Finished, done, completed. That is my current status of the Ender and Shadow sagas of the Enderverse by Orson Scott Card. That is a total of eleven books, one being a short story and one a collection of 4 short stories including the original Ender story. While strictly not finished as there is a last and final book coming out in the future (no date announced) but I deem it, for now, complete and I can move on to another book/s and start some of the comics I have bought recently. The book titles are;

• Ender’s Game
• Speaker for the Dead
• Xenocide
• Children of the Mind
• Ender’s Shadow
• Shadow of the Hegemon
• Shadow Puppets
• Shadow of the Giant
• A war of gifts: an Ender story (short)
• Ender in Exile
• First Meetings in the Enderverse (collection of 4 shorts including the original Ender story)

This is the order I have read them in and every book currently available for this saga. From that you can probably tell how much I loved this series, starting a year or so ago I found out about this saga, not only did the short blurb spark my interest as a book series that I can get my teeth into which hasn’t happened for some time but I saw it as a challenge since I haven’t taken on a saga such as this for again, a very long time, maybe even back to when the Harry Potter books were first released. On the 29th of November 2009 I bought the first three and it began, over the next few weeks I finished the three I had bought and then purchased the next 3, becoming more and more fixated on the universe, finishing those, I made the final purchase of the last 5 and on the 21st of May 2010 I have finished the last book; First Meetings. 11 books in 6 months? poor form you might say, but in my defence I read them in batches while playing several games at the same time and was so engrossed in each book that I made sure to read it at a comfortable pace to absorb all the details that are thrown at you rather than the skim reading that I used to do back in school with the books that I HAD to read.

Now this is the point where I should probably review each book and give an opinion on each one before judgeing each saga and the Enderverse as a whole; fat chance, I’m not a book reviewer and I’m glad I don’t have to, I don’t think I would be able to convey all the details and plots these books have without going into too much detail and making the reviews bloated beyond need however I will give a rough opinion on the entire series as a whole and if I recommend them to other Sci-Fi fans (YES!)

As a whole they tie extremely well together while developing the story and adding new characters that intertwine that makes each book unique yet familiar, I have read people complaining that the writing is plain and lacks detail, in some minor cases this may be true but I much prefer a plain style than to get my mind around obscure words and over detailed descriptions that are placed in just because the author wanted to flex his lexical skills or to make up for the readers lack of imagination. My personal favourite was the first (Ender’s Game) and the rest of the Ender Saga was quite different in pace and topic which was unexpected but nothing that would put me off from finishing the series (I finished it didn’t I?) and did add to the development of Ender’s character massively. I found the Shadow Saga to more interesting as a whole especially Ender’s Shadow that is a parallel to Ender’s game and each Shadow book was more consistent in standard and pace however the standard of the series never dips below great.

The books cover many topics, mainly war and childhood but also religion, politics, relationships and death; this promotes the series from just Sci-Fi to something more, something that is universal no matter the reader and the Sci-Fi elements are explained but not to the point of trying to teach you university level maths, it is kept as simple as needed to follow the story and understand the plot and no more, no less. Like I said I would keep it brief, but would I recommend them? that depends, if you are not going to read the whole series to get the full plot and development of each character then it probably isn’t the best saga to get into, each book is readable on their own but you would miss so much that it would take away from the full experience. If you want something in Sci-Fi but not overwhelming, something universal and enthralling on many levels, then yes, this is the book series for you, in fact any Sci-Fi reader should enjoy this story.

One thing I will comment on, mainly after reading comments on some sites and this one seemed to stand out; Published in 1985, Card got almost everything right in modern society, from the prevalence of technology in laptop type computers although we are not at 3D holograms yet, to blogging, which is a major turning point of Ender’s sister and brother Valentine and Peter in the story and the basis for what happens next in many of the books. It’s incredible how well it was “predicted” and it shows just how well these books stand up in today’s modern world.