Ender's Shadow

Brief Explanation of the Ender's game series:

1) ENDER'S GAME: Pretty much stand alone book. Released first.

-------Sequels------------
2) Speaker for the Dead: Called a sequel. True. 2000 years after Ender's game.
3) Xenocide: This is really, an exact sequel to Speaker.
4) Children of the Mind: Don't know too much about it, but it's another exact sequel making it a trilogy for 2-3-4.

------Parallel Novels-------
5) Ender's Shadow: Reads parallel to Ender's Game, on the exact same timeline. But released after all the others.

So I finished Ender's Shadow after having to hold it at the library 2 consecutive times. :D ... right.
Cut to the chase:
The things I liked about Ender's Shadow:
The streets of Rotterdam, and the command school on Eros. The middle sections were basically boring because they kinda just repeat stuff that already happened in Game.
The conversations between Bean/Graff/Teachers were some of the best stuff. The way they discuss everything, details, military secrets, and Bean makes them all paranoid... it's just awesome.
And the ending where Bean and Graff finally can be friends because the war is over... that was just nice.
I did not like:
You basically revisit the same locations as Game and you know eventually what's going to happen, so... it's not as good. And the way Bean practically reveals all the "twists" from Ender's game...
And the total concept isn't just as fleshed out as Ender's Game. Ender's Game is more like an ultimate-cinematic movie that covers every angle of this futuristic war. Shadow is more just the story of Bean and how he sees and responds to the world he's in. It's not as spectacular but still a good story.
Also how Bean seems to be in control of everything. Like it seems he's really the BEST and he helped Ender think Ender was the BEST so it gets all weird.
I somewhat liked Bean as a character in Ender's Game. But for large portions of Shadow, he came off to me as arrogant and "too smart for his own good." But eventually by the end of the story, I wound up liking him again.
Random Stuff:
Apparently, the majority of adults in the future will all be out-spoken, speak in a sarcistic manner, and use many allegories to make their points. Just Card's writing style as always.
-------------------------------------

Shadow is still not as good as Ender's Game, but you can't expect it to be, because it covers the same base material. But it is still a good book, and expands on certain things from Game.
Ender's Shadow: 8.0/10.