Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, Shadow of the Giant

Author: Orson Scott Card

Age: YA/Adult 

(Is there really any age for Card's books? Aren't they just sort of for everyone?)

These are three separate books but I read them all one right after another, so they're all sort of blended together in my mind like one enormous Ender's Game/Ender's Shadow epilogue. So I'm writing about all three of them together.

Shadow of the Hegemon comes first, and it picks up right after all the kids have been returned to earth (except Ender, of course). It seems like life is going to go back to "normal" for Ender's friends...living at home with families, going to school...which sounds pretty boring. But Bean's old enemy Achilles is still around, and the silly Russians (oh those silly Russians) somehow get hold of him, decide he's either (a) not crazy or (b) not so crazy that he can't still be useful, and put him in charge. With the Russians' help, Achilles kidnaps all the members of Ender's Jeesh except Bean, who, being Bean, figures out what's coming just in time to get away before Achilles blows up his house. Petra, being Petra, manages to get a message out to Bean. But in order to rescue them, Bean needs allies, so he reluctantly turns to Ender's older brother, Peter. Crazy old Peter who wants SO badly to rule the world. So the other kids get freed, but Achilles manages to hold on to Petra and take her with him as he hops from country to country, changing alliances with dizzying speed and pitting everyone against each other until pretty soon the whole world is at war. Bean keeps trying to rescue Petra, and all the kids keep trying to make themselves useful to their respective nations, although the stupid adults, being stupid adults, refuse to accept that these genius Battle School-trained kids, having saved humanity and whatnot, might actually have some military strategy skills.

Shadow Puppets comes next, and then Shadow of the Giant. Like I said, the books flow together...it's all basically the same plot, Battle School kids being geniusy and trying to get adults to trust them enough to put them in charge of their respective militaries, and all the different countries fighting each other, and Peter trying to restore some actual power to the position of Hegemon and teach everyone how to get along and stop trying to do the exact thing they worked so hard to keep the Buggers from doing, namely destroying humanity. And Achilles and Volescu (the evil doctor who created Bean) being evil and sneaky and causing problems for everyone. I don't want to write more detail than that because if I write specific things about the plot of the second book it will give away the ending to the first book, and so on.

I think I liked the first one, Shadow of the Hegemon, the best. It comes right after Ender's Shadow and so the kids are still actually kids, and I think it's more like Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow in that way. In the later books they're all falling in love and wanting to make babies, which is interesting in its own way, but it's kind of weird to think of all the little Battle Schoolers growing up.

I'll start with what I didn't like. I don't think Card is particularly good at romance. And he's a guy and he's good at all the war stuff, and that's what you really read the books for, so that's okay, he gets points for that. But I think some parts of the books would play out differently if they'd been written by a woman, and since I am a woman, I can't help thinking about that. Like I said, I don't want to write any spoilers here, so I'll just say this: I think he could have done with creating more female characters. It's like he doesn't want to create anyone new who wasn't in Battle School, so he's got ALL these guys, and then there's just Petra, and it seems like poor Petra has to be everything to everyone, and I like her a lot, but that's got to be kind of taxing for her.

I also didn't like what he did with Peter. The Peter of Ender's Game has so much potential to be so interesting. He's all jealous and evil and so ambitious and he wants to rule the world, and he's also rather a genius himself, what with all the Locke and Demosthenes stuff. And then it's supposed to be like Bean has to choose between Achilles and Peter, and they're supposed to both be awful choices because they're both so ambitious, but Bean's got to go with the lesser of the two evils, or something. But Peter just doesn't seem that evil. Peter doesn't seem that...anything. He's just there, and he's got the job he's got because he's supposedly smart, but then he doesn't really do anything smart, he just relies on Bean for all that. And okay, yes, rely on Bean for military stuff, because that's what he's good at, but isn't Peter supposed to be good at shaping opinions and political maneuvering and charming people? That's what I thought. But apparently not. He doesn't even really want to rule the world. He just wants to make everyone get along for the good of humanity. He's just...blah. And not really believable as a world leader. And he used to be one of my favorite characters, so that makes me sad. 

And I don't want to say anything more about that, because I don't want to spoil anything, and maybe I've already said too much. Once you've read these you can email me or something and we can talk more.

So, what did I like? Lots of stuff. I don't think Card is all-fantastic all the time (see above), but he has his flashes of genius and those are worth reading for. I like how he draws from history to imagine what the various countries will do and who will be ambitious and how they will attack each other and what their various allegiances will be. Based on what we know of the present, it all seems like a realistic future, which is what really makes for good science fiction. I like to watch all the plotting and strategizing by the various genius characters. I don't know anything about military tactics but it all seems believable and intelligent to me. He does actually introduce one new female character, an Indian named Virlomi (and maybe she's not entirely new, maybe she was briefly mentioned before but if so I don't remember her). And Virlomi's rise to power and what she does when she gets there is interesting.

It's intriguing to go from having all these little genius kids from all these different countries working together to save the planet, and then wonder what will happen as a result of their education and their joint history when they get back to earth. It seems...necessary somehow to finish their story. And Card does it well. And he's also got to try to figure out what circumstances and what tactics would bring about a lasting world peace, and I think he does that pretty well, too. 

The other thing I really like is that every now and then, in between all the plotting and battle scenes, some of the characters have deep religious and philosophical discussions. Those are my very favorite parts of the books. Card is Mormon, and I'm Mormon, so I guess it makes sense that his religious ideas would appeal to and resonate with me, but I feel like he has a way of expressing really deep thoughts so succinctly. He helps me make sense of things I've been puzzling about in my own mind, and he does it in a way that seems so obvious, and at the same time, provokes more thought. I want to make a quote wall of Card's wisdom from these books.

These sequels haven't entered my own personal literary hall of fame the way Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow have, but they're certainly worth a read.

Recommended for readers who like: Ender's Game; Ender's Shadow; good quality science fiction; the game of Risk