posted
I've been reading forum posts on SoTG and the Shadow series, and I saw alot of dissapointingly negative opinions.
When Ender's Shadow came out, I read it and enjoyed it, the developments were great, like Bean creating Ender's army.
In the following books of the Shadow series, the storyline evolves, but it gradually seperates from the original Ender saga, and for the best.
Though connections are still made, like in the case of Bean helping the Mind Game eventually become Jane, and the talks between Peter and Ender in the end.
I've read many complaints about how everything is attributed to Bean, all of Peter's victories, all later developements in the Ender series, e.g. Jane. Personally, I dont think thats completely true.
While Bean's brilliance certainly gives him the right to set alot of things in motion, he is not responsible for anything and everything.
After Bean left the planet, the work of unifying the world under a single government was not even half done, that was finished by Peter and Petra.
Also, on the subject that Bean "cannot be beaten." Bean most definitely is beaten in SoTG, and it is shown in SoTH and SP that he is not anywhere near being all powerful.
In SOTH and SP, Bean spends most of his days hiding from Achilles, working behind the scenes, and it is only through Suriyawong's cunning that Bean is ever able to achieve victory over Achilles. Furthermore, he, and Mazer Rackham are completely duped in SoTG. In case anyone has forgotten so quickly, Randi and her little baby "Achilles Flandres II" have hid so effectively that not even the program that will become Jane can find her, and the baby is presumed to never have been born.
I think these books were extremely well written and thought out, with few mistakes, and I certainly hope a fourth book is released to snip off the loose ends that SoTG left lying around.
posted
I most definitely agree. The whole premise behind the Shadow books is not that any one particular character is so brilliant that he can bring about peace, but that each character grows and learns from the others, becoming a complete person by the end of SoTG...becoming adults instead of brilliant children. None of the characters was whole in SoTH, but they are by the end of SoTG.
Bean is not the force behind Peter, he was only one component. While I loved the story progression of Bean and Petra and felt like it came to a good conclusion (though a farewell scene with Bean and Petra was ostensibly missing), I really felt like SoTG was about how Peter truly became a good person and learned that it was okay to be good. While his inner thoughts are not shown all that much in SoTG, Peter's dialogue and actions contantly show that he is finally seeing what is actually around him, instead of what his brilliance wants to see. He realizes it isn't about him. Bean and Petra helped him to see that. When I read how Peter had become the great Hegemon before the Shadow books were written, I wasn't sure I liked that thought. But I felt the Shadow series was a very real portrayal of the evolution of a true leader in Peter who could be great. Once again, OSC has shown his fundamental understanding of what it means to lead.
Also, Bean...as the titles indicate...has always been the shadow. He didn't want to be the one casting that shadow. That was the true face of his greatness. Ambition to do right, not to be great. As was said several times, Bean was the best of them all...and not because he was the smartest.
***SPOILER***
I too would love to see another book to tie up the fact that Bean isn't quite dead yet, and there is another potential Achilles being raised by the most unfortunatly ignorant Randi. Much as I would love a follow on to Children of the Mind. The end of SoTG was very reminiscent of Children. I need to know what happens!
posted
Good thinking. What most concerns me in a follow up is that we know Bean is out there, we know he doesn't beleive a cure can be found, but what we also know is that in a few weeks for him, Graff and Mazer Rackham will be dead. Who will fund his project now, and who will carry it on?
The dilemna here also is that Bean leaves earth with his children who also have Anton's Key turned because he does not want this disease passed down. What if he comes back a hundred years later, somehow cured, only to find a million Beans, who can pass on the disease faster than it can be stamped out?
Also, although i guessed midway through the book that Petra would end up with Peter, and no i did not skip to the back, there's no explanation of how this came to pass. Petra has usually shown contempt for Peter, if not outright hostility, Petra being who she is.
I wish that Card had put in some mention of how that relationship comes to pass, because while Peter tells Petra he loves her, and Petra realizes this, nothing tells you about how they become married, have five children, and bring world peace. It is to abrupt, going from Petra falling asleep to Graff and Bean's conversation via ansible to Petra burying Peter.
Nonetheless, good work to OSC, keep it up, and hopefully most of the loose ends will be tied off in a possible sequel to SoTG.
posted
By the way Sammi, I read in your profile that you live in Virginia, as I do, what part? (I would have sent this in a private message, but am not sure how it works on this website.)
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posted
Northern Virginia...by the way, I started a new topic called the Brilliance of Shadow because I thought of a few more things to say after reading some of the other complaints about SoTG. I really don't understand how people can so entirely miss the point.
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posted
I realize that the funding is controlled by the Mind Game, but at this stage the Mind Game isnt completely independant. Graff's successor as ColMin will see that huge amounts of money are going into a seemingly worthless project, unless of course he knows and beleives that Bean should be cured and brought back to earth, in which case he would continue the project. If not, im sure he would have the ability to stop the transfer of funds, and if not, stop letting researchers come into space to work on the problem, if there are any researchers who know anything on the subject after Volescu dies.
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