Ender's Shadow

Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card

This is a companion novel to Ender's Game.......meaning the story is retold from another character's perspective. I think I liked this one just as much as Ender's Game, if not more. I guess I could think that because it is the freshest in my mind.
This story is about Bean. Bean is a tiny little child without a home in the streets of Rotterdam just before the last Bugger war. He joins a 'family' of other children for protection and to stave off starvation. Bean is thought to be four years old yet he is a genius. He recalls being in a 'clean' room with other babies. The other babies disappeared. Somehow Bean knew there was danger, crawled from his crib and hid in a toilet tank. He was found by a janitor. He was near starvation. The janitor took him home but wasn't able to keep him. At this time Bean was less than a year old.
Bean has a super memory and can recall everything he sees. He hides out in the streets trying to stay alive. He finds a 'family' run by a sympathetic little girl.........Poke. He convinces her to get one of the bullies that steal the food from the little ones, to take over the family and give them protection. Poke chooses Achilles (Ah Sheel). Bean knows this boy, although crippled, is dangerous. Achilles, with the help of Bean, turns the streets of Rotterdam from harsh survival towards civilization. Achilles betrays Poke by killing her.
Bean and Achilles are being watched by the government. The government is always looking for genius children to send to battle school. They are building up an army to defeat the Buggers. Sister Carlotta is one of their recruiters. She finds Bean. She tests and teaches him. She realizes that is is inhumanly smart. Sister Carlotta learns from Bean about his impressive memory. She also learns that Achilles is a murderer. She gets Achilles off of the streets and into school in order to keep the government from sending him to Battle School.
When Bean turns five he is sent into space to Battle School. Eventually meeting the famous Ender Wiggin. Bean goes against all of the psychological games that the trainers have set up for all of the students. He is finally put on the new Dragon Army, with Ender as head. They win every war. Meanwhile Bean is a loner. He makes one friend, Nikolia.
On Earth Sister Carlotta finds out that Bean's embryo was stolen along with 22 others and made into tiny geniuses. He is the twin of the genetically undisturbed Nikolia. Bean is the only surviving child of the 23 kidnapped babies. His parents have no idea their embryos where stolen, or that they have another son.
Achilles has his leg reconstructed and is sent to Battle School against good counsel. He plans to kill Bean. The school finds out that Achilles is a serial killer. Bean decides to be proactive. He traps Achilles and gets him to confess to seven murders, including Poke and the doctor that preformed his reconstructive surgery. Achilles is iced.
Bean and Ender are sent to Command School. Bean is only seven. They learn to command ships so that someday they will be able to command the fleets that will kill the Buggers. Bean realizes that this is not 'pretend'. They are actually commanding the fleets. Ender does not know. Ender is the head commander. He and Bean along with other children are able to blow up the Bugger's world and their queens.........saving the Earth from destruction.
Bean seemed to think a lot in this book which was a turn off for some people, but I liked that part. I decided to read this after reading the Ender's Game series. Although I am not a sci-fi fan per say I did really like this. It didn't feel all that sci-fi to me. Much of the time was spent on Earth.
Bean was an amazing little character. I liked to follow his chain of thoughts.
Rating 4.5
Rating PG 13 Language, violence.