By Orson Scott Card

Release Date: September 1999 (First Edition)
August 2000 (International Mass Market Edition)
December 2000 (First U.S. Mass Market Edition)
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Description: Ender’s Shadow is a parallel novel to Ender’s Game and its direct sequel is Shadow of the Hegemon.

“The human race is at War with the ‘Buggers,’ an insect-like alien race. The first battles went badly, and now as Earth prepares to defend itself against the imminent threat of total destruction at the hands of an inscrutable alien enemy, all focus is on the development and training 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 this new book, Card tells the story of another of those precocious generals, the one they called Bean — the one who became Ender’s right hand, his strategist, and his friend. One who was with him, part of his team, in the final battle against the Buggers.

Bean’s past was a battle just to survive. He first appeared on the streets of Rotterdam, a tiny child with a mind leagues beyond anyone else’s. He knew he could not survive through strength; he used his tactical genius to gain acceptance into a children’s gang, and then to help make that gang a template for success for all the others. He civilized them, and lived to grow older.

Bean’s desperate struggle to live, and 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. . . .”

Book Length: 480 pages (Tor mass market edition)

Awards and Achievements: Winner: 1999 SF Site Reader’s Choice
Winner: 2000 Young Adult Library Service Association’s Alex Awards
Winner: 2001 Geffen Award (Best Translated Science Fiction Book)
Winner: 2008 Margaret A. Edwards Award
Nominee: 2000 Locus Award
Nominee: 2005 Abraham Lincoln Illinois High School Book Award
1999 New York Times bestseller
2000 placed on American Library Association’s Best Books for Young Adults
2004 placed on American Library Association Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults

Reviews: “You can’t step into the same river twice, but Card has gracefully dipped twice into the same inkwell–once for Ender’s Game, and again for his stand-alone ‘parallel novel’. As always, everyone will be struck by the power of Card’s children, always more and less than human, perfect yet struggling, tragic yet hopeful, wondrous and strange.” -Publishers Weekly

“The publishing equivalent of a Star Wars blockbuster.” -New York Daily News

“[Ender’s Shadow] is entertaining, fast-paced science fiction. don’t be surprised is [it] wins the Huge and Nebula like its acclaimed predecessor.” -CNN Interaction

“The author’s superb storytelling and his genuine insight into the moral dilemmas that lead good people to commit questionable actions make this title a priority purchase for most libraries.” -Library Journal

“Card is always at his best, as here, when he’s writing about children: an absorbing, near-flawless performance that, while fully intelligible , should send everyone scurrying to read the original.”
-Kirkus Review

“[Ender’s Shadow is] a strong, encouraging, enlightening story that reads as brave and as bright as the young adult  novels since Heinlein, but with enough depth, breadth, and Dickensian squalor to stand proudly alongside any mainstream novel on your shelf.” -The San Diego Union-Tribune

“An excellent addition to the series, which will leave readers panting for the installment.” -Kliatt