Bean (Ender's Game) - Shadow of The Giant

Shadow of The Giant

In this novel, Bean is around 16 years old (his exact age is unknown because Volescu destroyed all of his records, and author Orson Scott Card does not specify anyone's particular age throughout the novel). Anton's Key has caused his body to undergo rapidly accelerated growth; he is becoming extremely tall and strong, and is nicknamed "the African Giant" by the Rwandans, due to his noticeably African features. Bean's time left is very limited; there is simply not enough time left to him to find a cure.

As commander, Bean plays a pivotal role in helping Peter unite the world under the Hegemony. Peter creates the Free People of Earth (FPE) organization. To join, the population of a country must hold plebiscites to vote to ratify the FPE constitution as their own. Once part of the FPE, a country is protected by FPE military forces. Rwanda is one of the earliest countries to agree to join FPE. However, Felix Starman, the head of Rwanda, requests that Giant Julian lead the Rwandan army. Aside from Bean being the greatest military mind in human history, having a commander with some African heritage and features would play to the patriotic side of the Rwandan soldiers. Bean turns the Rwandan army into an irresistible force. The effectiveness of his leadership initially frightens many countries into holding plebiscites to discuss joining FPE rather than getting defeated by an army Bean commands.

Taking the advice of the Minister of Colonization Graff, Bean follows in Ender's footsteps, living at relativistic light-speed along with the three of his children who share his disorder, in the hope that a cure can be found for the condition, while Petra and Bean's five 'normal' children remain on Earth. It is revealed that a ninth child of Bean's, who also has Anton's Key, was birthed by and is under the care of a woman named Randi, who plans to take the child with her to a colony world and raise him as Achilles' heir. By the end of the novel decades later, a cure has still not been discovered, and it is unknown how Bean lives the remainder of his life. The fate of Bean's ninth child is revealed in Card's novel Ender in Exile.