This is easily one of the best sequels every created for any media: book, movie, TV, or video game.
I had had my doubts that Card would be able to emulate the success of Ender's Game, I can honestly say he doesn't but he creates a whole new experience with the world building of Ender. He furthers the story started in Ender's Game rather than tries to emulate it, he deals with the after effects first book in a very realistic and satisfying way that it just blew my mind. Ender doesn't even show up in this book until about 60 pages into the story - that is a huge risk and a huge set of balls on the writer to attempt something like that. But it works, works in ways that are wonderful and spellbinding to even think about. It shouldn't work, there is no way it should work, but it does.
He creates an entirely new world with new characters and then sits back as does what he did best with Ender's Game - focuses on character never letting the sci-fi/technology aspects of the story get away or ahead of the characters. The characters are what matters the most. Even following Ender and his sister Valentine as they both deal with the mass xonocide of the first book as Ender tries to find some sort of redemption or justification of what he did. I'm not even going to go to much into the story line of this book because this book needs to be experienced on the same sort of level as the first book as it deals with new themes. New more adult themes. There is also a central mystery to the story that threads it's way through the book and shouldn't be as engaging as it turns out to be but Card is such a good writer that the mystery slowly dominates the story not in a forceful way but in a slow drinking of coffee sort of way.
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