Shadow of the Giant

infobox Book |
name = Shadow of the Giant
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Front cover
author = Orson Scott Card
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = Ender's Game series
genre = Science fiction
publisher = Tor Books
release_date = 2005
media_type = Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
pages = 368 pp
isbn = ISBN 0-312-85758-6
preceded_by = Shadow Puppets
followed_by = Shadows in Flight

"Shadow of the Giant" (2005) is the fourth novel in Orson Scott Card's Ender's Shadow series (often called the Bean Quartet).

Plot summary

As the novel begins, a belief is spreading in conquered China that the government has lost the Mandate of Heaven. Han Tzu meets up with Mazer Rackham, who passes him a blow dart pen, calling it the "Mandate of Heaven". Shortly afterwards, Han Tzu overthrows the Chinese government and installs himself as the new emperor.

Peter Wiggin, Hegemon of Earth, along with Petra Arkanian, comes to visit Alai, Caliph of the Muslim League. The two help Alai realize that he is little more than a glorified prisoner, and that others have been ruling Islam in his stead. After uncovering a conspiracy against him, Alai resolves to take firmer control of his nation, and to treat the peoples he wrested away from China as human beings, and not like animals, as they were being treated before.

The rest of the book deals with Peter Wiggin working to create a world government free of war through his Free People of Earth (FPE) alliance. Caliph Alai of the Muslim League and Virlomi, now the virtual goddess of India, oppose his efforts. Against this backdrop of world political machinations by the former Battle School children is the extremely personal story of Bean. Anton's Key is making him grow at an astounding rate and he has only a short time before his body will become too large for his heart to support. He searches frantically for his and Petra's missing children.

The Free People of Earth begins with only five countries. The first test of the FPE comes when they recognize a crossborder tribe that one country goes to war to retain. Peter sends Bean with Rwandan and Thai troops to show that war against one FPE member is war against all of them. Their victory strikes fear into the nations of the world, and they begin to join the FPE to avoid conflict with Bean's well-trained and efficient army.

Meanwhile, Bean suspects that Peter is embezzling Ender's military pension to fund the FPE, so he requests that Ender's funds be placed under the control of an autonomous computer. Col. Graff has the Mind Game, (which later becomes Jane), reprogrammed to accurately predict financial markets, and invest Ender's pension accordingly. The machine also limits the search for Bean's missing children from tens of thousands of possible recipients to hundreds. The International Fleet finds eight of the nine missing children, two of whom have Anton's Key turned, as does the baby Petra is carrying. But Achilles planted the ninth child into a woman named Randi, brainwashed to think that it is the baby of Achilles, to her a hero assassinated by foul enemies. To avoid persecution, Randi determines to leave Earth and live in a colony, where she can raise her child (who appears to have Anton's Key turned, as the baby was born prematurely earlier than usual) to become the new Achilles.

With the secret help of Mazer Rackham, Bean divorces Petra, takes the children with Anton's Key and flies away on a starship provided by the Fleet to achieve relativistic speeds and thereby stay alive long enough for medical researchers to find a cure. Bean's departure breaks Petra's heart, but she becomes Peter's military commander, eventually marrying and having five children with him. By the end of the novel, all of the world's nations, except the United States, have joined the FPE. Peter reconciles with Ender via ansible, giving the "Speaker for the Dead" all he needs to write "The Hegemon", a deeply felt and truthful biography of his brother.

ee also

*List of characters in the Ender's Game series
*Concepts in the Ender's Game series
*List of works by Orson Scott Card

External links

* [http://www.hatrack.com/osc/books/shadowofthegiant/shadowofthegiant.shtml About the novel "Shadow of the Giant" from Card's website]