Well, from that read, you definitely made the right choice not reading any farther into the Bean series. I feel like OSC didn't start going off the rails until further in. (Like I thought it was further in that Petra had her personality-transplant).

I also haven't read it in quite awhile, but

I enjoyed having a different perspective/narrator on events, and though the book casts Bean as smarter, and I think savvier, than Ender, I didn't think that was a criticism of Ender. I thought that the fact that Bean didn't take over from Ender was him agreeing that Ender was the better choice of leader. I thought he was ready to step up if necessary because Ender was on such a knife-edge, but that he was glad he didn't have to - partly because he didn't want Ender to snap, partly because he thought Ender was good at the job, and partly because he saw the crap that would be coming down the pike for the "savior".

But I can see your reading turning you off. Thanks for your perspective. (Again, I feel like that's reading snotty and Eddie-Haskell-y, which is not what I'm going for). Anyway.

(Like I thought it was further in that Petra had her personality-transplant).

Yeah, I don't recall that being in Ender's Shadow but the later books. I agree with your read of the book.

I don't think that was in Ender's Shadow either, but I recall that being my stopping point.

The OSC book grilling? High point of my day. Thank you, Polgara.

I read Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead after I read Xenocide because that's what was to hand at the time. I think that let me like it more than I would have if I'd been orderly. EG is still a book I recommend, while also linking folks to John Kessel's essay on "Creating the Innocent Killer" [link]

Oh, maybe I'm thinking of the second Bean book then.

Wow, I had no idea all these later books existed. I stopped reading at Xenocide - I forget if that was even a conscious decision. I kind of think it was, but I don't remember what the trigger was at all.

Oh, god, the Dune prequels. I rarely don't complete books, but I believe I stopped reading the first one of those in the middle of a paragraph. And it felt so good. So right. "Ptui, let us not speak of them again" really sums up my feelings, except they are kind of fun to disparage.

I think Xenocide and Children of the Mind are pretty awful so maybe good taste inspired your decision.

The Shadow series runs parallel to Enders Game and after (on Peter Wiggins' earth). A cool concept with horrific execution especially later in the series. And though I didn't hate Ender's Shadow, it felt like a different author. Much less thoughtful and more generic. Like the Foundation novels that weren't written by Asimov. Or the sixth Hitchhiker book that recently came out. Or a good but not mindblowing fan fiction.

They are not to me canon. But then, neither are Xenocide, or Children, or the Star Wars prequels.

I half-liked Xenocide, if I recall; there was enough good stuff for me to feel vaguely positive about it despite the stuff that I didn't like. But Children of the Mind was awful.

Agreed on Children of the Mind.

Ouch. That sucks, Consuela, to feel duped by trusting people, and did out they weren't who you thought. Are you still friends with any of them?