Ender’s Shadow starts off in a future Rotterdam, a city in the Netherlands. The city is a large slum, and children must learn to live on their own. One small child, on the verge of death, approaches a crew leader named Poke, who takes care of several other children. He tells her a plan for them to get food, which involves them getting an older child, referred to as a bully, to support them in exchange for them not killing him. They decide to name him bean because he is so small. Bean watches them get a bully for them, and is amazed at how much they screw it up. They pick a crippled bully named Achilles to represent them, and Bean recognizes how much they butchered the plan and tells them just to kill Achilles. Because of the situation, Bean eventually decides that they should keep Achilles anyway. He turns out to be a great crew leader, now a “papa,” and actually devises a plan to get them into the soup kitchen. Bean decides that even though Poke was incredibly incompetent, she may have miraculously picked a good leader. Eventually, Achilles sets the example for other bullies to get children so they can get into the soup kitchen before those who don’t have children with them, as this is a new rule put into motion by the kitchen owner. A nun who works for the International Fleet eventually learns of the civilization of Rotterdam’s children, and sees prospect in Achilles as a natural born leader. While there, she learns that Bean has the ability to read, and when she tests him, he does better than she had ever seen. She decides to take Bean to the Battle School, which is training to become leaders in the military. There Bean goes, to leave the streets of Rotterdam forever.

This book is a companion book to Ender’s Game, while Ender’s Game focuses on Ender. Both books start off at about the same time, but Ender’s Shadow ends a bit later. Both are excellent books, and I strongly recommend both. These are examples of science fiction in its finest. You can read a review of Ender’s Game here:

http://bookstove.com/science-fiction/enders-game-review/