ENDER'S SHADOW

One of today's most prominent science fiction authors, Orson Scott Card writes a "parallel novel," in which a secondary character from his blockbuster ENDER'S GAME is the central protagonist. We see new aspects of the original action, with former background material rising to life and illuminating the main story. Fantastic Audio employs its usual ensemble approach: Various narrators take the characters' dialogue, while Michael Gross reads the narrative in between. Because the readers are well chosen--William Windom and Juliet Mills among them--the technique works well, except that the mastermind of the series (Stefan Rudnicki) often speaks too softly, and traffic noise drowns him out. Still, the program is nicely done. D.R.W. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 02/ JAN 03]