The Problem with
Ender's
Shadow is that the
plot feels
Engineered. Many writers,
Card included, have said that in the best books the
Characters write themselves and the
hand of the
author ceases to be
visible.
In Ender's Shadow, the plot is clearly written ex post facto and then crudely joined to that of the original Ender book. When he wrote the first novel, Bean was not the genius he was in Shadow -- he was a little more likeable too. Don't get me wrong, i'm not saying that Bean was unintelligent, he was second only to Ender, but he was Bean. The Bean in Shadow is a different character -- the motivations just don't end up working out. If it had been a real flesh out of an existing character instead of another superboy story, i would have been all over it.
Card should have taken the original suggestion I gave him and written the Mazer Rackham story. I wonder why he gave that up.