It is concluded by The Last Shadow, a chronologically final novel that caps off both sub-series. Shadows in Flight loses the politics and is more contemporary with the Ender Sequels, though still a Bean story. The Shadow series-whose novels might accurately be described as Thrillers-is a more direct continuation of the original novel and its themes of war and politics (with Hegemon being described by its author as 'a giant game of Risk'), and many more characters from the original book appear in it. The Shadow series then follows Bean in the Twenty More Minutes Into The Future Earth, consisting of Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, and Shadow of the Giant.

The second begins with Ender's Shadow, a retelling of Ender's Game from the viewpoint of Bean, one of his friends.

By Card's admission, Ender's Game was expanded from its short story form just to set up Speaker for the Dead.

The first, consisting of A War of Gifts: An Ender Story, Ender in Exile, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind follow Ender in the far future and focus on worldbuilding and a hefty dose of ethical pondering.

The novel acted as a springboard for multiple series and other associated works, dealing with different time periods in the same canon. He is the only one of his family to be accepted to the school, and so, leaving behind his parents, his loving sister Valentine, and his sadistic brother Peter, he leaves for Battle School.

Meet Andrew 'Ender' Wiggin, six-year-old and third child of his family, a stigma due to the population restriction laws. And the biggest, best game of all is the Battle Room, where they organize into 'armies' and play 41-on-41 zero-G laser tag as the adults look on, searching for future commanders against the incoming menace. There they study physics, mathematics, history, psychology, politics, and play a lot of games. As the threat of a third invasion looms nigh, the world's most talented children are taken to an orbiting Battle School. In the not-too-distant future, mankind has barely survived two invasions by an insectoid alien race, formally known as Formics, but called Buggers by most of the viewpoint characters. Ender's Game is the book that put Orson Scott Card on the map, and it remains his most famous work ever, with its sequel Speaker for the Dead a close second.

Enders game book series