Ender's Game won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards when it was published. The book has gone on to sell well over a million copies, and is one of the most popular SF novels ever written. It tells the story of the boy "Ender" Wiggin and his hard-won victory over an alien race that would have destroyed the Earth and all of humanity.

But Ender was not the only child in the Battle School. 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. The one who was with him in the final battle.

Bean's past was a fight just to survive. He appeared on the streets of Rotterdam, a tiny child with a mind leagues beyond anyone else. His desperate struggle brought him to the attention of the Battle School's recruiters, those people scouring the planet for leaders to save Earth from the threat of alien invasion.