nder's Shadow is a parallel novel to
Orson Scott Card's novel Ender's Game, which centered around
Ender Wiggin, the little boy whose skills
at video game warfare saved Earth from being destroyed by aliens. The boy
who must live in Ender's shadow is called Bean (named for his small size). A
homeless urchin in Rotterdam,
Bean has developed urban survival skills well beyond his four years. On
the verge of starvation, he manages to ally himself with a kid crew whose
leader has one weakness--compassion.
Bean convinces the crew to try his plan for getting past the older,
stronger and more vicious street kids and gaining access to Helga's soup
kitchen. Helga's is a front for the Battle School, a war effort that
trains quick, intelligent children on video games that prepare them to
fight the Buggers, the race officially known as the Formics, which has been attacking
Earth for some years now. The unnaturally precocious Bean is recruited to
the space station that is the Battle School. There, he finally has enough
food to eat, adults to care for him, and a purpose: to become good enough
to lead an army of similarly gifted kids in mock war games. He has the
highest score of any of his peers, but someone has reached the Battle
School before him, another small, smart, fiercely quick boy named Ender
Wiggin. And the adults have all their hopes for victory pinned on
Ender.
What little boys are made of
"Jagged little breaths. An occasional gasp. And then...a sob. Crying.
Some boy was crying himself to sleep."
That scene takes place in a co-ed dormitory, but Bean
specifically hears a boy sobbing. Although women and girls are
very much present and active in Ender's Shadow , this book is a
glimpse into a boys' world of "snips and snails and puppy dogs' tails": a
world of jostling for supremacy, of schoolyard taunts and dares that are
deadly serious. At its core, as with much of Card's writing, it's a story
of the boys who just don't fit in. Ender and Bean are the mouthy runts of
the litter who always know and say more than is good for them, who can't
stop themselves from showing the others up. Whatever their gender, kids
like these are often harried mercilessly by their age-mates. It's a
pleasure to root for Ender and Bean, knowing that in this novel, at least,
the underdogs will save the day.
The pace is somewhat slowed by the amount of interiorization. Bean is a
super-thinker whose survival depends on his being able to figure out
complicated problems quickly. Much of the narrative therefore takes
place as circuitous thought problems in Bean's head. While it's often
fascinating to follow his logic, the slow buildup may irk those who have
read the Ender novels and know the intense, fast-paced climactic scene
toward which Ender's Shadow is heading. But once the balance of
events has tipped towards more action, the novel cracks along at a fine
pace to the heartbreaking battle scene where the children discover the true
significance of the war games they have been playing. Ender's Shadow is a
fine addition to the "Ender" saga.
n their four collaborative novels, William Barton and Michael
Capobianco have established a reputation for a unique combination of hard
science and psychological intensity. Following the release of their most
recent book, White Light, Avon Eos has reissued the formidable
duo's first collaboration, Iris, originally published in 1990.
Iris is a Saturn-like planet that wanders through the galaxy with its
three icy satellites. As Iris passes through the Earth's solar system, a group of
alienated Terran colonists attempt to settle on one of the moons, looking to build a new life
far away from civilization.
An expedition to a neighboring satellite uncovers a 10-kilometer-long
alien spaceship, incredibly ancient yet nearly intact. The craft turns
out to be a shuttle from a colossal mother ship buried in the core
of Iris itself. One of the colonists, computer programmer, amateur boxer
and not-so-lovable rogue Brendan Sealock, establishes contact with the
mother ship's computer system, called Centrum. Centrum uploads Sealock's
personality, leaving behind a mindless, dying body.
Centrum had been created billions of years ago to seed life throughout
the universe. Mounting errors have crippled the machine, leaving it lost,
confused and deadly.
The other colonists mount an exotic rescue mission, using a virtual
environment created by Sealock to interface with Centrum and search for
their missing comrade. It's a data retrieval operation that's also a
fantastical quest, with humans storming Centrum's castle. The virtual
environment's software taps deep into the participants' minds, weaving a
world drawn from their own memories and desires, so the colonists must
confront not only Centrum but also their innermost selves.
Group therapy with an angry god
Iris employs the same basic scenario as Barton and Capobianco's
more recent novels: take a dysfunctional team of space travelers and
plunge them into a dark and wondrous cosmic mystery. The results are uneven.
At times Iris reads like a beta version of their more focused and
accomplished 1997 book, Alpha Centauri.
The 10 principal characters--including a "Jana" and a "Vana"--are too
many to keep track of, and they are as whiny and self-pitying a group of
explorers as has ever gathered in one ship. The virtual battle with
Centrum functions as a form of voyeuristic group therapy, delving into
each character's past. The actual confrontation with the godlike Centrum
is almost an afterthought.
Though individually dislikable, the colonists as a group somehow form
a bleak yet endearing microcosm of the human condition. They spend the
early chapters dismantling equipment and putting it together in new
configurations. An intriguing parallel emerges with the colonists
themselves, their shifting alliances, desperate, often joyless sexual
couplings, and finally the literal meeting--and mixing--of minds through
various exotic applications of computer technology.
The hardware is much more reliable than its flawed human operators,
but the humans are far more adaptable. The colonists' nominal leader
brought them to Iris in hopes of creating a new, better society. That
doesn't happen, but regardless of the setbacks, they gamely plow ahead,
trying new combinations, forming new identities, and improvising as best
they can.
