I'm a huge fan of the Shadow series and I really loved Bean. Overall the story was an okay read not as interesting as the rest of the series but not altogether bad either. It might have been better if this story was never written since Shadow of the Giant could have concluded the series. I was a tad disappointed at the amount of focus given to Bean but it's understandable this story was more focused on his children. Orson Scott Card did write a pretty good end for Bean, in my opinion.