I am not sure I agree with this. For the first time in the history of a message board, I mean that literally and without sarcasm. Which is to say, I am undecided. Does Bean’s tale diminish Ender. Three thoughts came to mind when I read BEan’s books.
(1) Since it is from the perspective of Bean, maybe his unblemished confidence skewed the view. Basically, he gave himself too much credit. Nothing in the book suggests this, it was just a feeling. Perhaps because I already had a high opinion of Ender’s character while reading the book.
(2) Bean’s genetic enhancement actually brings Ender back up a notch. Becuase of Card’s narrative in the EG, I too was jealous when Bean got bumped up to Command School. He was doing something earlier than Ender. Now, since he was genetically altered, it somehow “righted” that. Don’t ask me why.
(3) Did Bean’s machinations matter? Would Ender have saved the universe anyway? It’s been a while since I’ve read them, but I got the feeling that despite Bean’s role in it, it was still Ender’s Game.
RESPONSE TO RESPONSE TO…MORE SPOILERS
Hmmm…trying to figure out how I feel about this as I go along. Bear with me…
I don’t feel that Ender’s story is dimished by the revelations about Bean. A great deal of the story after Ender’s Game goes to point out that, in fact, Ender was not the infallible genius he believed himself to be. He could and did make mistakes. Witness his somewhat thoughtless assumption that Val wanted to follow him all over the galaxy, and all his problems with Novinha and her children. I think that it was this realization about himself (that he, like everybody else, often made and acted on unfounded assumptions about people), that led him to his career as a Speaker. In other words, he needed to really pay attention to people and figure out what makes them tick because in the past he had dealt with them only on the basis of how they affected him. So the fact that he was unaware of the extent to which Bean was misleading him does not seem necessarily inconsistent.
On the other hand, there are certainly hints that Ender was aware of what Bean was doing to a greater extent than he allowed Bean to believe. Also instances that showed Bean was not quite as clever as he believed himself to be. For example, his misunderstanding of the role that (damn! can’t remember her name—the top girl student) had in Ender’s confrontation with Achilles.
Also, I think the fact of Bean being, in fact, a great deal smarter than Ender, and a better tactician, illustrates the point of what the actual qualities of a good leader are. Ender was selected, not just for his tactical genius, but for his abilities to inspire loyalty and his understanding of group dynamics.
As for wishing Bean was more like an ordinary kid, well, there were no ordinary kids in Battle School. That was the point. If you (as an author) want to have someone be the best of the best of the best, you have to go to extremes.
Anyway, to reiterate the part of my last post that you didn’t quote, I see your (and dpr’s) point, but I liked the book anyway.
Excellent point. I forgot this one. I also remember thinking of this when I read ES. Doesn’t Bean actually mention something to this effect at one point?
Yes, IIRC. Actually, I believe it is brought up in Ender’s Game as well.
Thanks. I think I need to re-read them soon.
[hijack]
For a really great Sci-Fi read, check out Dark Beyond the Stars by Frank M. Robinson. A sci/fi Noir feeling.[/hijack]
I got the impression from “Children of the Mind” that Card was trying to cram as much closing philosophy into the book as he possibly could. A lot of speeches by different characters all expressing the same points.
Tapswiller & watsonwil – Actually, you both make good points I hadn’t necessarily taken into consideration. On my next re-read, I will endeavor to examine those more closely.
FWIW, though, I freely admit that I much preferred Speaker and Xenocide to the other books, as I got way more into the religious and political stuff than I did into the tactical and military. Maybe it’s a girl thing 
Good timing on this thread - I’m on a big Card kick in the past week or so - finally finished Shadow of the Hegemon and went on to Seventh Son and Red Prophet.
Ender’s Game is one of my favorite books in all the world and, to date, the only book that’s ever made me tear up even the second time I read it. I checked out Speaker for the Dead from the library once but wasn’t able to get into it. Probably I’ll go back to it one day.
The Shadow Saga is a different story, though - much more of the stuff I liked Ender’s Game for, right off the bat. It’s not as tightly plotted (see below) or generally wonderful as Ender’s Game, and I actually liked the Bean of Ender’s Shadow substantially less than the one in Ender’s Game - but if the military tactics and the development of the political situation on Earth were part of what attracted you to Ender’s Game, you’ll definitely want to check it out.
The Alvin Maker books - well, they’re fairly well-written and everything, but the story hasn’t really grabbed me. Alvin’s world - an alternate version of our world around 1800 or so, where history’s taken a few different turns, and folk magic works - is very cool, but I don’t see that holding my interest for the entire series.
Hart’s Hope was good but deeply weird, and I still don’t think I really understood it. Will have to revisit it sometime when I feel like being depressed.
I had one major problem with Ender’s Shadow…SPOILERS BELOW
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I don’t have the book with me, so I can’t provide a cite, but I distinctly remember some of the characters making reference to the buggers/Formics being a hive mind - BEFORE Ender defeats them. It seems like common knowledge, which to me destroys some of the impact of Ender’s genius in Ender’s Game - there it seemed like this huge intuitive leap that no one but people like Ender and Mazer Rackham could make. Did this bother anyone else, or was I misunderstanding it, or what?
[As for other Card books, I enjoyed all five Homecoming novels. I have read the first Alvin Maker novel, but I notice that he is not prioritizing that series as a series to finish, so I am waiting for him to put a few more out before proceeding with book 2.]
The first OSC books I read were the Homecoming series, and they were so different from other Sci-Fi books I’ve read that they actually made it impossible for me to pick up another book for almost 6 months. I then read Enders Game. It was incredible and I was not disappointed.
Anyway, I then read Songbird, The Worthing Saga, Treasure Box and then the Alvin Maker series. Unlike many of the other posters here, I enjoyed all of them on different levels and for different reasons. I read the Alvin series after reading the Harry Potter series, so it kind of went with the whole “magic” trip I was on.
The thing I like most about OSC as an author is the fact that all of his series are different, but somehow, they all seem to co-mingle with each other, as well. When I read The Worthing Saga, I got a lot more out of it because I had read both the Homecoming Series and the Alvin Maker series.
Presently, I am reading Enders Shadow and quite enjoying it. I have read Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide and Children of the Mind, and I honestly didn’t think any of them were “weak” in the terms I’ve seen posted on this forum.
I would like to see a new Enders book which goes into the rest of the story (first 4 books), as I feel like it isn’t over. Peter would be a very good character follow on with, as would Wang-mu for that matter. And I, for one, loved the whole Jane thing and how that all worked itself out!
Anyway, I just wanted to say that I thought the Alvin series was a very good, fluid read, with the only exception being (as is in the typical OSC style) the mandatory mindshift that is required at the beginning of the second book. (It seems to me that the second books in his series require you to step outside the original story for a while until both stories kind of thread back together - not so much with the Homecoming series, though, but definitely with Alvin Maker and Enders.)