Just finished Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card.

This is an interesting idea: it’s not a sequel per se to his more well known award-winning sci-fi novel, Ender’s Game (a HIGHLY recommended book, even for those who aren’t sci-fi junkies…light reading but a great twist and some good commentary on society). This is a re-telling, partially the same story from a different character’s perspective. I thought it would be a lot of re-hash, but it was really cool, a whole new interesting story that just brushed up against the other one. It’s not as good as the original, but just like the first Matrix movie, once an amazing twist has been given away, you can never match it.

Overall, interesting characters and it moves along well. He does tend to get into the main character’s head a little too much and prattle on about why he’s doing what he’s doing. It definitely helps you identify with the character strongly, but gets to be a bit much. If you enjoyed Ender’s Game you’ll enjoy this, and you’ll be surprised at how differently he can retell the same story (but hold true to the original). A funny thing, I went and grabbed the original after a conversation between Bean (the protagonist of Ender’s Shadow) and Ender (the protagonist of Ender’s Game) to see if they matched up. Amazingly, I flipped to the exact page in the middle of the book (which I read a year or two ago) where the conversation had occurred. Strange coincidence! But, he did double check his stuff and had it exactly word for word, though it was interesting to see inside each character’s head a little differently and how they misunderstood the other’s intentions.

I’ll have to consider reading the other three novels in the series, which I believe ARE sequels to the original.