Ender's Shadow, by Orson Scott Card

Sometime around 1994, almost seven years since it was first released, I read this masterpiece of science fiction called "Ender's Game". It was a bittersweet story about a boy being plucked out of home to be trained as a military leader. Mankind faced an enourmous threat and in order to prepare for a third attack by an alien species, it looked for the next great warrior, leader, strategist within its very youngest. The book turned out to be the first in a great series that followed with "Speaker for the Dead", "Xenocide" and "Children of the Mind". There was a big temporal and thematic gap that separated "Ender" from "Speaker", so one often felt that the first installment stood apart from the other books.

Recently, good old Orson Scott Card, retook the universe created in "Ender" and expanded on it. This was not done so as to bridge the gap between the first books and the rest of the series, but to show the same story from a different point of view. As much as the first book was the tale of Andrew Wiggin, "Ender's Shadow" is the tale of Bean, a boy wonder saved from death by starvation, at the age of four, by a street gang. This book retells the story of the first, but it's in no way predictable or less exciting. Card has a knack for packing a heart into his stories and "Ender's Shadow" beats with it.

Throughout the book, the terrors and injustices of war are expounded through the voice of a child. Bean is no normal kid, though. At the age of four, he knows much in the art of survival and manipulation. One needs to use a bit of suspension of disbelief to get through quite a few pages, but eventually it becomes clear why Bean is so special. It's sort of impossible not to feel with him, not to ride his waves of excitement and sadness, not to get caught in his Tom Sawerish adventures, not to appreciate his sarcasm and wit. This is a delightful book that I recommend to anyone interested in science fiction, having read "Ender" or not. It's a companion book and I think it can be best appreciated if read after "Ender", but it definitely is self-contained.

A sequel to it, "Shadow of the Hegemon", is already out and I can't wait to get my hands on it. Also, it seems that Card already has plans for two more books in the same universe after that, so if you're a fan, rejoice!