Very different from the rest of the series: less science fiction and more action thriller. The kind of book I would have loved in fifth grade. Fills in a lot of expectations/questions from other books, but the character development isn't as deep.

Interlude music on this audiobook was laughably out of place. Also funny that they had to redub every time the reader said hegemon because he said it wrong.

I am really digging this series of books from the perspective of Bean, and I find him to be a more interesting and developed character than Ender. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how the story advances.

Great book, eh ending. Poor bean

This didnt really do it for me. I wasn't enthralled in the storyline. Seemed to be filled with so much dialogue and barely any action.i just began to skim through some the pages. It did have potential but felt like it fell short.

I will give it a 2 maybe 2.25.

This was interesting in how it almost entirely avoided science fiction and became a global political intrigue story. I wasn't crazy about some choices the author made, especially in what/what not to do with particular characters.

The audiobook was an embarrassment - dozens of punch-ins (with a different reader) to fix the rampant mispronunciations of the crucial word "hegemon" - I mean, who doesn't get that straight before starting? who doesn't have some kind of quality control so that even if mistakes slip through, they can be fixed by the *same* reader before that person gets paid? It was amateurish. And there were some narrators who pronounced "Achilles" in the intended French-way (the character is Belgian) and others who pronounced it in the typical hard K way. Why? Why? Why?

We’re back on Earth now, where we can see how Orson Scott Card and Ender’s jeesh fare in real world geopolitics. That’s one of the things I liked: the use of several languages as battle school slang. I also enjoyed the locations, since I’ve been to some of them and it helps me picture the setting in my head.

It’s becoming increasingly clear, however, that Card is no George R. R. Martin, and he will not kill off any of his main characters. So we find ourselves in a situation akin to watching one of Roger Moore’s Bond films, where we no longer wonder about “if” the character will overcome the challenge, but “how”.

Overall, the books that take place during Battle School and the Formic Wars are still the best ones, but this was a great story nonetheless.

Honestly, if I hadn't read the third book in this series out of order and enjoyed it, I don't know that I would've continued the Shadow series. There were just so many things about this audiobook (and book) that annoyed me. Now, I know that a lot of OSC's religious views (and misogyny) come out in his books but this is the first one that has really annoyed me. A lot of his characters always "seem to know what is best" and it is frustrating to listen to. In addition, this particular audiobook is poorly done. Despite being narrated by OSC's usual cast, one character's name is repeatedly pronounced incorrectly and, though the freaking book is called Shadow of the Hegemon, one narrator must've mispronounced hegemon whilst recording because they've alternated between dubbing a new voice over for the word or sentence, changing the speed of the recording over the word so it sounds like you have a scratch on the CD, or leaving it. Totally unprofessional. Isn't there someone who is in charge of production for audiobooks? (that is rhetorical, as I know there is:-))

In terms of the plot, this book goes far beyond my allowable amount of military strategics. Occasionally I was interested but most of the time I was zoning out. The characters of Ender, Valentine, and Bean can usually anchor me back into an Enderverse story but the first two are mostly absent from the Shadow series and Bean was not his usual self in this book (read: he was super annoying) and none of the other characters really kept me interested. Petra and Achilles' storyline was probably the most interesting and their interaction, while important, was not a large portion of the book.

As it stands, I think I'm going to jump over to the original series for a bit and try to come back to Shadow of the Giant a few months from now. Hopefully, he gets back on track there...

I like it so much that I put off all necessary school work until 9:30. Yay.

Again, many thought-provoking themes throughout the books to contemplate on. (Satyagraha! Learned that in yoga!)

Bean's character development is very profound, which can be shown especially in his final decision about Achilles. I also see Petra in a very different light; she, too, has her soft sides. Hooray for Virlomi to have done the right thing valiantly. There are so many beloved characters in this book that I cannot name them all.

Quotes:

1. "No, I will be honest, my tears are because I think of you as being, in so many ways, my own son, and the only thing that makes me glad about the fact that you are learning of your future through this letter is that it means I have died before you. The worst fear of every loving parent, you see, is that they will have to bury a child. We nuns and priests are spared that grief. Except when we take it upon ourselves, as I so foolishly and gladly have done with you" (347-348).

2. "'Sometimes,' said Petra, 'what's right is not peaceful or passive. What matters is that you do not hide from the consequences. You bear what must be borne.'... 'Not contradictory anyway,' said Sayagi. '... But personally, as an individual, if you know that the price of doing right is terrible loss or suffering or even death, satyagraha means that you are all the more determined to do right, for fear that fear might make you unrighteous'" (395).

I have loved all of the previous books in this world of Ender and Bean. This one was more politically driven vs action driven.

Kind of similar to Robert Jordan's last few books in the Wheel of Time series, where he tries to write political intrigue, but doesn't do a great job. I think that real political intrigue doesn't get conveyed well in a page-turner format, since the only way to explain everything is through a ton of exposition.

We're constantly being told to appreciate how smart Bean and Petra are, with no real option other than taking the author's hand waving as evidence.

I think I'm slowly realizing that despite the better writing, and the adult themes in these books, Orson Scott Card is basically writing young adult fiction here. Adults never do anything right, only children understand what's really happening, and our heroes will inevitably succeed.

This book was OK, but I think I'll skip the rest of these.

Absolutely devoured this book.

I'm tired of you Orson Scott Card.

Ender's Game was fun. Ender's Shadow was a similar kind of fun in the same setting. I had hoped Shadow of the Hegemon would follow the nifty character of Bean back to Earth.

It does.... sort of.

Have you ever met one of those nerds who owns multiple editions of Risk? Who had complete DVD series spanning half a wall that's entirely about World War 2? Who owns board games relating to a single historical battle? That's how Card seems to roll these days.

This book scrapped the idea of character development entirely. We don't learn much about these characters we didn't already know. Card even acknowledges that the story is essentially RISK set in a near future.

I don't like RISK, I'm not interested in strategy. I enjoyed the earlier Ender books because I like the pacing and the characters. None of that is left here. We get a book where India feels like Thailand feels like North Carolina. He seems to preoccupied to bother with atmosphere or storytelling. None of the characterization or physical detail got through in this volume.

Maybe Card should stick to alien worlds and invented environments? Most of the last two books I read took place in a fictional battle school in space. Perhaps I should double back and read "Speakers of the Dead" instead of pursuing my current path.

The trouble is that Card appears to have become a bit of an ass in his old age. There's some really obnoxious political editorializing that goes off the rails in a few instances. I might not mind this as much in a political thriller, but this story is set 200 years in the future. The fact that his opinions are rather toxic and hostile does not make those moments go down any better.

Card has misread his audience. He assumed we all care as much about military history, strategy, and tactics as he does. The shift in priorities made this volume drag.

"Ender's Game" was a fast paced work of economic prose and it's sad to see how bloated and self-absorbed his style has become 15 years later. I'll probably stick to the stuff he wrote in the Reagan era.