Ender Wiggin, the young military genius, discovers that a second alien war is inevitable and that he must dismiss his fears to make peace with humanity's strange new brothers. "Three thousand planet-bound years have fled since Edgar Wiggin won Earth's war with the Formics by totally destroying them. Ender remains young, traveling constantly at relativistic speeds. In three thousand years, the Hive Queen and the Hegemon have become holy writ, and...

At the Battle School, there is only one purpose, only one curriculum: the strategy and tactics of war. Humanity is at war with an alien race and has been losing. The students are drawn from all nations, all races, all religions, taken from their families at the age of six or seven. There is no room for cultural differences, no room for religious observances, and certainly no room for Santa Claus. But the young warriors disagree. When Dink Meeker leaves...

Bean moves with three of his children into a derelict space colony ship where they hope for a cure to engineered genes that give them high intelligence and short lives, a situation that is complicated when space-time distortions cause them to be forgotten by humanity.