Bean, once the smallest student at the Battle School, and Ender Wiggins's right hand, 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 wishes 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.

Born in Richland, Washington in 1951, Orson Scott Card grew up in California, Arizona, and Utah. The author of numerous books, Card was the first writer to receive both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for best novel two years in a row, first for Ender's Game and then for the sequel, Speaker for the Dead; both titles are available as Sound Library® audiobooks. Card lives in Greensboro, North Carolina.