This book occurs during the same time frame as Ender's Game, however the protagonist, rather than Ender, is the super-smart Bean.

Of all the sequels of Ender's Game I've read, this was by far my favorite. If you have just finished Ender's Game and wished you had more, this is the answer. It has the same style as it original, occasionally switching to a higher authority, while following the plight of young Bean, another super-brilliant child- perhaps even more-so than Ender.

Most will find it harder to relate to, since Bean grew up on the streets, but I enjoyed how it filled in more of the Ender's Game universe.

I would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the first.

Open Ender's Shadow and you are trapped. Card's Sci-Fi puts you in the shoes of the tiny bean. You could be sitting on garbage cans looking for food or getting a confession of killing from a Serial killer. Bean will lead you out of this world.
Bean is a genius who lives on the streets of Rotterdam fighting a battle to survive. Sister Carlotta finds him after he convinced a crew led by a girl called Poke to make a bully to protect them and prepares to send him to battle school. When Sister Carlotta hears of the civilized crew she quickly comes to see if one of them is smart enough to lead the forces to protect earth or, in Bean's case the shadow of the supreme commander a boy named Ender.
When Bean secretly witnesses Achilles' murder of poke for embarrassing him he promptly tells Sister Carlotta who ships him off to battle school. When Achilles joins battle school he gets admission and sends him to a mad house. I recommend this book to anyone with a hunger for action.
Card's Ender's Shadow is not merely a book but a work of art. Card starts chapters with a behind the scenes peek. Ender's shadow is a perpendicular to Ender's Game and is part of a "series within a series".

These reviews seem to all be for the book, NOT the audiobook, which is weird since this is the product page for the audiobook. $40 audiobook?... YEA RIGHT. Worst audiobook I've ever listened to...couldn't even stand it to listen through the 2nd chapter. Listen to Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy audiobook...this is just to horrible to sit through.

Now don't get me wrong, the story is great...just not the way this lady is reading it...bored me to tears, not to mention her voice does not fit the part whatsoever.

I have read and re-read Ender's Game; it is a book that I love and recommend over and over to friends. But Ender's Shadow is perhaps even richer. Where Ender's story is in some ways the tale of a golden boy with problems finding his task, Bean's story is far more the rags-to-riches tale, with greater adversity to overcome, and an even greater internal struggle to reach the moral nobility he does finally attain.

The title of Ender's Shadow is doubly poignant. Not only does Bean, the character, struggle to emerge from Ender's shadow within the story, but the book itself will likely always be overshadowed by it's predecessor. But it is truly a great story. Anyone who has ever met with the ugly social pressures generated within groups of children on the playground, or the competition of the modern workplace, will be engrossed by the insights and maneuverings of Bean.

Let me step aside here and say that I have never agreed with typing either Ender's Game or Ender's Shadow as YA books. These books are written for adults. They are active and episodic enough to hold younger readers, but most young readers will not be able to fully appreciate them.

Card has done an amazing job creating a convincing picture of the underworld of the future city of Rotterdam. The modern political conscience will hopefully eradicate such hells as orphaned children struggle in - someday. Right now, I strongly suspect that life for too many kids in some parts of India, Africa, Peru, and many more heavily populated financially divided countries of the third world are very much like this...

The genetic speculations that Card raises are fascinating as well. This story succeeds on its human drama, but the science fiction behind it is another engrossing layer. All in all, this is a book to read and re-read just as frequently as Ender's Game, with all the stimulation and satisfaction of its companion book.

I really liked Ender's Game, and then I read Ender's Shadow....I must say, Ender's Shadow, In my opinion, is just...Better. I love Bean. I believe that may be the reason I like this book so much, because the character Bean is so likable by ME. I love the way Orson Scott Card lays out his characters. All of them have depth. The "scenery" Card paints for us is so speculative. I have this perception of battle school in my head such that I would LOVE to go there. I want to be part of Ender's team. I want to be friends with him and Bean and their friends. I know it sounds silly, but it's true. And isn't that what fiction books are about? Immersing yourself in a fantasy? Card, with his writing, makes it easy for me to Indulge in this series. Whee!

Ender's Shadow is every bit as good as Ender's Game. As others have noted, it's a parallel story which tracks the development of Bean from a starving 2 year old on the streets of Rotterdam all the way through Battle School. As always, it's Card's discussion of big themes like military strategy, civilization, and leadership which make the book. The scenes in Rotterdam as the street children begin to self organize are riveting, as is the character of Achilles. I think you can read this without reading Ender's Game and still get a lot out of it - I don't know why you'd want to skip Ender's game though.

I was VERY impressed with "Ender's Shadow". I read "Ender's Game" several years ago and finished reading the other sequels to it not long ago. I became frustrated and bored with "Xenocide" halfway through, and the less said about "Children of the Mind" the better. Thanks to Mr. Card, my interest in the Ender story has been rekindled through this fine, parallel storyline involving Ender's classmate Bean. Card has always had an understanding of how to develop his character's motivations through their personal philosophy. He has a firm understanding that it is a person's underlying beliefs and their use of knowledge that contributes most heavily to their responses to the world around them. In the character of Bean, the coldly logical aspects of his character determine his actions and allow Bean to reach conclusions based upon his personal view of the world. Card does not cop-out; Bean always behaves in a consistent manner and is one of the strongest characters of Card's career. This story is well told and moves along nicely. The world these people live in is not as "complete" as some people would like it to be, however I found that as a reader I was told everything I needed to know without any unnecessary details. Some may have questions about how the rest of the population of Rotterdam lives their lives, for example, but I didn't care very much since our story revolves around the inner-city children's "crews". Any extra information would have bogged down this story. I don't mean that "Ender's Shadow" is devoid of detail; it isn't. Card delivers the important details such as character motivation, and has the sense enough to skip the rest. The pacing is quick and the scriptwriting is as witty as it is thoughtful. Card has a charming voice when he chooses to; he also has a deadly serious side which pulls no punches. As a science fiction writer, Orson Scott Card follows a different path than most. He doesn't try to explain the high technology ad nauseum like many other writers in this field do. I would liken his SF style to that of Ray Bradbury, meaning that the story takes precedence over the "ohhs and ahhs" of the science. Although this is one of many sequels of "Ender's Game", I don't get the feeling that Card is milking his previous success here. Even though the foundation for this book had already been written, I can appreciate the labor of love that Card poured into this novel. His initial plan had been to co-write or farm out this idea to another writer; that would have been a more telling indicator of "milking" past success than this novel is. Fans of this series have probably read this book already. I would recommend reading it immediately following "Ender's Game" and before "Speaker for the Dead". The other sequels are readable but I'm sure you can live a long and fulfilling life without them.

Great, great book, second only to Lord of the Rings. It's even better than Ender's Game, although not by much. You would think it would be pretty boring to go over the same story again, although slightly different, but that's not the case at all--the story is completely different told from Bean's point of view and it's just as engrossing, if not more. The ending is also a lot more satisfying than the one in Ender's Game. An awesome science fiction book.

As a loyal Card fan, I read it to see what else happened in the Enderverse. This didn't impress me half so much as Ender's Game.

I liked the story but it did not even compare to Enders Game. I also dont like how he made Bean so much smarter then Ender. Also I did not like how Bean did not like Ender at first and then like that he was a devoted friend to him.

This is the best Card book I've read (after EG, of course). i recommend it to anyone, even people who don't like sf

Although a little disturbing because of the opposing viewpoint from Bean, this is just as good as Ender's Game. I didn't expect it to be so thoughtful, since it's told from the point of view of a little boy--but he's not little in his experiences, and it really shows here.