Shadow of the Hegemon (The Shadow Series)

loved this continued story line, with Bean's life and family on earth and his physical changes by growing. The beginning of Peter's hegemony and the villain Achilles still out there. Looking forward to the next book in the series!

The flow and continuity with the previous books in the Ender made me want to continue reading. I became so engrossed in the series that I ordered every book to see if I could learn more about the characters. Orson Scott Card is a wonderful story teller and I look forward to reading some of his other books.

This book is great for those who enjoy both political fiction and suspensE novels, and even had a very wide range of readers, from young high schoolers to adults who just enjoy a good read. It has some pretty funny parts, is easily understood, if you know political history at least, and I believe that for many predominately logical thinkers, it is not too hard to delve in to this book.

This was my least favorite Orson Scott Card book to date, by far. I've read all the Ender's Series, the Shadow series up to the end of Shadow Puppets, and the Empire series.

I could barely finish this book; it grated me. If it were a movie, only 40 minutes of 4 hours was any good. The only reason I finished it was b/c it's essential to understand the next book in the series.

-Finished on 2012-08-27 (116,804 words in 7 days; 16,686 wpd).

I have always loved the Ender series and the Shadow series, and have re-read all the books in each many times. This book takes such an interesting look at the lives of the other Battle School graduates that it makes me feel like I am reading about a universe in which real events happened. Absolutely wonderful.

This book is definitely different from Ender's Shadow and the other Ender books, but in a good way. Card makes political maneuvering and military mobilization suspenseful and intriguing. Definitely worth a read.

These stories actually help me feel more than any other books have. They have taught me lessons that I can use in my day to day life. From them I have learned how to lead n follow all in the same act. Thank you Orson

Was closer to the Enders Game, Enders Shadow style of books made it a very fun read, again dealing with the children. If your familiar with the Enders series, this story is about " Bean's" battle keeping piece and trying to save the battle school children.

Orson Scott Card says in the afterword to "Shadow of the Hegemon" that this book is as different from "Ender's Shadow" as "Speaker for the Dead" was from "Ender's Game". He's right. Where "Speaker for the Dead" turned and looked at the universe 3000 years hence and examined, in great detail, religion and life, "Shadow of the Hegemon" turns and looks at political interplay and fear in this world 150 years from now.
What made "Shadow of the Hegemon" stand out for me was the political aspect of the novel. Orson Scott Card has done a better job of painting national politics and intrigue across a worldwide scale better than any science fiction or fantasy writer I've seen since George R.R. Martin's "A Game of Thrones". The scope that he uses is very impressive as he takes the political action of the novel across most of the Asian continent and shows situations that are, on the whole, relatively plausible.
Card's work in blending national policy with personal motivation is very impressive. However, there are a few small areas I quibble with. I think that the world community he paints one hundred and fifty years hence is a little tainted by personal bitterness, both to the US and China. Whether he meant it to or not, it does, to me, detract a bit from both the plausibilty of the book and the overall quality of the writing. Likewise, while I am not a student of South and Southeast Asia, I question his wisdom in using just once source apiece - as he states in the afterword - when creating his India and Thailand circa 2150. This fact appears rather obvious when reading characters' discussions of these two countries. Card trys very hard to make the countries he creates plausible extrapolations of today's countries, and they suffer for these two reasons.
Nonetheless, the novel is still a wonderful read. Card takes a couple of classic premises for novels and blends them into a story that, if it occaisonally lacks for original plot twists, one that shows how well he grasps both individual struggle and national interplay.
On the individual side of the novel, Bean, Peter and Petra all take on additional depth in this novel and all three become characters that I am eager to read more about in the remaining two novels in Card's "Shadow" series. As adolescents and teenagers, they are as believable as they were as children in "Ender's Game" and "Ender's Shadow". As people, they develop more depth to their character - especially Peter - and move in directions that are, if predictable, certainly arrived at unpredictably.
In retrospect, what definitely stands out for me in this book, are the political machinations. I'm sure that will be what primarily stands out one, five, or ten years from now. Anyone with an interest in political struggle should read this book, as well as any Orson Scott Card fan who wants to see him successfully tackle new areas of writing. While I do have minor reservations about the world as he creates it, I have none about the way his characters move it and move through it.

With the defeat of the Formics (buggers), there is a power vacuum on Earth and the Battle Schoolers become red hot commodities for world powers. Kidnappings and murder thrust Petra and Bean into a struggle to save lives and defeat the emergent Achilles. That’s no spoiler as it happens very early. The strength of Card’s writing contrives a tense struggle with strong characters that will please most readers. His treatment of history is interesting, even if his geopolitics shows some new world bias or worse. Yet if there is any suspension of belief, the scenarios that Card creates will do more good than harm in stimulating readers’ interest in the exotic realms of south east Asia. The reader is left to (cynically) wonder if Card tends to be less charitable in his portrayal of nations away from his English readership but, then again, his work has been translated extensively. These small points aside, Shadow of the Hegemon is a tense and powerful novel with historic themes, insights and ironies conveyed through interesting characters.

In chronological order, this is the third book in the Ender series (if you put Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, and A War of Gifts all in the first slot, since they all take place at around the same time period at the beginning of the events in the books. Ender in Exile would be Book #2.)

I didn't like it quite as much as Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, or Speaker For the Dead, but I did like it very much. The reason I didn't like it as much was that this book is focused less on psychology (although there is still some of that) and culture; and more on political maneuvering and military actions. But like all of the books in the series, it is still highly intricate, intelligent, and subtle.

In Shadow of the Hegemon, the main action centers around Bean, Petra, Achilles, and Sister Carlotta. Peter Wiggins is also important, although usually as a writer of emails and articles rather than as an actual presence. The war against the Formics is over, and Ender has been exiled to space for his own protection, so he is absent from this novel. Now that they are no longer united against the alien species, the countries of the Earth are in a struggle for domination, with Peter and Achilles competing for individual domination.

As always in this series, the book's depth is its greatest strength: the extensive development of the characters (continued from the previous books) and the explorations of philosophy and spirituality (but never preachy or dogmatic.)

Having just read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, I noticed that in this series, there is an implicit assumption that it is the sheer genius of the kids (their super-high IQ's) that allow them to be so successful and powerful. According to Gladwell, this would not happen in real life, especially in the case of Bean and Achilles, who did not come from backgrounds that support success. And in fact, the author does have Bean ponder that it was the permanent repercussions of having to fight just to survive in his early life, that caused Bean (who had the highest IQ) to take second place to Ender as the leader in the Formic War. Just an interesting aside . . .

(365 pages)

Ender Wiggin and his sister, Valentine, have left Earth on the advice of their older brother, Peter. That's a good thing, because the other former Battle School "students" who were part of Ender's jeesh, who fought to victory against the insectoid alien Formics, are kidnapped shortly after this book opens. They are still children - the oldest are in their early teens - and that makes them even more valuable to the captors who want to use their tactical expertise in wars of nationalism. For that ancient scourge is rampant once again, now that Earth no longer needs to be united in order to fight the Formics.

Voluntarily working with those who have kidnapped Ender's jeesh is Achilles, an orphan recruited for Battle School by Sister Carlotta. Achilles didn't last long in Battle School because Bean, the most brilliant student of all, recognized him and got rid of him. For Bean was also an orphan on the streets of Rotterdam, and Carlotta also recruited Bean. What's different about Achilles is that he's a serial killer. And now the lives of Bean's dearest friends are in that mad young man's hands...including the life of Petra, the only girl in Ender's jeesh and the closest friend Bean has ever had.

Politics bore me, even when they are part of a future universe lovingly created by a master storyteller. This book's plot revolves around politics. I enjoyed it thoroughly nevertheless, because its characters never take a back seat to its plot. Peter Wiggin, who in his 'Net identity of the mysterious "Locke" can sway opinions and influence events all over the world. Carlotta, the nun who takes the risk of loving someone else's child as if he were her own. The Wiggin parents, whose religions (yes, that word definitely must be plural) put them at odds with the world in which they must live their lives and rear their children. Petra, who failed Ender during the final battle and can't forgive herself. And Bean himself, this tale's hero, a pint-sized military genius who never had a chance to be a child - not even before Battle School, to which children went at 5 or 6 years old because only a child's unfettered creativity could hope to defeat the Formics...these characters are unforgettable.

Fun even for a reader who hasn't been exposed to the rest of the "Enderverse" books!

"Shadow of the Hegemon", like its predecessor, "Ender's Shadow" is not really a continuation of the Ender saga. Card very nicely wrote that story across four excellent novels. These stories are about Bean, the smallest and most intelligent of all the kids Ender trained with at the Battle School. The fact that they all contain the word "shadow" implies that Bean belongs in the periphery, when in fact he deserves a spotlight just as much as Ender, or does he? This is where one main source of dissatisfaction may lie.
One of the huge differences between Ender and Bean is that Bean does not for one moment doubt his brilliance or ability. This grows tiresome after two novels. In "Hegemon" he is not alone either. Peter, Bean, and Achilles all believe that they have the patent on always being right. There is a constant interplay between them trying to one-up each other's ability to be right. With no other motive, this is extremely tedious, plus it seems insufficient that a human being would not know doubt. Ender as a character was interesting partly because he struggled painfully to do the right thing and overcome his guilt and doubt. Bean proclaims to care only for his own survival, until the end when he is overcome with shame. By the final chapter of this book, Bean has come to terms with truths about himself and the people he has grown to love. In a final scene he tells Petra that he is "not human". Until this chapter, those words are believable. In my eyes, Bean becomes fully human in the closing section of this book.
Although a lot of this novel reads more like an animated game of RISK, its conclusion sets up the two sequels to examine Bean's fate and the recreation of the Hegemony under Peter Wiggin. Who knows, there may even be romance budding..."Hegemon" on its own is not terribly impressive, but it opens the way for two exciting novels to come. It's time for Bean to step out of the Shadow, but please Mr. Card, no more shadow titles.

Cards books on the Battle School genius's are all pretty good. I particularly liked Enders Game and this book, Shadow of the Hegemon.
While I could never believe the premise that the worlds most powerful leaders would listen to children, regardless of the childs brilliance, Card still makes a plausible story of it all - and takes the reader on a fun journey into brilliance and madness while he is at it. Bean is the brightest of them all and this book takes you deeper into the thought process of the wonderkid at work - this time not in war but in Politics.
I have only two complaints with the book; Peter Wiggen and Childhood Influence. This book seems to have softened the personality of Peter Wiggen, Enders older brother whom we met in Ender's Game - he seems much nicer and compassionate than he should be - I don't have the same sense of forboding I had before with Peter. Secondly, the realitive ease with which these kids get the ear of world leaders, particularly our main antagonist Achilles. Not only do they get the ears of all of these adults but they are easilly able to manipulate them via petty flattery and the petting of egos.
Despite these weaknesses the story is good and has a great flow to it. I read the book in two afternoon sittings during my recent vacation and don't feel the time was wasted. The book is good entertainment while also delivering some social commentary about our not too distant future.
However, more than the book itself, I enjoyed the afterword by Card giving some insight into the books that shaped his views of world politics and what makes the events that happen happen.
The book can be read as a stand alone volume but I would recommend at least reading Enders Game and Enders Shadow before hand so that you have a solid basis with which to "believe" in the extrodinary children depicted.

Maybe I'm just the biggest Ender sentimentalist out there, but I loved this book for every reason that I loved "Ender's Game," "Speaker for the Dead," and "Ender's Shadow": It's fantastic in every way, outlining its characters with the kind of precision and mastery that I could only hope to accomplish in all my days as an author and, one day, a screenwriter. "Shadow of the Hegemon" picks up one year after "Ender's Shadow" left off and moves on for another two or three years throughout the course of the book. The plot is quite ingeniously conceived and executed, and it finally answered a lot of the questions I had been asking myself ever since I finished "Ender's Game" for the first time, the main one being: How did Peter Wiggin become Hegemon? This book answers the main question of how it happened, but it left off in a spot that left me with a new question: How in the name of God and sonny Jesus are Bean and Peter going to pull of this imminent victory that they are prophesized to achieve, as is foretold by the last three "Ender" books? I was content to not have the answers. On the other hand, I can barely handle this feeling in my stomach that I call anticipation. Anticipation for the final two installments in Bean's saga, which is every bit as gripping and well thought out as Ender's. I just hope Card doesn't take a wrong turn after "Hegemon" like he did after "Speaker." I mean, don't get me wrong, I still loved "Xenocide" and "Children of the Mind," but they seriously lack in the kind of pace and brilliance that are evident in "Game," "Speaker," "Shadow," and here in "Hegemon." Nevertheless, despite any doubts I might be harboring, I do not presume that Mr. Card will let me down. I have every confidence in him. But in the meantime, I'm eagerly awaiting the fifth installment of Harry Potter. Godspeed, Orson.

Shadow of the Hegemon is a different type of story compared to Ender's Shadow or the trilogy that preceded it ... I think it's even a stretch to call it "science" fiction: more of a future political fiction instead. Think of it as the game of Risk on steroids.
That might be an oversimplification, but many times that's what the story feels like: a game. The players are Bean, Achilles, and Peter (and Petra and other Battle School alums to a lesser extent). The book centers around how they use their power (and sometimes, lack of power) in a struggle for world domination. The detail of, say, a Tom Clancy novel is left out, but the human side is more developed than a typical military/historical fiction.
Card's afterward is interesting to read as well. I'm glad that he decided to spend more time on Bean's extraction of Petra, although I think Card might've been well served to spend just a little bit more time on it, as the interaction between Achilles and Petra seemed to end right after Petra beats him up. Maybe Achilles was busy negotiating with China. Maybe Card just didn't know where to go from there and shifted his focuses elsewhere. Who knows. I was a little disappointed with how Sister Carlotta exited the story line as well ... not sure if Card's going to go into that more in the next books or if that really was the end there.
There are a couple parts in the plot that seemed like Card had an idea but couldn't figure out a plausible way to carry it out. The time when Bean, while shooting the breeze with a Battle School buddy, suddenly thinks that people are trying to kill him and they escape in the nick of time seemed a bit much. A couple of the political moves seemed a little sketchy as well: Russia was intimidated by China's power but Japan wasn't?
It seems like I've given the book more criticism than praise, but the few complaints I have did not detract from my overall enjoyment of the book. Bean's developing into quite an interesting character. I was surprised to read in the afterward that there are two books following this one (I had assumed that Card would wrap everything up in just one more book). I felt kind of like Card ran out of gas towards the end of the Ender trilogy ... here's hoping he can continue his success with the Bean series.

The Bugger War is over. The threat to humanity's existence is gone. Thus, the danger that united Earth in its defense is no longer present to prevent the simmering national and ethnic tensions from erupting into another World War. With nationalism running high, the children still stationed at the Battle School are kept from returning home until the Earth-bound war can be resolved, lest any party in this war get an unfair advantage from these military geniuses. The initial war and governmental powerplays among the Triad (the Polemarch, Strategos, and Hegemon political machines) end in short order and the children are free to return home. International tensions still simmer and threaten to explode at any time. Suddenly, many of the battle school children start to disappear. The mystery over what is happening to these children (who are all connected by being former members of Ender's army) and political intrigue involved in development of unifying world government of the Hegemon (mentioned with great import in "Speaker for the Dead") power the incredible thriller that is "Shadow of the Hegemon".

"Shadow of the Hegemon" continues the on-going saga of Ender's trusted lieutenant, Bean, whose story was first expanded in the spectacular "Ender's Shadow". Bean has found his true family with his former Battle School mate, Nikolai and his family. While content with this new life, Bean knows that trouble waits on the horizon. Bean's arch-nemesis, Achilles, somehow escaped from a criminal mental institution during the brief League War. As Battle School children start to disappear and an attempt is made to assassinate Bean and his family, Bean realizes that Achilles must be back in play. In the midst of this crisis, Bean must also contend with effects of genetic tampering that made him a super-genius, but will also cause accelerated growth resulting in an early death.

"Shadow of the Hegemon" gives the reader a chance to delve more deeply in the backgrounds and personas of a number of different characters. Where Bean was the primary focus in "Ender's Shadow", more time in spent exploring people like Petra Arkanian and Peter Wiggin, to name a few. Author Orson Scott Card shows a keen knowledge of world history as he sets actions in motion that will pit one nation against another in the course of this dramatic struggle to control or restore peace to this world. The action and plot developments are thrilling and, at times, downright shocking. "Shadow of the Hegemon" plays out in similar fashion to the Season 1 of "24". While not exploring the real-time aspect of "24", it still mimics it with the various political battles, plots for revenge, personal betrayals, and heart-pounding action.

This novel, along with most of the other novels in the Ender Saga, clearly demonstrate why Card is one of the most gifted science fiction writers there is. As stated in previous reviews of his books, Card's skill lies not in his ability write about ridiculous futuristic technologies, but to focus on the development of the individual characters. He has a gift for dialogue and an innate ability to make the reader empathize with the characters he writes about. Truth be told, "Shadow of the Hegemon" contains no elements that would make it a science fiction novel. It could be classified as a political thriller or action novel. It's the depth of Card's characters that make the reader not care that there aren't any spectacular space ships or alien species. With the exception of his existential rantings at the end of "Xenocide" and throughout "Children of the Mind", Card has created a near-perfect saga. "Shadow of the Hegemon" is just the latest jewel in that saga.