SFDG -> Specific Books -> Ender's Shadow
On a ten-point scale (1=bad, 10=good), people who read
the book gave the following ratings: 6 (Ignacio
Viglizzo), 7, 7, 7, 8, 8, 9, 9 (Dedaimia Whitney), 9 (Raja
Thiagarajan), 10
Average: 8.0
During the meeting Raja argued that the book
was better written than Ender's Game in terms of
style, pacing, and characterization--but it doesn't seem to have
had nearly as much impact on people. Judy
argued that this was because the book didn't have any surprises
for people who read Ender's Game. Raja disagreed,
saying that the people and things that were most important to
Bean didn't even appear in the earlier book. After some
discussion, the consensus was that, while the book had solid
characterization and good plotting, it didn't bring any new
science-fictional ideas
to the table, and this may have
been the reason for its lesser impact.
Interestingly enough, Chris Stanley hadn't read Ender's Game before this book. She loved this book, and is very interested in reading Ender's Game. The rest of us are very interested in hearing about her reactions to it ;-).