As my first experience with Card, I wasn't very fond of the paranoid approach. Standing on it's own, it had an interesting view into one of our possible futures, albeit unlikely future, in my opinion. I heartily agree that people incorrectly compare the US to Rome. It was a good feeling to have already thought that if there was an appropriate comparison, it would have been to the Rome before the Ceasars, and then to examine that thought more in a novel.

I was very impressed with Card's intelligent writing, although I wasn't terribly impressed with his techno representation. It seemed that he was much more familiar with the militia foot soldier side of the war and much less familiar with the high technology side. I do greatly appreciate his civil engineering approach for the Progressive Restoration's base.

The ending was a little unsatisfactory, but only in the realm that it left you with a certain vigilence to look beyond political and media hype because we will never know the full story. Overall I did enjoy the book, but am hopeful that Card doesn't always write this type of thriller.

VERY right-wing and jingoistic!

"We're America - we win our wars," says one of the protagonists. Apparently, this particular protagonist is unaware of the War of 1812 (when the white house was burnt down), the Korean War, the Invasion of Cuba (aka The War on Fidel), the Vietnam War, the war in Afghanistan - just to name a few, not to mention the war on poverty or the war on drugs! We won't discuss the recent war on democracy - the battlelines are still being drawn.

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My rating system:
Since Goodreads only allows 1 to 5 stars (no half-stars), you have no option but to be ruthless. I reserve one star for a book that is a BOMB - or poor (equivalent to a letter grade of F, E, or at most D). Progressing upwards, 2 stars is equivalent to C (C -, C or C+), 3 stars (equals to B - or B), 4 stars (equals B+ or A -), and 5 stars (equals A or A+). As a result, I maximize my rating space for good books, and don't waste half or more of that rating space on books that are of marginal quality.

Two stars is marginally low for this novel, but I definitely felt that 3 stars would be significantly TOO high. Sometimes, we need half stars.

This near-future best-selling thriller was published in 2006, and is drenched in the US politics of that particular time. That was almost a generation ago, so here is a capsule snapshot. The US presidential election of 2000 was between George W Bush (Republican) and Al Gore (Democrat). While Gore won the popular vote, the electoral vote was close and hinged entirely on very close and undecided Florida, which went into a re-count. Republicans opposed the re-count. A month-long series of legal battles ensued. Ultimately the US Supreme Court decided in Bush’s favor, and he won Florida by 0.009%. There being no constitutional recourse, Gore conceded the election to Bush. There was a sense of grievance among Democrats but no violence. This was submerged by the sense of national unity that arose after the terrorist attack of 9/11/2001. In this novel, Card sets up conditions for a Civil War in the United States, led by rebels of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.

The main character is Reuben Malich, a special ops soldier reassigned from a Middle Eastern country with no official US presence, to clandestine work within the US. He does not know the specific purposes of most of his high-security work, but his assignments come from an unknown contact in the White House. He is loyal to, and places high trust in his Republican president. When a terrorist missile attack hits the White House, right in front of him, Malich recognizes the attack strategy as one that he himself gamed for defense purposes. Could someone within his chain of command have leaked his plan to the terrorists? Who can he even talk to about it?

Malich is also Serbian-American, with a Croatian-American wife and five children, giving Card the opportunity to comment on the nature of civil war, using former Yugoslavia as an example. Unfortunately, these identities are superficial, providing no special character development. As a Croatian-American myself, I can promise you that if these characters were realistic, there would be some emotional trauma in those times. The characters, in general, are indistinguishable good guys or one-dimensional bad guys. It’s just that their status as good or bad is not known in some cases.

There are science fictional elements in that the rebels are using some advanced military technology that they developed secretly. It’s not realistic, but probably made for good visuals in the Chair Entertainment videogame Shadow Complex. Meanwhile, in the real world, low-cost drones have become ubiquitous in conflicts around the world, but not in this novel.

In this politically-oriented novel, Malich takes what would now be considered a moderate Republican position, loyal to the Constitution, as does the omniscient narrator. In the Afterward, Card disses extremists of both the Right and the Left. The supreme irony of this civil war speculation is that when an actual attempt to overthrow democracy happened in 2021, it was by right-wingers, engrieved by an election that was plainly lost. I’m pretty sure Malich would not be on their side.

There is a 2009 sequel, Hidden Empire. Do not read even the cover blurb for that if you want to preserve spoilers in Empire.

On the dust jacket of this book is the line, "A disturbing look at a possible future." This very accurately describes this book and considering it is talking about the division between and red and blue counties in our country which was very mild in 2005-6, the time this book was written, compared to the present day 16 years later and in which we have Trumpism rampant in the Republican party as well as a very active and vocal extreme liberalism in the Democratic party. We have also experienced one near coup Teta led by the ultra-right. I hope Card is not a prophet but he has put together a very believable future for our country.

2.5 stars, rounded up. The premise was an interesting one, and the conclusion and afterword were thought-provoking. Given the criticism of both Right and Left there, I wonder what some of the other critical reviewers here (the ones writing Card off as being right-wing) would think if they were to comment specifically on the afterword. Can they see some of their viewpoints described there?

It is true that the dialogue was off, being both unrealistic and way too prominent in places. I was also thrown by the prose in action scenes--I had to stop and reread in several places when unexpected, violent things (eg. explosions, characters being shot) happened in the middle of paragraphs, matter-of-factly reported with no buildup/warning and no moment to feel the impact (not even a paragraph break!). I get that the plot is rushed in that moment, but I felt that the storytelling was, too.

It was recomended that I read this book because it deals with politics. Though this is something I am interested in this book seemed entirely too one sided. It was more a polemic than a novel, and its attempts to be non-baised were far outweighed by the moments of its blatant one sidedness. If you are a strong supporter of the right and think that our patriotic duty is to not question either the president or the military then you would like this book. If, on the other hand, you think that this country was founded by people that questioned the authority over them and that is what made it great, or if you think allowing those in power to act outside the bounds of checks and balances is a bad idea, or even if you think that desenting ideas should not be presented as strawman arguments than this book is not for you.

I almost stopped reading when I got to the point where they talked about how wonderful and lovable W was, and how the liberal Lefties were conspirators who he was protecting. Meanwhile, I've been reading Harpers torture coverage for the past month or so. I did like the comment about how the 'inside man' couldn't have been a left-winger, because there were no left-wingers in the Bush White House.

I almost stopped again when Card threw in 'jeesh', and a third time when Nick was anointed Ender 2. Card loses major points for absurdly advanced military hardware, as well as pervasive cellular coverage through the NYC subway tunnels, in 2006; the former is explained (although not excused) as part of the ground rules when he accepted the book from its initial creators. "Sergeant Willis" of the NYPD is a good joke, though.

Card expends plenty of effort on keeping us guessing: are Reds or Blues more evil? But his own reverence for soldiers and NRA members, and contempt for New York City, are as obvious as the Washington Monument. He can say the divisions don't matter, but even writing an afterword about the foolishness of Left vs. Right in his own voice, he comes across as an archconservative.

I am truly ashamed to say this is his worst book i ever read. The idea was great, but this book was not for him. OSC should have concentrated more on Prof. Torrent. The Prof. was a great character with great intelligence and that is what OSC is best at. The beginning was amazing and so was the end, but in-between it was torture, the action weren't any good and neither were the jokes. I am considering reading part two, hope there is more of torrent and less of everything else.

The premise is a modern American Civil War which may seem far-fetched to sci-fi audiences that are fans of Card's other iconic series. But, he frames it as a Blue State vs. Red State conspiracy theory that at many points is all too plausible in today's vitriol-filled campaigns.

The book's concept comes from a videogame, but Card wrote the plot as the creators made the game.

The afterword is an interesting essay preaching moderation in a partisan political system with a strong message of respect for other people regardless of their political beliefs.

This book, even on the dust cover's abstract, touts itself as military fiction, despite the sparse action contained within the pages being limited to small firefights in various espionage and getaway scenarios. It felt every bit like a bait-and-switch. I kept waiting for the war to start, my dismay increasing as the remaining pages started to run out.
I always do my best to avoid even the slightest spoilers, but if someone had told me the actual genre of the book in a review, I would not have bothered to read it. This is a political thriller, it is not military fiction.

Shockingly for Card, even the character work is underwhelming, with archetypes and cliches abounding. The obvious love that Card had for these characters simply does not transfer to the reader. Some character twists seemed so unearned, so sudden and nonsensical, that I had to re-read the page a few times to make sure I had read what I just read.

I understand what Card was trying to say with the premise of the book, it's a noble message, one that has clearly been missed by a majority of the negative reviewers, who fail to see the forest for the trees. Unfortunately, the book's path to saying that message is so overwrought and convoluted that it requires suspension of disbelief to accept - and that defeats the point of the "this could happen here" messaging. There are dozens of more plausible scenarios that put the US at the brink of civil war, even in 2005 when this was written.

Based on what I've seen here, I do not see myself continuing the series.

I first read Empire seven or eight years ago, and I remembered three things from it: the premise was ridiculous, the writing was great, and it tied into a video game somehow.

Fast forward to now, and the first one is no longer true. Empire is about the second American Civil War, waged not along geographical lines but ideological ones. In the story, the extreme left and extreme right end up pushing the country over the brink into civil war. This seemed ludicrous to me when I read it the first time; today, not so much. In fact it seems frighteningly plausible.

Throughout the book, Card is at pains to depict the perpetrators as the political extremes, believing (perhaps rightly so) that the vast majority of people will just want to be left alone. But he gives two examples as to why this won’t be possible: Serbs/Croats and Hutus/Tutsis. A Serb who didn’t hate Croats, who hired Croats to work for them, who had friends and family who were Croats, would not be spared by armed Croats, and so he would have no choice but to take up arms against Croats to defend himself. Same with Hutus and Tutsis. Card posits that the same will possibly happen in an American Civil War, drawing people closer to the political center into the conflict. This is exacerbated by the fact that the two-party system presents politics as a package; if you take one party’s stance on a single issue, you are expected to take that party’s stance on all issues, even though there’s no plausible connection between one’s opinion on corporate taxes and the ethics of abortion.

You’ll note I’m talking a lot about what Card says and not his characters; that’s because, frankly, the characters are largely mouthpieces for Card. That’s not to say the writing isn’t good and engaging; it is. But the characters enter the story fully developed as avatars of Card’s political philosophy, and they remain largely static in that regard throughout the story.

As for the story itself, it is full of action and twists and intrigue, but also full of pages of characters talking politics, military culture, etc. This isn’t a negative for everyone, of course, but it’s certain to be off-putting to some. Likewise, readers of any sort of political bent are likely to be annoyed by the notion that their ideological opponents might justifiably feel threatened and oppressed by them; the left is threatened by the right’s control of the Legislative and Executive branches, while the right is threatened by the left’s control of vast swathes of the Judicial branch, as well as mainstream media and culture. These are both valid positions, both in terms of the story and in real life, and if it makes you uncomfortable to think that way, it might be a sign that you’ve dehumanized your ideological opposites into evil scheming monsters.

This has turned into less of a review of the book and more a review of America’s political landscape and the impending possibility of widespread conflict based on these tension lines, but that was sort of inevitable. At any rate, this was an excellent read and I highly recommend it.

I usually enjoy Orson Scott Card's writing. Speaker for the Dead is one of my favorite books. But this... not so much. Empire tells the story of a new civil war, ca. 2006. This time it's blue Democrats vs. red Republicans. Card makes it more nuanced than that- he makes a point of including positive portrayals of people from both sides of the aisle- but even so, he makes it clear his heart lies with the Republicans.

I don't like preachy partisan politics in the fiction I read for relaxation. I almost quit reading because of its presence. But then, I asked myself, "how would political developments since 2006 have changed this novel?" Think about it- this novel was written during President G.W. Bush's second term. That means before President Obama's two terms, and the one and a half years of President Trump's first.

Approaching the novel with that question made it bearable, and I finished it. But even so, I did not enjoy it. And no, I don't propose to share the answer that I reached. Feel free to read and come to your own conclusions- but don't say you weren't warned.