Bean

If I were a guy and could have any name I wanted, I would choose Julian Delphiki. It's the coolest name I ever heard. So cool that I keep repeating it to myself. Julian Delphiki. Julian Delphiki. Julian Delphiki. It sounds even better in conversation.

Yeah, I also think I'm really weird.

This book series is weirding me out, though. I like it a lot—no question about that. However, it is requiring too much suspension of disbelief. I don't quite understand why, because the Ender series was just as "out there" if not more. It probably has to do with the fact that usually there is no love in science fiction. Or, at best, it's hopeless, platonic, or fraternal. I can't get past the whole Petra and Bean are married thing. Or that Bean, who was introduced to me as an undersized genius orphan street rat who went to Battle School and helped save the world from an alien invasion, is now suddenly very tall, very married, and very paternal—and all he cares about is finding the embryos he and his wife created so that she can raise them by herself after he's dead. And all this before he's even sixteen. Don't tell me it isn't weird.

I haven't finished reading Shadow of the Giant yet, but yes, I skipped to the end. Everyone is always so shocked to find out that this is a regular practice of mine, but really, I don't know if I would ever make it through most books if I didn't. I just can't handle the suspense. I rarely read so much that it gives away the climax, but it does reassure me that certain characters make it to the last page. Ominous music is now playing in my head.