Ender Quartet vs. the Shadow Series: Dare to Compare?

by Chris

Welcome to the Enderverse . . . A world as vast as the universe itself, that spans across a timeline of over 3000 years. You are now in the Enderverse. As long as you’re here you might as well read this review!

For those who don’t know Ender’s Game is one of the greatest sci-fi novels ever and over a decade later spawned a parallel novel, Ender’s Shadow. Both books generated sequels (Game has 3 sequels and Shadow has 2 as well as an unreleased one) creating a 7, soon to be 8 book series which we like to call the Enderverse.

Now that that long-winded introduction is over we can talk about which series is better. Ender’s Game is about a strategic war game played with prepubescent children. We also get a look into politics with the storyline revolving around Peter and Valentine or Locke and Demosthenes. But that’s only the first book the rest of the series is decidedly philosophical, while Ender’s Shadow and the rest of its series is mostly about war and politics. To be honest I find war and politics a lot more interesting than philosophy; I think most teenagers agree. Also the Ender Quartet is slower paced, but then again I guess it would be. Ender lives a fairly long life and Bean will be dead by the age of 20.

From Ender’s Game to Speaker for the Dead we are shot forward 3,000 years and Ender ages just 20. Still, despite the relativity effect it’s a bit annoying that we miss an important part of Ender’s life. While with Bean you get to follow him through his puberty and way more awkward than normal adolescence. You feel a deeper connection to the character with which you can follow from childhood to adulthood.

While Ender was a Third in a nuclear family in the suburbs Bean was a street urchin struggling to survive in the hellish streets of Rotterdam. As far as interesting backgrounds go I think I have to give it to Bean. Some might say Bean is far more angsty than Ender because he seems to blame the deaths of the people he loved most on himself. He actually doesn’t even consider himself to be human (which technically he isn’t). But Ender has the genocide (xenocide, actually) of an entire alien race on his conscience and holds that in for over a millennia. So as far as angst goes even though he doesn’t cry about it as much as Bean or grunge music from the early ‘90s I’d have to give it to Ender.

When you consider characters I have to say that Bean is more interesting. Aside from the fact that his universe is faster paced he is also just more interesting. While Ender did great things while in his youth Ender Wiggin himself for a large portion of his life was just plain boring. It may be the idea of Ender the Xenocide or the Speaker for the Dead that excited or inspired people, but he, himself did not. While Bean, as Anton said, was a short blast of fireworks rather than a slow-burning candle. In a matter of years he went from street urchin to a veteran of war. He killed his nemesis Achilles and helped Peter to become Hegemon.

This is somewhat irrelevant, but let’s face it . . . Bean’s wife (Petra) is a lot cooler than Novinha (Ender’s wife). Petra was also a veteran of war and fellow member of Ender’s jeesh. Novinha was a nagging old hag who bored her husband to death. But back to the subject . . .
  
In my oh-so-humble opinion Ender is a character with whom more people can relate. Bean is a bit colder and more alien. Ender is also a hero, which doesn’t necessarily make him more popular. Maybe in the Luke Skywalker age but today more people prefer someone with an ambiguous moral compass, like Bean. Bean was willing to kill and he did so intentionally. Only once, though. Ender killed twice in addition to an entire alien race, but every time he did so inadvertently. So who’s the hero and who’s the anti-hero? You be the judge.

Now it’s time for me to be the judge. To say that either of these series is less than fantastic is sacrilege. And anyone to utter such blasphemy will be struck down by the lightning bolts of Thor! Or was that Zeus? Anyway, my point is (yes there is one) that both series are great and it’s difficult to choose one over the other, also it’d probably be best to read them all in the order in which they were written. I think you get a better understanding of the entire universe that way. But as for the better series, for all you teens out there I would have to suggest the Shadow series. It’s faster paced and just a bit more interesting. Read the Enderverse novels. Once you step in you won’t want to leave. Except of course for meals and bathroom breaks.