A companion volume (and series also with the other Shadow books) to Orson Scott Card's brilliant Ender saga (at least the first two novels are extraordinary), which tells the story of Bean - one of Ender's fellow generals in Ender's Game. Depicts Bean as a mastermind and goes way overboard with the whole "Bean was a genius when he was born" -thing and turns into a hellish read going through all genius moves he made at the Battle School. I've heard some Card fans praise it, so check it out if you liked the other Ender stuff.