Better than the middle "Ender" books

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	• Shadow of the Hegemon (Ender) Orson Scott Card Tor Books, 2000 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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Better than the middle "Ender" books

Card got a little tedious in the middle books of the series that started with Ender's Game, but things picked up with Ender's Shadow, and the later books that detail the lives of Bean, Peter, and crew. Maybe Ender had just run his course.

This one's still a heavy read, and probably best suited for fans of the serious who have read all the previous books. If you're one of them, you'll enjoy this greatly. If not, prepare to puzzle over some of the backstory that never quite becomes clear.

I liked it, anyway.

Unforgettable characters

Ender Wiggin and his sister, Valentine, have left Earth on the advice of their older brother, Peter. That's a good thing, because the other former Battle School "students" who were part of Ender's jeesh, who fought to victory against the insectoid alien Formics, are kidnapped shortly after this book opens. They are still children - the oldest are in their early teens - and that makes them even more valuable to the captors who want to use their tactical expertise in wars of nationalism. For that ancient scourge is rampant once again, now that Earth no longer needs to be united in order to fight the Formics.

Voluntarily working with those who have kidnapped Ender's jeesh is Achilles, an orphan recruited for Battle School by Sister Carlotta. Achilles didn't last long in Battle School because Bean, the most brilliant student of all, recognized him and got rid of him. For Bean was also an orphan on the streets of Rotterdam, and Carlotta also recruited Bean. What's different about Achilles is that he's a serial killer. And now the lives of Bean's dearest friends are in that mad young man's hands...including the life of Petra, the only girl in Ender's jeesh and the closest friend Bean has ever had.

Politics bore me, even when they are part of a future universe lovingly created by a master storyteller. This book's plot revolves around politics. I enjoyed it thoroughly nevertheless, because its characters never take a back seat to its plot. Peter Wiggin, who in his 'Net identity of the mysterious "Locke" can sway opinions and influence events all over the world. Carlotta, the nun who takes the risk of loving someone else's child as if he were her own. The Wiggin parents, whose religions (yes, that word definitely must be plural) put them at odds with the world in which they must live their lives and rear their children. Petra, who failed Ender during the final battle and can't forgive herself. And Bean himself, this tale's hero, a pint-sized military genius who never had a chance to be a child - not even before Battle School, to which children went at 5 or 6 years old because only a child's unfettered creativity could hope to defeat the Formics...these characters are unforgettable.

Fun even for a reader who hasn't been exposed to the rest of the "Enderverse" books!

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The War is over, won by Ender Wiggin and his team of brilliant child-warriors. The enemy is destroyed, the human race is saved. Ender himself refuses to return to the planet, but his crew has gone home to their families, scattered across the globe. The battle school is no more.

But with the external threat gone, the Earth has become a battlefield once more. The children of the Battle School are more than heros; they are potential weapons that can bring power to the countries that control them. One by one, all of Ender's Dragon Army are kidnapped. Only Bean escapes; and he turns for help to Ender's brother Peter.

Peter Wiggin, Ender's older brother, has already been manipulating the politics of Earth from behind the scenes. With Bean's help, he will eventually rule the world.

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