Book Review: Shadow of the Hegemon and Shadow Puppets (Orson Scott Card)

by Chris

Hey, what’s this? A two-in-one book review? Why, yes it is. This is somewhat appropriate since these two sequels to Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Shadow were originally meant to be one story. The adventures of Bean continue in this sequel. Let me start by saying that Shadow of the Hegemon and Ender’s Shadow are very different types of books. Maybe not quite as different as, say, Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead but you get my point. After returning home to Earth the genius children of Battle School are having a tough time readjusting to normal life. For one, most of their countries see them as twelve-year-old weapons of mass destruction, but also because some of the Battle School children – specifically Ender’s “jeesh”* – are being kidnapped. All except for one, Bean, who after teaming up with Ender’s brother Peter will work together to free Ender’s friends, make Peter the Hegemon, and change the world in many ways.

I found Shadow of the Hegemon exciting, interesting, and captivating (a word I use quite begrudgingly). I loved the military and political aspects of this novel, and the idea that kids pretty much controlled the Earth. Achilles is probably my favorite villain of all time. And if you can look past the really annoying slang terms in this story this book is quite a treasure.

The next book, Shadow Puppets, is even better simply for the fact that more characters from Ender’s Shadow such as Alai, Ambul, and Hot Soup return. In Shadow Puppets thanks to the experiment for which his birth was necessary Bean has GROWN. After Peter foolishly hires Achilles to work for the Hegemony, Bean and Petra are on the run, once again. In this story I thought deception was the key. Was Peter deceiving Achilles? Was Achilles deceiving Peter or China? Was Suriyawong deceiving Peter or Achilles? Or was Achilles just deceiving everyone? Or am I just confusing myself? Anyway, after fleeing the Hegemony compound Bean and Petra get married and Bean tries to find himself (to use a cliché). Card does an excellent job of expanding on Hegemon in Puppets and I was extremely anxious to see what would happen next with each turn of a page. Shadow of the Hegemon and Shadow Puppets, both good books and I recommend them, and you can take my word for it, right?
 
*Jeesh= friends, or army, or friends/army. Just one example of the annoying slang in Hegemon/Puppets.