Finished Ender's Shadow [1/09/2008]

You'd think covering the same time period and a lot of the same events as Ender's Game only from Bean's perspective would be too predictable and lack the suspense of the original. Well Card pulled it off. I was just as interested this time through Battle School.

The timing was great: I didn't think any parts of the story were too long or too short. I think the editors may have listened to readers complaints about too much philosophy/theoretical diversions in Xenocide and Children of the Mind. Personally, I wasn't bothered by it in those books. But, I can see how those criticisms may have made this book a cleaner read and kept it at the right length.

Card really succeeded in getting me invested in Bean's character. I was happy to find he continued writing more books with Bean. I'm interested to see him grow (literally and metaphorically).