For some silly reason Shadows In Flight is being marketed as a possible standalone novel. I suppose it could be read that way but you really should read Ender's Game at the least, and the following Shadow saga for good measure. Yet even within the context of one of the most gripping and thought-provoking visions of humanity's not-too-distant future, Shadows in Flight feels like an incomplete novel. Still, fans of Ender's jeesh will find a thoughtful tale that adds new wrinkles to their understanding of the Enderverse and paves the way for what could be an exciting new chapter in this excellent series.
The last time we saw Julian "Bean" Delphiki, he was having a pretty bad day. The teenaged giant had abandoned his wife to board a spaceship along with his three most gifted children in the hopes of achieving relativistic speeds and buying enough time for Earth's scientists to find a cure for the genetic mutation that granted him and his children incredible intelligence as well as the unstoppable physical growth that would eventually kill them all.
About five years have passed on the ship while hundreds of years have passed on Earth and now even the children of the children of the scientists who promised help have moved on, leaving Bean and his own brilliant brood left to solve the mystery of their own slowly approaching demise. The relationships between the three genius kiddos and their dying father provides much of the conflict in the first quarter of the book. The echoes of Ender's struggle to find his place among his Battle School mates are loud and clear as the three young siblings squabble and peck at one another. One early scene in Shadows could pass as a re-creation of a pivotal fight in Ender's Game.
Just as I was preparing for some action-packed genius kid brawling, however, the story switched speeds and direction. A new mystery arrives on the horizon and the three children are forced to put aside their fears and work together to tackle this new threat. I'm purposefully light-footing around the plot because it's a simple one and the barest details will destroy most of the surprises. Newcomers will find the children's adventure interesting, but readers who have at least read Ender's Game will be rewarded with new insights into a rather large presence in that book.
I read somewhere that Shadows was originally meant to be a longer tale and this feels right. The meaty adventure promised by the first half never quite arrives despite the occasional near-death encounter. It doesn't help that the minuscule cast provides too few ingredients for Card, whose strength has never been characterization, to work his magic. In Ender's Game, Card could get away with thumbnail personality sketches because the Us vs. Them narrative between Ender and just about everyone (his classmates, the Battle School staff, the Buggers) was so compelling. Maybe I just miss the thrilling battles fought by Bean and Ender in previous books, but that loving feeling was largely absent this time around.
A sequel is already in the works and the ending leaves the door open for an adventure with galaxy-wide consequences. I enjoyed Bean's return in Shadows, but the stories yet to come for his brilliant children are the ones that I really want to read.
SumOlogy: A thoughtful return to the Enderverse that sets up the next great adventure rather than delivering it.
Score: 7/10
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