Though it is classified as a parallel-novel, I would highly recommend reading Ender's Game before you read this book. For one thing, Ender's Shadow gives away key plot elements that would ruin any eventual reading of the original. In addition, you can't really appreciate the story adequately without having read the original. Anyway, I shouldn't have to convince you to read Ender's Game since it is a classic!

Some may argue that Ender's Shadow is a derivative and contrived story, but on the contrary, I feel that it sheds new light on Ender's amazing story and serves to clarify several key plot elements in the original. The novel begins on the streets of Rotterdam where our main character, Bean, is a starving orphan. He is just one of the many impoverished youth wandering the streets of this urban 'hell'. To survive, many of these children have formed into gangs, each lead by one individual in charge of protecting its members and procuring food for them.

In the beginning of the story, we observe Bean's efforts to gain acceptance into one of these gangs in order to survive. From the outset, Card characterizes Bean as a diminutive, yet brilliant individual. His nickname is given to him by his first 'boss', who deems him not even 'worthy of a bean'. The early chapters describe Bean's acceptance and manipulation of the street-system to allow him to survive. These early events clearly display Bean's resourcefulness and innovation that makes him so successful later on in Battle School.

The rest of the book details the events leading up to Bean's entry into Battle School and his eventual training there. Then the story merges with the one told in Ender's Game and chronicles his role in the final battles under Ender's command.

I really enjoyed this book and I think that any fan of the original will appreciate this alternate view of the events described in the original. It is interesting to contrast Bean's character with Ender's. From the beginning, Bean is shown to be every bit as smart if not smarter then Ender. The key difference between the two seems to be Ender's compassion and charisma that enables him to be such an effective leader. These are concepts that Bean is unable to grasp, understandbly coming from an environment where survival is the only key and generosity is a foreign concept. So we see both characters, each with their own strengths and weakness, but when combined together, make the perfect tandem.

My only criticism of this book is regarding some of the realities of Bean's character. Some of his brilliance is almost impossible to imagine. For example, Bean clearly recalls memories of escaping an orphanage when he was just 9-months old! He describes how he managed to hide inside the tank of a toilet. Later on, a more satisfactory explanation of Bean's intelligence is given, but some his feats are a little too extraordinary.

Overall, this is an excellent follow-up to Ender's Game and I would highly recommend it to fans of the original. Card is also writing a sequel to be released early next year, so fans of the series will have more to look forward to!