Todd had always wanted to meet an astronaut, but when he meets an alien and travels to another world, he doesn't use a spaceship, he just hangs out in his own backyard.

Ender Wiggin, the hero and scapegoat of mass alien destruction in Ender's Game, receives a chance at redemption in this novel. Ender, who proclaimed as a mistake his success in wiping out an alien race, wins the opportunity to cope better with a second race, discovered by Portuguese colonists on the planet Lusitania. Orson Scott Card infuses this long, ambitious tale with intellect by casting his characters in social, religious and cultural contexts....

Peter Wiggin, leader of the worldwide government in the aftermath of the victory over the alien Formics, makes a tactical error when he arranges for the rescue of his archenemy Achilles who is being held by the Chinese, only to learn Achilles is insane and determined to kill Bean, the genetic anomaly who served as second-in-command during the conflict.