Book reviews

Shadow of the Giant
Orson Scott Card Book Review

Read a book review online (click here to search reviews)
Books Movies  
Sci-Fi/Fantasy Mystery/Thriller Literature Romance Biography History
Orson Scott Card Books
New book search
Orson Scott Card Message Board
Get more information about this book
Plot Summary of Shadow of the Giant
"The Shadow of the Giant is the latest installment in the "Shadow" subseries which derived from the popular "Ender quartet". Julian Delphiki(aka:Bean)saved the world from a potentially devastating alien race,with the help of a small group of millitary geniuses and Ender, the best commander the world had to offer. With the conclusion of the war, all of Ender's jeesh(team)returned home to Earth,finally, in hopes of reuniting with their families and living normal lives. The world was fully united during the time of the alien threat but alliances were quickly bequeathed in place of war and termoil once the aliens were destroyed. So the great millitary minds,who had just returned from saving the human race, were exploited into doing exactly the opposite. Wars were fought between world super powers for expansion and religious superiority but all that was gained was hostility and unstability. The one man,Peter Wiggin,decided to bring peace to the world by unitining it under a single hegemony.
Julian Delphiki was illegally and genetically altered by a Russian scientist. The scientist,Volescu, enabled Julian an unnatural intellect that dwarfed any others. As a result of the genetic changes he became mentally stronger than any human,because infact he was not human himself but a whole new advanced species. His brain would never stop growing,along with the rest of his body. Though he was gifted with a superior mind he would likely die before reaching twenty of giantism because his heart would finally fail or his spine would collapse.
After finally finding love, Julian marries Petra,a former teammate who helped in saving the world from the aliens. They have several children together but because of Julian's condition they were produced in a lab to correct the mutated genomes. One embryo is put into Petra but the others are stolen. Julian and his wife make it their life goal to find their lost children, who in fact do have Julian's condition and are considerd by their enemies to be extremely valuable.
Hegemon, Peter Wiggin, insists on the Julian and Petra helping him bring peace to the world with their millitary talents and strong reputations and influence. They both now have to save the world once again (in a way)and find their babies while avoiding the excessive attempts on their lives. Additionally Julians life is coming to an end and he will have to face a difficult decision in order to save himself and his "special" children.

       This book should not be read with out reading the previous books in the subseries. "

Steven Potter, Resident Scholar

Review Analysis of Shadow of the Giant
Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
Descript. of chases or violence - 20%
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 40%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30%
Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 10%




Tone of book - very upbeat
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - science fiction story
Coming of age Yes
Youngster becomes - ruler
Inner Struggle Yes
Plotlet: - coping with mental/magical powers
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book

Main Character
Identity: - Male
Profession/status: - unemployed
Age: - a teen
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Genius
Physique - average physique

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - a teen
Profession/status: - unemployed
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a moderate amount
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Genius (really!)
Physique - average physique

Setting
Earth setting: - medium future 22-24th century
Spaceship setting: - futuristic human freighter/transport - really, really giant spaceship/station
Takes place on Earth? Yes
Takes place in spaceship? Yes

Style
Person? - mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths
scientific jargon? (SF only) - a lot of techical jargon
How much dialogue? - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
Most similar books to Shadow of the Giant
Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut
Q-Squared by Peter David
The Rowan - Damia Series 1 by Anne McCaffrey
Amplified by C. Todd Cleveland
Mind Game by Christine Feehan


Click here for more information about this book


Orson Scott Card Resident Scholar Profiles

TOP SCHOLAR:
  
Will B.  

SCHOLARS:
sayruh  Beth  Katy Leung  Steven Potter  steven vanzant  David Gordon  Cec  Melissa Shauer  Anita Poon  


Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).
Three ways to search for Science Fiction books!

1) One-click plot searches! Simply click on a plot or subplot below!

Animal Story

Clones

Coming of age

Cultural problems, alien culture

Explore/1st contact/ enviro story

Family relations

GIANT monster(s)

Horror story?

Inner Struggle

Lifeform altered?

Mental/magical powers focus

Parody

Political power play

Religious overtones?

Repressive society story

Robots, Computers, VR

Romance

Spying & Investigations

Tech./$$$/Info hunt

Time Travel story?

Training/Apprent.

War or Invasion



or 2) Simple lookup
(title or author)

or
3) Even more search options available with a Detailed Booksearch (click here)

Use our site!
Feedback
About us
Bribe your congressman!
Rudy Giuliani



Most recent discussions:

General Book Talk
Book writing discussion
Off-topic message board
.
Lana Wood 6:06:13 AM
George W. Bush 12:55:17 AM
Lynn and Gilbert Morris 12:20:20 AM
David Pelzer 10:32:56 PM
Max Shulman 8:44:04 PM
Kate Brian 5:25:02 PM
Ruth Minsky Sender 3:34:26 PM
Charlaine Harris 2:46:27 PM
Gerald Morris 2:00:08 PM
Iris Johanson 1:27:13 PM
Sue Grafton 1:23:14 PM
Chinua Achebe 11:46:27 AM
Terry Goodkind 10:19:00 AM
Charlotte Vale Allen 10:01:03 PM
Charlotte Vale Allen 9:59:10 PM
Mary Downing Hahn 7:18:08 PM
Suzanne Weyn 5:37:37 PM
Suzanne Collins 3:45:18 PM
Deric Longden 2:26:59 PM
V.C. Andrews 2:24:44 PM

More message boards