(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?

Swear to god I'd deleted that: it was supposed to be in Natter.

I'm still online friends with most of them, although I haven't seen any of them in some time; most of them live in the midwest.