Customer Reviews

Ender's Shadow: Battle School (Ender's Game Gn)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I loved Enders Game and I thought that Enders Shadow was even better. I was very excited when I saw this book. The illustrations capture the feel of the story very well and I love how they tell the entire story with out leaving huge gaps. The only complaint (and it is a serious complaint) is that the illustrated book covers only half the original book. I was dying to finish the rest of the story! I hope it comes out soon.

I am a big fan of the Ender's Game/Ender's Shadow series by Orson Scott Card so I was very interested when I discovered they were going to do a comic adaptation. I just received my copy in the mail and couldn't put it down, it was great! Illustrations are very interesting and it's cool to see someone else visualize the story. I hope they continue with this series and come out with more issues. I recommend!

I have a lot more praise for this than I did, or do, for "Battle School" and "Command School" for Ender's Game. I was much more engaged in the story here, as opposed to annoyed in the others. There are, though, a LOT of changes from the novel.

Some of them help tell the story in a better, visual way, as well as establishing relationships by using later-to-be-known faces and locations. That's good storytelling with a visual medium. I think most of the beginning of the story, where in the novel, Poke was keeping watch and spotted Bean, who sat nearby and watched her pay off a couple of 13-year-old-ish prostitutes--all the exposition we needed was in the narration, following her thoughts and observations. That crowds up a comic book, so here they showed her stealing bread from a bakery and the owner and a rich customer yell at her and talk down about her (established: poor, homeless kids fending for survival in the streets), then she runs into the bully Ulysses who demands the bread she stole--she gives it up, but once he leaves it's revealed that she has more stashed (established: we don't like Ulysses, and there's a system at work in the streets with these kids). There are a number of things changed in that fashion that I think worked very well.

There were a couple other things I think may cheapen the story, but I haven't seen them to their full fruition yet so it's hard to say. For one thing, Achilles is not hell-bent on killing Bean when he gets to Battle School . . . that comes later when he feels disrespected. However, here, it seems like he's relishing the opportunity to do him in. Also, it felt like they rushed him to Battle school too early. But like I said, it may be too early to call it on those things.

It's real weak points come from the same sources as the other two I've read so far. For one, it loses a lot by not letting us follow Bean's thoughts. This is especially crucial in the earlier parts of the story. We don't really get a sense that so much of what changes in the streets is from Bean's doing. Another thing is that it rushes from point to point and never lets you feel established. It's so short, and I'm not clear why. I've read graphic novels that are 10x this length and didn't feel long, but they make this series short and it feels rushed.

So as I read each of these, they're getting a little better each time. Maybe "Ender's Shadow: Command School" will be the best one yet (I already know it has some of the best scenes in it) . . . but we'll see.

I really enjoyed the parts of the book that did not over lap with Ender's Game (Five Stars).
When it did over lap, I did not enjoy it as much (Three Stars).
I felt that the original story changed too much as a result of the retelling.
But I suppose that real life is like that when you tell the same story from two different perspectives.
I also really enjoyed the rest of the Shadow series.

I really loved this book. It expanded greatly on the character Bean, and was a great way to revisit a favorite book Ender's Game. I thought I might be bored to read a story I had already read writen from different perspective(as this book is), but was sorely wrong. This has become one of my favorites.

What can I say about this story? It's simply great. I never thought it could have such a good adaptation to comic. If you like Ender series, you'll enjoy this comic a lot.