This boxed set contains “Ender's Shadow,” “Shadow of the Hegemon,” “Shadow Puppets,” and “Shadow of the Giant.”
Although 5th in publication order, Ender's Shadow is a parallel novel to Ender's Game, telling many of the same events from the perspective of Bean (a peripheral character in Ender's Game). The other 3 books continue the story of the Battle School children and Peter Wiggin, Ender's brother.
Ender's Shadow
Welcome to Battle School.
Growing up is never easy. But try living on the mean streets as a child begging
for food and fighting like a dog with ruthless gangs of starving kids who
wouldn't hesitate to pound your skull into pulp for a scrap of apple. If Bean
has learned anything on the streets, it's how to survive. And not with fists.
He is way too small for that. But with brains.
Bean is a genius with a magician's ability to zero in on his enemy and exploit
his weakness.
What better quality for a future general to lead the Earth in a final climactic
battle against a hostile alien race, known as Buggers. At Battle School Bean
meets and befriends another future commander – Ender Wiggin – perhaps his
only true rival.
Only one problem: for Bean and Ender, the future is now.
Shadow of the Hegemon
The War is over, won by Ender Wiggin and his team of brilliant child-warriors.
The enemy is destroyed, the human race is saved. Ender himself refuses to return
to the planet, but his crew has gone home to their families, scattered across
the globe. The Battle School is no more.
But with the external threat gone, the Earth has become a battlefield once more.
The children of the Battle School are more than heroes; they are potential
weapons that can bring power to the countries that control them. One by one, all
of Ender's Dragon Army are kidnapped. Only Bean escapes; and he turns for help
to Ender's brother Peter.
Peter Wiggin, Ender's older brother, has already been manipulating the politics
of Earth from behind the scenes. With Bean's help, he will eventually rule
the world.
Shadow Puppets
Earth and its society has been changed irrevocably in the aftermath of Ender
Wiggin's victory over the Formics–the unity enforced upon the warring nations
by an alien enemy has shattered. Nations are rising again, seeking territory and
influence, and most of all, seeking to control the skills and loyalty of the
children from the Battle School.
But one person has a better idea. Peter Wiggin, Ender's older, more ruthless,
brother, sees that any hope for the future of Earth lies in restoring a sense of
unity and purpose. And he has an irresistible call on the loyalty of
Earth's young warriors. With Bean at his side, the two will reshape our
future.
Here is the continuing story of Bean and Petra, and the rest of Ender's Dragon
Army, as they take their places in the new government of Earth.
Shadow of the Giant
Bean, once the smallest student at the Battle School, and Ender Wiggin's right
hand, has grown to be a power on Earth. He served the Hegemon as strategist and
general in the terrible wars that followed Ender's defeat of the alien empire
attacking Earth. Now he wishes for a safe place to build a family–something he
has never known–but there is nowhere on Earth that does not harbor his
enemies–old enemies from the days in Ender's Jeesh, new enemies from the wars
on Earth. To find security, Bean and Petra must once again follow in
Ender's footsteps. They must leave Earth behind, in the control of the Hegemon,
and look to the stars.