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Shadow of the Hegemon (Ender, Book 6)
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| Part No: | 0812565959 |
| Manufacturer: | Tor Books |
| MFG Part: | |
| Customer Rating: | 4.0 / 5.0 |
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- ISBN13: 9780812565959
- Condition: New
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Orson Scott Card finally explores what happened on earth after the war with the Buggers in the sixth book of his Ender series, Shadow of the Hegemon. This novel is the continuation of the story of Bean, which began with Ender's Shadow, a parallel novel to Card's Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Ender's Game. While Ender heads off to a faraway planet, Bean and the other brilliant children who helped Ender save the earth from alien invaders have become war heroes and have finally been sent home to live with their parents. While the children try to fit back in with the family and friends they haven't known for nearly a decade, someone's worried about their safety. Peter Wiggins, Ender's brother, has foreseen that the talented children are in danger of being killed or kidnapped. His fears are quickly realized, and only Bean manages to escape. Bean knows he must save the others and protect humanity from a new evil that has arisen, an evil from his past. But just as he played second to Ender during the Bugger war, Bean must again step into the shadow of another, the one who will be Hegemon. In Shadow of the Hegemon, Card can't help but fall back into old patterns. But while the theme is the same as in previous books--brilliant, tragic children with the fate of the human race resting on their shoulders--Shadow of the Hegemon does a wonderful job of continuing Bean's tale against a backdrop of the politics and intrigue of a fragile earth. While the novel is accessible, new readers to the series would be wise to begin with Ender's Game or Ender's Shadow. --Kathie Huddleston
The War is over, won by Ender Wiggin and his team of brilliant child-warriors. The enemy is destroyed, the human race is saved. Ender himself refuses to return to the planet, but his crew has gone home to their families, scattered across the globe. The battle school is no more.
But with the external threat gone, the Earth has become a battlefield once more. The children of the Battle School are more than heros; they are potential weapons that can bring power to the countries that control them. One by one, all of Ender's Dragon Army are kidnapped. Only Bean escapes; and he turns for help to Ender's brother Peter.
Peter Wiggin, Ender's older brother, has already been manipulating the politics of Earth from behind the scenes. With Bean's help, he will eventually rule the world.
| Great Book | 2010-04-06 | 4 / 5 |
| This story follows Bean and Peter Wiggin after all of the battle school graduates come home to earth and find that world war is about to break out. Old rivalries reignite between nations and things get really twisted when the dark nemesis Achilles is found working for any ambitious country willing to hire him for his genius battle strategies for world domination. Achilles is so evil that one of the main characters says, "The Chinese no doubt think they are using him, but I know Achilles, and my guess is that within a year, the Chinese leaders will find themselves dead or taking orders from him." Bean and Peter team up to try and bring world peace to the warring nations, while at the same time avoid assassination.
This book is definitely science fiction and occasionally hard to swallow since most of the characters are younger than 15 years old. The battle school kids are too smart, and are so perceptive of other characters that they almost appear to read minds. It is a little unbelievable and could certainly be a weakness. Another weakness of this book is the fact that you never see or hear what the parents are doing. The story follows the battle school graduates closely, and when the children are reunited with their parents, the parents were not taken into confidence. The kids are adults in children bodies. If you can get over the fact that these kids are calling all the shots, then it is a great story.
Orson Scott Card does a great job showing the battle strategies through the eyes of children. He also does a good job of character development and throws in tons of inner turmoil. It is a pretty easy read and I didn't find the plot too hard to follow even though it moves quickly. It has a lot of military action and draws you in with subtle comic relief from the characters. At some points it has mystery and you find yourself trying to figure out the "who-done-it" along with the characters.
This book follows some of the characters you already know from Enders Game and Enders Shadow. It is best read after Enders Shadow since it picks up right where Enders Shadow leaves off, but you could read it after either one. I recommend this because this book throws you at the characters and the plot right away. This is a great series that I propose to those who enjoy a fun action story.
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| Flawed but worthwhile for fans of Ender's Shadow | 2009-11-16 | 5 / 5 |
| Continuation of the Ender saga, occurs just after the events of Ender's Shadow.
Novel is somewhat worthwhile for three reasons.
Mainly, Ender's Shadow was such a good book that it's inherently interesting to find out what happened to Bean, not to mention Achilles. There is a lot of action involving these two, so it should satisfy curiousity as to their fates.
Second, the Ender universe is probably the last refuge of the meritocratic vision at one time popularized by Asimov, Heinlein, and other authors from the last century. The notions that people on "the net" as Card terms it are going to be swayed by reasoned arguments or that nations will fight over gaining access to bright kids with high test scores, is laughable but endearing. (Parodied in xkcd #635). Meritocratic ideals have long fled the real world, but it's still pleasantly nostalgic to read about this alternate reality where they matter, since they're virtually extinct from modern fiction as well.
Finally, the byzantine political machinations are somewhat interesting, and in particular Achilles' plans are notable.
The novel is nowhere near as strong as Game or Shadow, however. The writing is overly simplistic; the style of the prose is insipid and boring. There is much, much too much dialogue, most of it monotonous. Sometimes characters launch into ridiculous, lengthy and dull speeches for no clear reason, indeed even when there's obviously not time for that. There's one particularly cloying speech by Sister Carlotta where she suddenly describes her whole philosophy of life for pages and pages. The characters, except for Achilles, are drawn on the sappy and uninteresting side as well. Some of the plot developments - the attempts at Bean - are either cliched or not realistic. Bean himself doesn't really do much that clever here.
Overall, there is just a lot of "filler" in the novel, long pointless conversations, and I found myself skimming or speed-reading near the end. Nevertheless, despite its flaws, fans of the Ender saga may find it worth reading.
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| What's next for Bean, Peter and Achilles | 2009-08-07 | 4 / 5 |
| This sequel to Ender's Shadow was a lot of fun. It serves better at any rate as a sequel to Shadow than it does as a sequel to Ender's Game. Orson Scott Card does a great job in developing Bean further and he's very consistent with previous development. The novel is, of course, centered on Bean as he exploits his training and background from the International Fleet battle school as war breaks out on Earth.
Peter Wiggin, on the other hand, feels like a different person from the one described in Ender's Game. I think Card missed the greater opportunity here. The main character of the novel is already well-developed and we get to see him act in a dramatically different and exciting setting. Peter, on the other hand, is more thinly sketched. I wish he had been more fully and consistently developed. When he speaks or acts, it seems incredibly weak compared to his previous performance. His accomplishments are amazing, as we would expect from the character's prior setup, but he always accomplishes them offstage. It is simply stated that he has moved world governments in the background. I would have liked to see more of Peter, and particularly more of the Peter I know and fear. :-)
In addition to Bean, Achilles is also wonderfully developed. By contrast to Peter, he is developing into such a larger than life character that it stretches plausibility. That's easy to forgive though -- our heroes need a villain to fight. I can't wait for the next installment to watch the battle continue. |
| Good story, but audio strangeness and music are annoying | 2009-07-05 | 4 / 5 |
| This is a good continuations of Ender's Shadow, but not quite at the same level as Ender's Shadow. A major annoyance throughout is every time one of the voice actors says the word "Hegemon" it is dubbed over with some other person's voice saying the word, which kills the flow of the story. The dubbed voice is not even close to whichever voice actor is speaking. At first I believed that it was momentary glitch in the media. until it repeated again, and again throughout the story. Also, someone should really have rethought the music to this as well.
In the above I have hit all of the bad points of the audio book that I notice. It is still well worth the money, a good story, and I don't regret buying it.
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| Find time to read the book | 2009-06-01 | 2 / 5 |
| | Most reviews I've read on this page address the book itself, not the audiobook. Not a mention of recording quality, production, or any aspects of the recording. Card mentions repeatedly at the end that audiobook is his preferred way to present his works, but if this is the best they come up with I disagree. FIND THE TIME TO READ THE BOOK. To me these little things in the recordings progressively became more annoying: the recording sounds very tinny, and for some reason "the hegemon" is recorded out of context?; continued mispronunciation of the antagonist throughout the book; and cheesy, poorly thought out musical "interludes" that become more invasive and jarring. Buy the used book and enjoy this great book for a fraction of the cost of this audiobook. |
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