Orson Scott Card es un autor que no necesita presentación. La saga de "El juego de Ender" le precede, así como la de Alvin Maker e incluso esa pentalogía de ciencia ficción bíblica que es "La saga del retorno". Con "Imperio", Card se adentra en el terreno de la política especulativa contemporánea, planteando la posibilidad de una nueva guerra civil estadounidense y las condiciones que requeriría para darse. En parte se recurre al argumento de un ataque de falsa bandera para desencadenar una respuesta represiva que, presuntamente, pretenda restaurar la constitución del robo sufrido por parte de los tribunales y otras fuerzas. Pero la cosa no es tan simple, Card critica la polarización de unos políticos y votante, tanto republicanos como demócratas, incapaces de abandonar el sectarismo y llegar a acuerdos razonables, reconociendo al contrario su condición de ser humano y persona que tiene derecho a pensar de modo diferente. El propio Card, mormón militante y no precisamente lo que aquí llamaríamos un izquierdista furibundo, ni siquiera un liberal, tiene sin embargo el enorme mérito de reflejar en sus obras y sus actos una amplitud de miras que debería ser imitada. Solo espero que este libro, escrito en 2008, no sea una premonición de lo que puede ocurrir si Trump se sigue aferrando a la presidencia sin reconocer su derrota y respaldado por unos votantes que están honestamente convencidos del fraude electoral, pese a todas las evidencias en contra.

Very well written and an exciting read. Did not need the author’s last addition, merely another personal opinion. Well narrated. Clean.

Some of Card’s work is better read aloud than on the page. This is one, which makes sense as it was written as a screenplay. On the page, I suspect some touchy people, generally not the primary targets, will be “triggered”. The smarter of those will simply pretend to hate the book. If they reviewed it before the fall of Kabul, their reactions will be especially inappropriate.
The characterization and world-building, including for people with shocking lacks of plot armour, is as good as Card's always is (each is like Cherryh's, only from a very different angle, their abilities to capture characters' souls rhyme but never converge - on a continuum I'd place Josef Conrad, Card, C. J. Cherryh, and Ursula K. LeGuin, which oddly enough corresponds to the politics of each author, each of whom is a favourite of mine).
Surprisingly given the deliberately unresolved ending (it is the first in a series, obviously), Card is, as he always is, far better than Cherryh in making the book function aesthetically as a complete, stand-alone whole.
The harsh but merciful realism of this book reminds me of the words of Dies Irae, "God of Vengeance, have mercy upon us". Brutal realities presented here do not come across as particularly brutal, except perhaps for those willfully blind. It's as though the author is a churchman, used to counseling real people with real problems, which he is.
The voice-acting is, as ever on Card's books, top flight, and the politics are simultaneously both horrifyingly and reassuringly real.

I liked this book not so much for the action but for the heroes it portrayed, and some of the random ideas he throws out comparing the US to Rome. You might not agree with him (I'm not sure I do) but they were thought-provoking.

A number of people have written about how the US might follow the Roman Republic to a loss of democracy and turn into an empire. This is Orson Scott Card's view on how it could happen--on the beginning of the transition, anyway. It's hard to explain without giving spoilers, but let's just say that the heroes in this book wind up getting used to promote the remarkable ascendancy of someone who just might turn out to be a Caesar--and at the end of the book, we're still not sure if that's a good thing or not. The book starts out with a truly great, moral hero, a man you really admire, and then follows things from someone who was basically his sidekick, but who has to step up when things go horribly wrong.

Card tried, I think, to be somewhat balanced in this book, portraying both the left and right as threats to democracy. I'm not sure his portrayal succeeds here. Well, it succeeds at being balanced, but maybe not plausible. It makes for a pretty good story, anyway. This didn't detract much from the story. After all, you usually don't care *that* much where the bad guys came from; you mostly care where the good guys are going to.

Ugh, what a terrible book. What happened to you Mr. Card, where did you go, and when did a crazy neo-con steal your soul and your body?

I used to love Orson Scott Card. Seriously, when I was a kid I read every single one of his published books, even saints (despite the fact that I hated and continue to dislike the Mormon church). His books were subversive and unique. Even when he stole subject matter from other authors, he used the ideas in a new way and talked about something meaningful (see the Worthing Saga were he stole the idea of cryogenic sleep). His short stories are shocking and suggestive, in addition to being well written. Early in his career it seemed like he not only cared about what he was writing, but he cared about writing well.

Now, I think he only cares about what he wants to say, and he doesn't care about disguising what he wants to say with a decent plot or well constructed characters.

I remember Ender and Valentine and Mazer Rackham. They were intelligent, multi-dimensional and puzzling characters. The scenes from Ender's game where Ender is struggling with the morality game are truly provocative. The idea of a child being tricked into xenocide and then turning into a non-violent opposition leader are the definition of subversive.

And it wasn't just Ender's Game. Take Hart's Hope, a obscure fantasy written by Card during his early period. In this book a poor young boy discovers a completely unique ability: in a world controlled by magic, he is a sink. Magic doesn't work on him, and he can make magic stop all around him. How subversive is that, magic as a metaphor for power and the main character as an opposition force to that power? Sounds like fantasy that could have been written in the sixties. Man.

And then you've got the recent stuff by Orson Scott Card. The new parallel Ender series is garbage. I got to the third one (I think, the one before shadow of the Hegemon or giant or something crappy like that), and I gave up. The book was thinly veiled pro-life propaganda. Petra doesn't have any opinions except that killing babies is wrong. The characters read like cranky middle aged men, not 20 something men and women who are forced into "saving" the world.

But this isn't a review for any of the Ender's Shadow books. This is a review of Empire, so I better start talking about Empire before this blog post gets too long. Oh wait it already is? Tough, all you three readers will have to suffer through it.

Empire sucks. And aunt Susan, I blame this on you. You promised me it didn't suck. You said it was like the old Card, before he sold out Ender for money, before he turned into a talentless hack writer. You lied to me, your tenth favorite nephew. How could you?


Continue the review at

A zase zklamání z novinky. Přitom takové jméno. Zajímavé téma. A nic. I to vlastenectví a národní patos je k mání v mnohem lepším provedení u R. A. Heinleina nebo Joe Haldemana. Říše sice naznačí snahu o hlubší pohled na příčiny možného interního konfliktu v USA, ale jinak je to k uzoufání doslovná agitka o správných amerických chlapcích (vojácích, policistech) a těch druhých, zlých (vojácích). Akční scény opět doslovné zdlouhavé jakože z reality, ale udušené množstvím nepodstatných reálií a navigačních detailů (pravděpodobně psáno s prstem na google maps). Nebrat.

I was surprised by all the negative reviews. I got on here specifically to recommend this book and ponder why it hasn’t been made into a major motion picture.

The characters are complex, yet personable. The action is easy to follow, but psychologically sound. Others see this. book as politically leaning, but I see all sides blamed for their faults and many possible ways it could have turned out. Overall, I enjoyed reading the book as I do most of Card’s books.

Es un libro interesante, con un final inesperado y con ganas de saber lo que va a suceder. Un posible futuro en Estados Unidos en el que comienzan a planear un golpe de estado, una guerra civil. Los personajes brindan perspectivas política y militar. Aunque el comienzo resulta muy lento y poco informativo, el desarrollo y el desenlace te generan una expectativa de averiguar en que terminara toda esta luchas y entramados. Aunque es un autor que conozco por la serie de Ender, es interesante el verlo en otras temáticas.

This gets 4 stars, not so much for the story (3 stars) as the message. The message is clear, especially in the first part of the book & the afterword by Card - the screamers on the left & right of our 2 party system are becoming the icons & dividing the country. Moderates aren't tolerated. If you don't fully agree with one side, then you must support the other & you're an idiot not worthy of an opinion.

As ludicrous as it is, it's all too true. I see it frequently because I disagree with hot button topics on both sides. The country really is divided along urban/rural lines & most people don't really care - they just want to be left alone.

This is told from a moderate Republican point of view, but doesn't spare fanatics on either side & often pokes fun at both, e.g. the good guys rely on Fox News almost exclusively. Many times names are left out, but the inference is obvious. Card points out in the afterword that this story was thought of else where & he doesn't think this is the way it would really happen. It's a cautionary tale not an attempt at reality.

The story was quite good in the subtle machinations until about halfway through & then the scenario got a bit ludicrous. Well before a long internal dialog gives away the ending, most will guess it. Still, it's a good one & all too plausible, especially in light of the historical examples given.

There's a lot of action, most of which was fun. The heroes were a bit too much the only game in town, but I suppose that was better than a cast of thousands. There were a couple of real shockers along the way, too.

All in all, it was quite a good read. I realize this is just the first in a series, but I'm not sure I'm interested in reading further. It stands quite well alone.

One of my students gave me this book to read because it deals with Social Studies stuff, the main character's wife is Croatian and I lived in Croatia for quite a while, and there was no AR quiz for it, so... could I maybe make one?...

No problem. And make one I did. I checked it out on www.arbookfind.com and didn't see a quiz about a month ago... but I just checked again and... a quiz is there.

Oh well. He'll get more points from their quiz (17) I would have given 12 to the book.

We're living in a time of polarizing extremes when it comes to politics. Is it the worst it's been? I don't know. We haven't seen one senator caning another in a while, but who knows what the future holds.

Empire looks at the United States on the unsuspecting cusp of a second Civil (or Revolutionary depending on who you talk to) War. There are lots of reasons people would argue that it can't/won't happen here, but Card makes some valid points that given the right scenario a spark can catch.

It’s easy to think that in a Civil War pitting red states against blue states there’d be no Mason/Dixon, no geographical distinction – and therefore we’d have an unfightable war. Just because we had that distinction last time doesn’t mean we’ll need one this time. Card points us to Rwanda where the Hutu and Tutsi were mixed geographically throughout the country. I may point out India, where right after they gained independence they crashed into a civil war based on religion – the Muslims moving to Pakistan, and the Hindus moving into India. There were general geographic distinctions (like red state/blue state) but they were also deceptive.

The book made me think through a lot of possibilities and whether or not we were really there. It made me go back and read The Federalist #10. It made me watch the highlights of this guy’s rally... books make me do a lot of things... in those regards, it was a good book. But I didn’t think it was Card’s best writing. There was a lot of dialogue, there were a lot of snippety facts thrown in that I loved as a Social Studies teacher, but I’m not sure how much the average middle schooler/ high schooler would be able to pick up. (Hong Kong v. China v. Taiwan; Farsi v. Arabic; Croatians and Serbians;... you know, passing references to a lot of facts...) There were some mistakes in the text as well (minor though they be...) For instance on page 321: “The only U.S. military ************** or ********** in ************ were ************** and ********** ... and then the ************...” But he forgot about the guys flying the planes. (Sorry, I didn’t want to spoil it, but I also don’t want the accuracy of this book review to come into question – as has in the past. A year from now if some punk kid who thinks the book deserves 5 stars and not 3 comes on here and says, “What are you talking about? Mistakes in the book... there are no mistakes... now you know... take that fictional punk kid...) Maybe it’s minor, and maybe that’s the only one... but I felt like there were a couple places that didn’t really mesh up.

What can I say? It made me think. Do I need more than that from a book?

1.5 stars. Easily my least favorite book by Card. It wasn't horrible but it also wasn't very good (so I rated it somewhere between "I didn't like it" and "it was ok" hence the 1.5 to 2.0 stars). The premise was interesting and one that I thought could have made into a really good story. Unfortunately, I think Card let his desire to write a "conservative-friendly" thriller get in the way of just telling a good story. I applaud the attempt but the execution was lacking.

One final note: Stefan Rudnicki narrated the audio version of this and did his usual excellent job.

I thought I could not finish reading this book. Not because I didn’t like it but because of my busy schedule. School work, feasibility study, exams and now we’re having a general cleaning. See, how can I sneak up just to read this? Fortunately, instead of resting, I read this book. Yay! Thanks to my reading buddy Juan este Kwesi Ian Jay who finished reading this book first. (his review)

After reading Ender’s Shadow and loving it; after hearing a lot of praises about Ender’s Game; I thought it was a logical leap to assume that majority of books of Card is great, if not, at least good. Once I love a book of a certain author, it tends me to look for his/her other works but, unfortunately, I think it wasn’t a healthy assumption or a best idea since I realized that my notion is a perverse of how this book showed me.

The fall of Roman Empire is an image of what United States of America leading to after the 9/11 attack. Between republican and democratic, blue and red, who is behind of everything when in a Friday the 13th day, White House has been attacked? The worst of all, President and vice president are in it and get killed.

When Major Reuben Malich shared his plan, hypothetically being a terrorist, under the class of Averel Torrent, he became an interesting student of Torrent. Malich met Bartholomew Coleman as his buddy and at the same day, White House had been attacked. After defending the White House, they were proclaimed as heroes of United States of America. But would Malich consider himself as a hero if he knew deep inside that the plan used in attacking the White House was his own?

I’m not living in a political world and never had any interest in any political issues. And surely, it’s one of the reasons why I haven’t liked the book that much but nor would I say I disliked this book.

Card is one of the sci-fi gods in someone’s retrospect especially for those who have read his sci-fi books already. This Empire is partly sci-fi and post-apocalyptic book at the same time. And yes, to adhere what I said at the previous paragraph, this book is somewhat a combination of sci-fi and politics. In this book, he made knots of problems, unknowingly; the thread he used was tangled already. If it doesn’t make sense to you, I hope this one will: Card used a confusing instrument in making this book. In effect, I was just as if skimming reading this book even though I have even read every word of it. And it was annoying that Card brought up different edges of political issues whilst it got more confusing.

n  “The most painful betrayal is when the closest person of your life happened to do it”n

Quite true, right? This is one of the most beautiful quotes I liked in this book. However, after reading it, it was an instant hint of what was really going on. From that quote, I knew then who is to be blamed and who are the person to set my eyes onto. This book has a semi-open mystery that gives the reader an idea of the main antagonist of the story. If you didn’t notice it, I guess you had just ignored it but it was given in the early chapter who’s the person planning a dirty trick and given wholly the name in the last chapter. Under this issue, I could have given this book a one-star rating but because of the good plot, I’ve added one--only one just to indicate as “just an okay book”. Not good but not bad either.

Speaking of characters, I didn’t like how the author developed the characters. They were weak enough to be likable. I didn’t even understand how Card gave the first few chapters to Rube when at the halfway through he’ll be gone. And yet the character who caught the spotlight of Rube already introduced in the second or third chapter and still gave him small part in the early chapters. How could he be likable in that case?

I believe that the author is best at his previous works and awesome in creating a hero. But unfortunately, the heroes of this book have a weak foundation unlike the heroes in Card’s other books. They were praised as heroes in this book but I doubt if readers would praise them the way they do when it’s pretty obvious that there’s almost nothing the characters did much good job in terms of heroism.

I wouldn’t dare recommend this to everybody but if you’ll ask me to whom I would recommend this, obviously, to political issues fanatics out there. Go grab it but never go if you’re just going to blame me.

A two-star rating or an okay impression is, I think, enough for my book shelf to find another author to fall onto, considering that somehow he has retained my admiration to his works. But I’m sure it’s not good to count his previous works, rather, his present works to look for.