Ender's Shadow - Orson Scott Card

Card returns to the beginning of his Ender cycle with this parallel stand-alone novel as powerful as Ender's Game. Ender wasn't the only child in Battle School -- Bean was Ender's right hand, strategist, and friend who was with Ender in the final battle. A tiny child from Rotterdam, Bean's struggle caught the attention of the Battle School's recruiters. \n \nThe novel that launched the bestselling Ender's Shadow series. \n \nThe human race is at War with the Buggers, an insect-like alien race. As Earth prepares to defend itself from total destruction at the hands of an inscrutable enemy, all focus is on the development of military geniuses who can fight such a war, and win. The long distances of interstellar space have given hope to the defenders of Earth--they have time to train these future commanders up from childhood, forging them into an irresistible force in the high orbital facility called the Battle School. Andrew Ender Wiggin was not the only child in the Battle School; he was just the best of the best. In Ender's Shadow, Card tells the story of another of those precocious generals, the one they called Bean--the one who became Ender's right hand, part of his team, in the final battle against the Buggers. Bean's past was a battle just to survive. His success brought him to the attention of the Battle School's recruiters, those people scouring the planet for leaders, tacticians, and generals to save Earth from the threat of alien invasion. Bean was sent into orbit, to the Battle School. And there he met Ender.... \n \nTHE ENDER UNIVERSE \n \nEnder series \nEnder's Game / Ender in Exile / Speaker for the Dead / Xenocide / Children of the Mind \n \nEnder's Shadow series \nEnder's Shadow / Shadow of the Hegemon / Shadow Puppets / Shadow of the Giant / Shadows in Flight \n \nChildren of the Fleet \n \nThe First Formic War (with Aaron Johnston) \nEarth Unaware / Earth Afire / Earth Awakens \n \nThe Second Formic War (with Aaron Johnston) \nThe Swarm /The Hive \n \nEnder novellas \nA War of Gifts /First Meetings\n