Many people have complained that the Ender series has gone the way of all series - each entry lesser than the last. However, I think those people look for the wrong things in their fiction. As such, Shadows in Flight has disappointed many - but I found the book incredibly moving, and beautifully written.
The Ender series has been marked from the beginning by extreme shifts in tone and subject. The first novel is a Heinlein-esque (though much more philosophical and literary than its famous predecessor) military science fiction young adult novel, followed in succession by an anthro-scifi novel, a philosophical scifi tome, and something that is...really hard to describe (but lovely - Children of the Mind is probably one of my favorite sequels). Card's Shadow series is much more uniform - though still something of a shift from the Dickensian scifi feel of the first parallel novel to the just moments in the future game of Risk that characterize the last three novels of that series. Now that each series has concluded, Card has been wrapping up various ends of both series with linking novels - Ender in Exile ties up several characters and points from both series, and now we have Shadows in Flight, which attempts to further bridge the 3000 year gap between the two (and, happily, develop heavily a concept hinted at in Xenocide and then more substantially in Children of the Mind - and given that the book tying from this one to after Children of the Mind, Shadows Alive, will hopefully grow out of the interplay between these two, I'm extremely excited about both this book and the next).
While I thought a bit of excessive "previously on" (though perhaps necessary for the non-Ender/Card-completist, unlike myself) marred the beginning, and there were a few too many references to other works Card is working on in this universe (particularly the Formic Wars series, the 100-year-prequel to the entire metastory of disastrous First Contact), Shadows in Flight delivers exactly what I wanted: a look at the consequences of being a hyper-intelligent family. Not to mention a fitting send off to my favorite character in the universe.
Each of the four characters lives sharply in connection to each other and in their own heads. The events which surround and sometimes overtake them play believably, and most importantly, Card manages to examine the central conceit of his famous series - what does it mean to be a child with the reasoning powers greater than most adults. He achieves this by having, for once, an adult who is as brilliant as the children - Bean's struggle to parent his hyperbrilliant offspring are tragic, hilarious, touching, and in the end, limpidly beautiful. Ender, Carlotta, and Sergeant all struggle to find themselves and the right thing to do as they hurtle at near-lightspeed towards an impossible-seeming future - which is cut short by the appearance of a mysterious ship.
As various early aspects of the Ender Universe open up with the new Formic Wars comics and novels, this side of the universe is drawing to an end. Fortunately, it appears that Card is being as careful with the resolution and send-offs of his favorite characters as he is with showing the beginnings of others. I sincerely hope that Card is able and willing to finish the final volume (at least chronologically) in the series with Shadows Alive, which I hope unites my two favorite strands of his work - the computer Jane and Bean's children.
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Top reviews from other countries
- Tsvetan BiyukovReviewed in the United Kingdom on April 21, 2015
not so that they will still love, respect
-
Juan CéspedesReviewed in Spain on March 15, 2013
Quinto libro de la saga de "Ender's Shadow". No lo leas si no has leído los anteriores.
