Ender's Shadow

A parallel novel to Ender's Game, telling the same war from the other side of the room.

Bean is a starving child on the streets of Rotterdam, small enough to be overlooked and sharp enough to survive it, until an idea he gives to a girl named Poke draws the attention of Sister Carlotta, a nun recruiting for the International Fleet.

She gets him into Battle School, where he is the youngest and smallest launchie there and quietly outscores everyone — including the boy the school has already chosen to save humanity. Watching Ender Wiggin from below, Bean works out what the teachers are doing, what the war really is, and where he himself came from.