked things off so well, and while Shadow of the Hegemon was fine, I didn't pick up Shadow Puppets right away. And that book was so underwhelming that I didn't care to find out what happened next in Shadow of the Giant for another ten years. Eventually, curiosity got the better of me. ( )

soooo want the 6th one tying stuff up with this and children of the mind ( )

Quick read. Typical Ender book. I do wish I knew what happened to Bean. Is a cure found? What about his kids.

The series that follows Ender is more thought provoking and engaging to me. This series following Bean is more strategical and war oriented. It does suck me in and keep me reading though. ( )

Brillante conclusión en la Tierra de la Saga de las Sombras de Ender, sin olvidarse de Ender y dejando abierto todo para continuar con mas historias “paralelas” o” futuras” o “relativistas”
Lo único que me da pena es Bean (pero la saga aún no ha terminado).
( )

2.5 stars. Oh, jeesh, where do I even begin? Okay, well I love [b:Ender's Game|375802|Ender's Game (Ender's Saga, #1)|Orson Scott Card|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1316636769s/375802.jpg|2422333] and [b:Ender's Shadow|9532|Ender's Shadow (Shadow, #1)|Orson Scott Card|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1316131738s/9532.jpg|3145587]. No one really annoyed me in those two books. I can't speak to the remainder of Ender's series because I got so bored listening to [b:Speaker for the Dead|7967|Speaker for the Dead (Ender's Saga, #2)|Orson Scott Card|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1295660894s/7967.jpg|2327777] that I set is aside for a bit. I've finished off Bean's series with this one and phew, thank goodness it is over because I don't think I could've read/listened to another one. Why do I keep doing it? Good question. Answer: Because I do enjoy OSC's writing when his characters aren't talking about religion, military strategy, or BABIESBABIESBABIES. And the readers for his books are absolutely fabulous. I wish I could just have them walk around with me and narrate my life. Then again, I'd probably be lulled to sleep a little too much. As you can see by the graph, my annoyances hugely increased from Book 1 to Book 3. (I listened to them out of order) It was only downhill from there.

NOTE: The 10% I don't find annoying don't really make appearances in this series--Ender and Valentine. ( )

Review by: Sara

A near-perfect ending for a perfect series. My only complaint was the unanswered question: What happened to all the "abnormal" children who stayed with Bean? One may assume that they lived a relatively happy life with their father and died in space, whithout the people of earth finding a cure, but who knows for sure? I'd like to find out. Maybe if we all ask really nicely, Card will start another series dealing with their lives. ( )

One of my favorite books in the series.Really sad and surprising. but really good ( )

Not anywhere close to as good as Ender's Game or Ender's Shadow. The only reason I would recommend it at all is if you just have to know what happens to the characters in the previous books. It is not good as a stand-alone book. ( )

I liked how the book ended. Much of the book was very much like the previous two, however. I definitely liked it more than the third one, though. ( )

A fitting, satisfying, and dignified conclusion to the series. Loved every minute of it. ( )

The perfect ending to the Ender series. Card brings more color and detail to the end of Ender's and Bean's time on Earth, and fills in with loving detail the life of Ender's older brother, Peter. ( )

The only book ever to bring tears to my eyes. You got to read book 5,6,7 before this to get the full impact of this wonderful series. ( )

It was nice to get to know Alai even better in this book, and to get glimpses into the voices of some of the other battle school kids.It was a little weird for me that Card left Randyll un-found.And I was never really convinced as to why Bean couldn't have stayed on earth, or Petra gone with him. Was it just to round out Peter's story and give him some humanity? I'm not sure Peter deserved Petra, or that he needed rounding out.I wonder if Card will write any more books in the enderverse. I'd like to know what happened to Bean and the kids on the ship. ( )

This series started to got to off track for me. ( )

This last book in the Bean series had some interesting points including the development of the Battle School students into world leaders. However, I felt like this and the last book could have been combined into one. I also was not satisfied with the ending which I felt left the door a little too wide open for more books about Bean. ( )