Product Description

Bean, Ender Wiggins' former right-hand man, has shed his reputation as the smallest student at Battle School. He has completed his military service for the Hegemon, acting as strategist and general in the terrible wars that followed Ender's defeat of the alien empire that attacked Earth. Now he and his wife, Petra, yearn for a safe place to build a family - something he has never known. Yet no such place exists on Earth, a world riddled with Bean's enemies from the past. Once again he must follow in Ender's footsteps and look to the stars.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #82892 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Review
Praise for Orson Scott Card 'A great action-orientated plot' THE TIMES, 'Literate, provocative, moving, thrilling ... a hard act to follow...The work of a confident master with an absolute grip on his material' SFX

Synopsis
Bean, Ender Wiggins' former right-hand man, has shed his reputation as the smallest student at Battle School. He has completed his military service for the Hegemon, acting as strategist and general in the terrible wars that followed Ender's defeat of the alien empire that attacked Earth. Now he and his wife, Petra, yearn for a safe place to build a family - something he has never known. Yet no such place exists on Earth, a world riddled with Bean's enemies from the past. Once again he must follow in Ender's footsteps and look to the stars.

About the Author
Orson Scott Card is the award-winning author of ENDER'S GAME, SPEAKER FOR THE DEAD and XENOCIDE. He lives with his wife and three children in the US.

Customer Reviews

Worth reading, but not stunning
On his good days Orson Scott Card is one of the best science fiction authors out there - interesting thoughtful stories and realistic characters with believable motives and flaws. Even on his bad days his work is better than most of the science fiction out there.

Ender's Game has to be one of the classic science fiction works and I was very happy to see OSC write more books in the same universe. After Ender's Game OSC wrote 3 more books following Ender Wiggan after then Bugger War when he is no longer remembered as a hero but instead the man responsible for the death of an entire species (this is not entirely fair since Ender was unaware at the time that he was doing anything more than participating in a strategy game).

The Shadow Saga follows on from Ender's Game but does not feature Ender at all, instead OSC explores what happens to some of the other major characters, particularly "Bean" the boy genius instrumental in Ender's victory over the buggers. I have to say that I prefer the books that feature Ender as some parts of the Shadow series do drag a little and do tend to harp on about the amazing tactical skills of the Battle School graduates (Book 3: Shadow Puppets was one of the least impressive IMO).

OSC has set himself a challenge since he has to describe the campaigns fought by military geniuses while not (presumably) being one himself.

Worth reading if you enjoyed the Ender books.

Something new now please Mr. Card!
I bought this latest (and last?) volume in the Ender related Bean saga in the hope that I would enjoy it more than the preceding volume. I did not. Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead were amongst the most enjoyable books I ever did read. The first volume in the Bean Series was very good as well. As the volumes went on though plots became more and more convoluted, global politics too much of a feature and I enjoyed the tales less an less.
I hope Orson Scott Card will return to form soon. It's science fiction rather than political fiction I would like to see and more personal stories.

Works for me...
Given the haphazard chronological writing order of the post-Ender books, tying up all the loose ends was always going to be tricky. OSC has managed to keep a strong and coherent narrative that fills in many gaps, fleshes out some pivotal relationships, and still has his hallmark strengths of thoroughly-believable dialogue and emotionally-charged developments.

Yes, the ending is perhaps both a bit pat and also a tad inconclusive, but this is the end of a huge series. As the titles have acknowledged, all of the books have suffered from being in the shadow of Ender's Game, and yet along the journey (and especially in this book) we now understand far more about the other pivotal figure, Peter.

Frankly, if you've come this far, you'd be mad to miss this.