Shadows in Flight

Orson Scott Card

Jan 2012 · The Shadow Series Book 5 · Sold by Tor Books

About this ebook

Ender's Shadow explores the stars in this all-new novel...

At the end of Shadow of the Giant, Bean flees to the stars with three of his children--the three who share the engineered genes that gave him both hyper-intelligence and a short, cruel physical life. The time dilation granted by the speed of their travel gives Earth's scientists generations to seek a cure, to no avail. In time, they are forgotten--a fading ansible signal speaking of events lost to Earth's history. But the Delphikis are about to make a discovery that will let them save themselves, and perhaps all of humanity in days to come.

For there in space before them lies a derelict Formic colony ship. Aboard it, they will find both death and wonders--the life support that is failing on their own ship, room to grow, and labs in which to explore their own genetic anomaly and the mysterious disease that killed the ship's colony.

Shadows in Flight is the fifth novel in Orson Scott Card's Shadow Series.

THE ENDER UNIVERSE

Ender series
Ender’s Game / Ender in Exile / Speaker for the Dead / Xenocide / Children of the Mind

Ender’s Shadow series
Ender’s Shadow / Shadow of the Hegemon / Shadow Puppets / Shadow of the Giant / Shadows in Flight

Children of the Fleet

The First Formic War (with Aaron Johnston)
Earth Unaware / Earth Afire / Earth Awakens

The Second Formic War (with Aaron Johnston)
The Swarm /The Hive

Ender novellas
A War of Gifts /First Meetings

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Ratings and reviews

The "enhancements" in this enhanced edition consist of a number of illustrations and about nine pages of extra material. The actual text of the book is highly abridged. It's neat to see the pictures and the extra material is interesting, but compared to the original version of the book, this is like the Reader's Digest version. Huge chunks of dialogue are removed and shuffled around. Maybe the best course of action is to check the original book out of the library so you can read it for free, and then if you're inclined, spend the money on this edition to get the pictures and the small bit of extra material.

The book itself is good, not very long, but good. By this I mean the PRINTED copy, which is 3 times longer than this "enhanced" copy, and the same price. The only thing this copy has is a few pretty color pictures in it. I have both the physical copy and the digital (via barnes and noble nook) I felt very screwed when I bought it from B&N Nook only to find it 1/3rd the length of the physical copy my friend had. And the bits that were missing were IMPORTANT. Shame on the publisher for not making it clear what the difference was between the digital and physical, and shame on B&N and google for letting them get away with it.

The book was a disappointment. This book is more of a short story rather than a novel. It feels as if Mr. Card simply wanted to write an ending to the Shadow series for the sake of not dealing with writing any more about Bean. Unfortunately, the book feels rushed and there isn't really any story line that's being developed.

About the author

Orson Scott Card is best known for his science fiction novel Ender's Game and it's many sequels that expand the Ender Universe into the far future and the near past. Those books are organized into The Ender Saga, the five books that chronicle the life of Ender Wiggin; the Shadow Series, that follows on the novel Ender's Shadow and are set on Earth; and the Formic Wars series, written with co-author Aaron Johnston, that tells of the terrible first contact between humans and the alien "Buggers".

Card has been a working writer since the 1970s. Beginning with dozens of plays and musical comedies produced in the 1960s and 70s, Card's first published fiction appeared in 1977 -- the short story "Gert Fram" in the July issue of The Ensign, and the novelette version of "Ender's Game" in the August issue of Analog.

The novel-length version of Ender's Game, published in 1984 and continuously in print since then, became the basis of the 2013 film, starring Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis, and Abigail Breslin.

Card was born in Washington state, and grew up in California, Arizona, and Utah. He served a mission for the LDS Church in Brazil in the early 1970s. Besides his writing, he runs occasional writers' workshops and directs plays. He frequently teaches writing and literature courses at Southern Virginia University.

He is the author many sf and fantasy novels, including the American frontier fantasy series "The Tales of Alvin Maker" (beginning with Seventh Son), There are also stand-alone science fiction and fantasy novels like Pastwatch and Hart's Hope. He has collaborated with his daughter Emily Card on a manga series, Laddertop. He has also written contemporary thrillers like Empire and historical novels like the monumental Saints and the religious novels Sarah and Rachel and Leah. Card's recent work includes the Mithermages books (Lost Gate, Gate Thief), contemporary magical fantasy for readers both young and old.

Card lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife, Kristine Allen Card, He and Kristine are the parents of five children and several grandchildren.