WTF, the whole ender series is epic. DO NOT skip any of them. Card also just released a new book in there series which takes place before speaker for the dead: "Ender in Exile."
The ender series took a dive at speaker and I couldn't get any farther than Xenocide, but the Shadow series was awesome all the way through. Go read it now.
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Anonymous2009-02-15 12:47
both series were crap at the start, don't waste your time
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Anonymous2009-02-17 18:21
Xenocide is decent for the first half of the book. I like how a random scientist invents faster-than-light travel in like 2 weeks just because he TRIES REALLY HARD.
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Anonymous2009-02-22 20:48
I read the shadow series, then went on with xenocide. Kind of took a left turn at xenocide though. It's a different kind of book but I found it ok.
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Anonymous2009-02-24 20:06
Finish the original series, skip the Shadow series.
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Anonymous2009-02-24 21:03
Ender's Game is a must read. I read Speaker because I wanted to know what happened to Ender. Xenocide and CotM are utter crap. Card rambles on through half of those books. If he wasn't an already established writer, those book would never have been published. They sold on the Ender name alone.
The Shadow series could stand alone. The first book is a simple retelling of Ender's Game from Bean's POV. The rest of the series follows Bean in his adventures on Earth.
Unlike Ender, Bean has character; he isn't some whiny little bitch. Bean is smart and he knows it. He also uses that intelligence to manipulate people when he needs to do so, almost as a survivalist trait. The stories are also much deeper in terms of characters with a love story included.