The Last Shadow

Other Tales from the Ender Universe

By: Orson Scott Card

Narrated by: Emily Rankin, Gabrielle de Cuir, John Rubinstein, Justine Eyre, Kirby Heyborne, Orson Scott Card, Scott Brick, Stefan Rudnicki, Judy Young

Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

Orson Scott Card's The Last Shadow is the long-awaited conclusion to both the original Ender series and the Ender's Shadow series, as the children of Ender and Bean solve the great problem of the Ender Universe - the deadly virus they call the descolada, which is incurable and will kill all of humanity if it were allowed to escape from Lusitania.

One planet.

Three sapient species living peacefully together.

And one deadly virus that could wipe out every world in the Starways Congress, killing billions.

Is the only answer another great Xenocide?

This program is read by Emily Rankin, Gabrielle de Cuir, John Rubinstein, Judy Young, Justine Eyre, Kirby Heyborne, Orson Scott Card, Scott Brick, and Stefan Rudnicki.

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books

©2021 Orson Scott Card (P)2021 Macmillan Audio

As bad as good literature can get before being bad

Lets get this out of the way first: Should you listen to this book if you have listened or read the whole Enderverse before that? I'd say yes. This will give some sense of closure. However, for me it was at times really difficult to keep on listening. Remember endless family bantering in earlier books? Yes, it's back. The grandchildren of bean are characterized in ways that defy any psychological logic and those characterizations seem to be needed to produce endless bantering. I found it both boring and not credible. The character of the reborn Ender in Peters body makes no sense whatsoever, feels completely absurd and I don't know what this character is doing there in the first place. Furthermore, there are a couple of new characters, which are not needed for the story and just make it feel cluttered.
Moreover there is again, as in earlier books this "droning on", which I don't know if it comes from the written word or the narrators. It didn't even put me to sleep, because if was too annoying.
But what surprised me most was really just the problems mere writing skills. In dialogs there is an endless "he said, she said, they said" like there was no other word but "said" or "asked" to recite a dialog. It really comes across sometimes like a high school essay. Cheap hack writers who throw out 5 books a year write more beautifully by a margin. And this from Card? I don't understand it.
The purpose of the descolada Virus is explained and it is very obvious that the writer needed to correct an earlier mistake he made to do so in a way he found to make sense. His reasoning is explained in a personal note in the end. He has obviously not read the three body problem, since that would also help make sense for the descolada virus.
That being said, the most interesting thing in the book is indeed the personal note of the author in the end. I like the guy, he feels likeable and humble to me. Also, I believe he is quite religious, I'm not, but I never felt a single strain of dogmatism from any of his books. The opposite: There seemed a spiritual openness to be coming through and I thought this was very classy. I'm really sorry I can't give a better review, but listening to this book really was not fun. It felt off in so many places I wouldn't even know where to start.

AMAZING

After reading the other reviews on Audible about this book, I was very skeptical to say the least. I have listened to every single book in the xenocide series and the shadow series and a couple of the prequel books. I believe the other reviews are unjustified. If you have read, at least the Xenocide and shadow series, you should be able to comprehend, understand, and enjoy this entire book. I am a sci-fi, lover, and Enders game was one of the first books that I truly enjoyed listening to. Because of this have made it a goal of mine to obtain and listen to the rest of the Ender-verse novels. I have listened to all of the books ( including this one ) through high-quality Headphones and experienced no issues in the audio. I think that Orson Scott Card introducing a few new, intelligent species/modified humans was fantastic and a great way to tie together the shadow and Xenocide series. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves sci-fi, and has read those two series. I think they have to owe this novel with love and an open mind. I thought the overall content of the story was great and I especially enjoyed the afterword by Orson Scott Card. Like I previously stated, the performance was great as well and overall I am absolutely glad that I decided to ignore the other reviews and listen to this book.

incredible ending to a really amazing story

top notch writing and performance. Orson Scott Card never ceases to deliver. full cast of talented performers and voices. absolutely satisfying.

it was amazing

I definitely never thought the route it actually took the history I am very pleased with the results. superb job like always mister Orson Scott Card.

Who…edited this?

Don’t get me wrong, this is my favorite author, these are my favorite audio book actors because of these stories, and I encourage everyone to listen to these. But who the heck is the other voice that keeps popping up? Definitely a couple times in chapter 5, there is a different voice inserted to edit words. Please fix this.

I should have guessed

Card refuses to completely finish his stories. If the prospective reader has come this far down the threads that lead here, that should not be a surprise. his storytelling is on par with the other parts. like another author who made multiple independent stories come together, his greatest challenge was keeping the cast reasonable. lots of characters need to share the stage to resolve what will be resolved. he did this well. I like the solution to the threat, I might wish that the apparently hostile people were dealt with, but then solitary confinement is perhaps punishment enough. I am glad I found this book, and heard it. the performance was excellent as always.

Clearly a wrap-up of an outstanding series.

Nostalgic and clearly the end of a great series and story. A little too much of a fantasy type story for me. It was clearly a wrap-up of children of key characters, their flaws and their struggles to become somewhat "acceptable" in maturing process. Sad to see it end, but the story is done and the books finished.

Voice issues

It’s crazy that the editing of the voices is worse on this classic than on lighter sci-fi.

Going to miss the shadows

Great conclusion to an entire universe as much as I would love to see another 15 or 20 books I’m fairly happy with how the whole series was concluded in this book 

It was an ending sort of

After 20 years of following the books of the Enderverse, I have to admit this felt like a bit of a letdown, and in some ways felt a bit childish compared to the other books. I guess it just wasn't the conclusion I was waiting for.