The Last Shadow

Written by Orson Scott Card

Narrated by Orson Scott Card, Emily Rankin, Gabrielle de Cuir and 6 more

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 is 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

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Release date: Nov 16, 2021
• ISBN: 9781250818164

Orson Scott Card

Orson Scott Card is best known for his science fiction novel Ender's Game and its many sequels that expand the Ender Universe into the far future and the near past. Those books are organized into the Ender Saga, which chronicles the life of Ender Wiggin; the Shadow Series, which follows on the novel Ender's Shadow and is set on Earth; and the Formic Wars series, written with co-author Aaron Johnston, which tells of the terrible first contact between humans and the alien "Buggers." Card has been a working writer since the 1970s. Beginning with dozens of plays and musical comedies produced in the 1960s and 70s, Card's first published fiction appeared in 1977--the short story "Gert Fram" in the July issue of The Ensign, and the novelette version of "Ender's Game" in the August issue of Analog. The novel-length version of Ender's Game, published in 1984 and continuously in print since then, became the basis of the 2013 film, starring Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis, and Abigail Breslin. Card was born in Washington state, and grew up in California, Arizona, and Utah. He served a mission for the LDS Church in Brazil in the early 1970s. Besides his writing, he runs occasional writers' workshops and directs plays. He frequently teaches writing and literature courses at Southern Virginia University. He is the author many science fiction and fantasy novels, including the American frontier fantasy series "The Tales of Alvin Maker" (beginning with Seventh Son), and stand-alone novels like Pastwatch and Hart's Hope. He has collaborated with his daughter Emily Card on a manga series, Laddertop. He has also written contemporary thrillers like Empire and historical novels like the monumental Saints and the religious novels Sarah and Rachel and Leah. Card's work also includes the Mithermages books (Lost Gate, Gate Thief), contemporary magical fantasy for readers both young and old. Card lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife, Kristine Allen Card. He and Kristine are the parents of five children and several grandchildren.

Reviews for The Last Shadow

[Cameron St.Michael · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

A letdown in the series. It takes some of the least interesting characters from the series and gives a rather uninteresting finale to a story that had been rather deep at times. Instead, almost all the deeper relationship issues are tossed together into a story with little suspense. With such an extremely limited cast, it doesn't ever really build up more about the characters than a surface veneer, and tosses aside most of the character development done in the original books. The downward spiral of the Shadow series hits bottom with this rather unnecessary installment.

[Ruan · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A good novel in its own right and certainly worth a read, but it does fall short of the very high expectations I had for the last entry in such an excellent series. It lets the enderverse kind of fizzle out rather than reaching a worthy climax.