Shadow of the Giant
By Orson Scott Card; Read by David Birney, Scott Brick and cast
10 CD’s – 12 hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audio Renaissance
Published: 2005
ISBN: 1593974965
Themes: / Science Fiction / World Politics / War / Leadership /
I’ve been a fan of Orson Scott Card’s Ender series for a long time. I’ve read them all in print, some more than once. When Card started to be published in unabridged audio (a medium that Card really likes) I listened to them all, too. And I loved them again.
As I did this one. Shadow of the Giant is the fourth book in the Shadow series, which started with Ender’s Shadow, then continued with Shadow of the Hegemon and Shadow Puppets. The novels follow Ender’s jeesh – the fellow students who helped him defeat the Buggers in Ender’s Game. Ender himself is off-planet, on his way to help colonize a planet. The Battle School students that were left behind are desired by the world’s governments, since they are jockeying for position after the defeat of the common enemy.
There’s a ton of things going on before this novel even starts. It works stand-alone, though, because Card takes time to let the reader know what needs to be known before moving on.
The book basically has two fronts. First, the real-life game of Risk© that is going on between nations of the world – nations ruled by past Battle School students – and Peter Wiggin’s efforts to unify everyone under a single government.
Second is the story of Bean, Petra, and their children. In a previous book, Bean and Petra have several embryos created with hopes of being able to have a normal child. Several of them were stolen and implanted in other women with hopes of creating another brilliant person that could be under the control of others. Bean and Petra search for these women while having the child they had planned on.
The audiobook is just excellent. David Birney, Scott Brick, and others perform the book. It flows so well, and there are moments to listen to again and again, like the deeply affecting conversation between Ender and his brother Peter in the last part of the book. For a person who has followed the story from the beginning, those moments are gold – filled with both the weight of the moment and the weight of all that came before. The audio performances enhance those moments, adding another layer of depth as the actors interpret the text. This book was in the right hands.
Card says that we are not quite at the end here. According to notes on his website, the writing of this book created another story to be told. So we’ve all got that to look forward to.
Posted by Scott D. Danielson
NPR (National Public Radio) asked writer/director Kevin Smith to speak with with the creators of SIN CITY….nope this aint an April Fool’s joke it’s true! Smith interviews director Robert Rodriguez and comic book kingpin Frank Miller about their collaboration on the film version of Miller’s comic book classic. The 56 minute interview is an an extended version of the segment that aired April 1st 2005 can be found here:
Trailer Trash Savior
It’s hard to believe it has only been two years, so much has happened! We’re still just a toddler and half of what we say is still babble but but we’ve grown so much! Since our birth on March 31st 2003 new audiobook publishers have sprung up, older ones have started publishing science fiction and fantasy audiobooks like it was going out of fashion (but don’t worry it isn’t) and the downloadable audiobook revolution has continued in earnest. And thanks to our birthday present, a new time travel machine, we happen to know the future of science fiction and fantasy audiobooks looks only brighter and brighter in the coming year… though we were a bit ditressed to learn about the destruction of New Zealand by the rampaging alien ruminant creatures from Fomalhault.