The work of a confident master with an absolute grip on his material - SFX

''Card has taken the venerable SF concepts of a superhuman and interstellar war ... and, with superb characterisation, pacing and language, combined them into a seamless story of compelling power.'' - Booklist

Bean was the smallest student at the Battle School, but he became Ender Wiggins' right hand, since then he has grown to be a power on Earth. He served the Hegemon as strategist and general in the terrible wars that followed Ender's defeat of the alien empire attacking Earth.

Now he and his wife Petra yearn for a safe place to build a family - something he has never known - but there is nowhere on Earth that does not harbor his enemies - old enemies from the days in Ender's Jeesh, new enemies from the wars on Earth.

To find security, Bean and Petra must once again follow in Ender's footsteps. They must leave Earth behind, in the control of the Hegemon, and look to the stars.

The fourth book in Orson Scott Card's brilliant Shadow Saga.

Books by Orson Scott Card:

Alvin Maker novels

Seventh Son

Red Prophet

Prentice Alvin

Alvin Journeyman

Heartfire

The Crystal City

Ender Wiggin Saga

Ender's Game

Speaker for the Dead

Xenocide

Children of the Mind

Ender in Exile

Homecoming

The Memory of the Earth

The Call of the Earth

The Ships of the Earth

Earthfall

Earthborn

First Formic War (with Aaron Johnston)

Earth Unaware

Earth Afire

Earth Awakens