Just a random point; I don’t remember which book it’s in but I thought the Bean series was somewhat disappointing with how Peter turns out. He makes a huge mistake which is unlike how the hero’s operate (bean/ender), and he also turns out not to be that scary or that smart really. It’s a big letdown from the Peter we see in Ender’s game. The author does give an excuse; something about how Peter can’t predict how the world turns out because it’s like a chessboard with each piece moving constantly and a mind of its own, but I thought Peter turned out to be a copout. : /
Otherwise, the Bean series is as good as the original IMO. The original has a lot of awesome quotes and ideas, but the Bean series was exceptionally clever in how it weaved in Bean’s story.