Rating: 
Summary: It stands alone
Review: Well, this wasn't Ender's Game, as the other reviews point out. At times, it is too into the romance plot and I must admit that I didn't recognize some of the character traits in the characters.
Despite this, I thought that the book was excellent. It isn't quite as action packed as... Ender's Game, but very geopolitical, which I find intersesting, and his view of the future is very neat. You can't look at this book as a action packed adventure, although it has that. Read it as a geopolitical thriller that tells continues the story of Ender's the somewhat modified army, and you should enjoy it. I look forward to the next book.
Rating:
Summary: The soap opera...err...sci-fi epic continues!
Review: Ok...let's get something straight from the start, this is no Ender's Game. If you think that it will be don't read it. Each book that Orson Scott Card writes (with the exception of Ender's Shadow) takes him farther away from the same theme of Ender's Game. This is not necessarily a bad thing...its just the way it is.Basicly, this novel is a direct continuation of Shadow of the Hegemon. It was a fun and exciting and served to tie up most of the loose ends that Shadow of the Hegemon created...and then create another one. Loose ends tied up: How does the rest of the world deal with the new Chinese empire.
What happens when Bean and Petra "hook-up."
What is Achilles final fate. The problem is that it was very easy to see how these three teasers would be resolved. The Chinese would get worked, Bean and Petra would indeed hook-up and Achilles would get killed. There was little tension as to if these things would happen. Just how. The how was fun though. There is one loose end that has not still been wrapped up from Shadow of the Hegemon: How does Peter gain credibility as Hegemon? This will need to be resolved in Shadow of the Giant (the next book.) I was hoping to see that in this book, but Card choose to show him go through a humbling phase as he prepares for him to emerge as the great leader that we all know he can be. One new loose end was created: Where are Bean and Petra's children that are still embryos? This will doubtlessly be the focus of Shadow of the Giant. The final question that we all want to know is: Will Bean die of his genetic condition or will he be saved? With the reintroduction of Volescu I am beginning to think that Bean might be saved. All in all, the book answered some of the questions that have been lingering in an unoriginal but entertaining fashion. There are still enough loose ends in the Enderverse to warrent at least one more volume.
Rating: 
Summary: Is this book written purely for the purpose of bashingChina?
Review: I usually like Orson Scott Card's book but I was terribly offended by the book Shadow Puppets. Does he have anything nice or at least respectful to say about China? All he does in the book is either make China out as an insensitive tyrannical country on the whole or make fun of Chinese customs, such as those of respecting the elder and speaking humbly, even in a self-deprecating way. But Card really stretches it too far and it's done nothing but make me angry.
Rating:
Summary: This may be the best of the Shadow Books
Review: I think the Shadow books appeal to me because they delve into the other characters and really bring them to life from the Ender series. This is my favorite so far since it has a lot of focus on Petra who I find quite fascinating. I thnk you can also read it without reading others in the series if you handle picking up the background as you read.
Rating: 
Summary: Wow! One of the worse books I've ever read...
Review: After so many years of being one of the biggest fans of Orson Scott Card's "Ender Series" I can't believe what a really awful book this is. It's condescending, insulting, and completely unbelieveable. It's really very sad that after I have enjoyed so many of his books that the very last one I read would be so very very BAD.
Rating:
Summary: Falls far from the tree...
Review: I think few have expectations that this book or series measure up to Ender's Game. I started reading the new series with Ender's Shadow which was actually pretty good, but Shadow Puppets and Shadow of the Hegemon have been disappointments. The great thing about Ender's Game was that it was a book about kids, but you were able to suspend your disbelief that little kids were saving the world. Card fails to do that in these installments.
Rating:
Summary: What a disappointment!
Review: There's a passable story in this book, but it's swamped by pages of didactic musings about human beings' innate urge to procreate, along with many, many statements that life begins at conception. I'm happily pregnant right now, so you'd think I'd be sympathetic to this sort of thing, but it is dull, dull, dull. The characters, too, are flat and disappointing, with no resemblance to the characters with the same names that appeared in Ender's Game. A few of the side characters (Virlomi, Han Tzu) are allowed to be interesting since they neither have to wave the flag of procreation nor fill in the gaps in Peter's transformation into a responsible leader. (Lots of history is rehashed here but you never hear about Peter torturing small animals.) When Card finally turns his attention to political and military strategy things do pick up. Unfortunately that's by far the smallest part of the book. I found the two earlier books in this set of sequels to Ender's Game to be okay but not great; this one is not even up to that standard. Unfortunately the ending is a clear setup for yet another sequel focused on Bean's babies. Re-read Ender's Game instead.
Rating:
Summary: Stick with the first series
Review: The original Ender series, the one that followed the journey of Ender Wiggin, a child prodigy trained from his early years to lead a war against an alien invasion, was breathtaking. It was filled with action, psychodrama, speculative fiction, and imagination. At points in the later books, there was a tendency to spin off into pontification and meandering "philosophizing". By and large, the books were rich and captivating. I cared about Card's characters even after Ender had left them. "Shadow of the Hegemon", the first of the "Shadow" series showed some real promise. It was basically a book about the development of a minor character from "Ender's Game", Bean, a runt who also happened to be the smartest human being ever born. The first book follows Bean from his earliest moments as a street urchin in Rotterdam to his days with Ender at Battle School. He is a fully human character, even if the fact that he is also a genetic experiment renders him not quite so human in genotype. By the time we meet Bean in the seventh book, it is evident that the "genre" of child geniuses fighting with and against each other to rule the world, has a limited shelf life. Bean is still a wunderkind who is now afflicted with a self-abusive personality that is so petulant and repetitive I could barely stand to read the dialogue. Orson Scott Card's early books are among my absolute favorites. The Ender series is wonderful. The Worthing Saga rivals Philip K. Dick for its predictive social sci-fi. Pastwatch, a fairly recent publication, is also an exercise in creativity and [...] romance novel with Petra begging Bean to have babies with her, other dyads of power and ambition vying for control of the world. None of it seems real. It reminds me of a pulp novel from the 1930's. At over 450 pages, it feels like Card wrote with no editor and no revisions. The writing is sloppy and boring. He dwells on themes and relationships the way one would expect from John Irving, but not as well, for that's not Card's strong suit. This series is not indicative of Card's ability as a story teller. As a long time reader, I am not likely to give up on him, but if he continues to publish more Ender books, I won't read them. I just hope he moves on to something else sooner rather than later.
Rating:
Summary: Satisfactory, but perfunctory, conclusion(?) to 'Bean' saga
Review: I put a question mark next to the word conclusion in the title of this review because it's not clear if "Shadow Puppets" is the final book in the entire 'Ender's Saga' ('Bean sub-saga'). A large number of issues are resolved in this book, but others are still left up in the air. At the present time, there is listing or information about any future episodes in this series. So, for the time being, I will assume this is the last book. If it is, despite seeming loose ends, it would make a satisfactory conclusion.
"Shadow Puppets" should probably be the end, though. Much like the last portion of "Xenocide" and all of "Children of the Mind" in the original 'Ender's Quartet', Orson Scott Card seems to be running out of steam with these characters. Card still displays his gifts of representing human interactions, but "Shadow Puppets" has less ability to stand on it's own. Unlike "Ender's Shadow" and, to a slightly lesser degree, "Shadow of the Hegemon", you absolutely have to have read the previous books in the series for "Shadow Puppets" to have any true meaning. Whereas "Ender's Shadow" and "Shadow of the Hegemon" were connected by similar characters, yet told different stories (much like "Ender's Game" and "Speaker for the Dead"), "Shadow Puppets" merely continues the storyline from "...Hegemon".
To summarize, Peter Wiggin has achieved his long sought after goal of becoming the Hegemon, but the title carries little power with it in the wake of a large Chinese invasion throughout southern Asia, and subsequent assumption of the position of Earth's premier military power. These actions were set in motion by the psychotic Achilles before his true nature came to light and he was placed under arrest by the Chinese government. Peter sees his only true way of thwarting the Chinese and restoring prestige to the office of the Hegemon is to rescue Achilles from prison and put him to work for the Hegemony. Think that, despite Achilles manipulative skills, he can control him, Peter mistakenly compromises his own security and drives away many of those who served him, including Bean and Petra.
During their self-imposed exile from Hegemon, Bean and Petra try to find ways to undermine the Chinese and Achilles while also dealing with a burgeoning romance and Petra's desire to have children by Bean before he dies of his genetic disorder. While it is somewhat interesting to read about Bean and Petra's romance, it is still somewhat dry. It's not impossible to conceive of this happening, as they are both probably 16 years old at this point and far older in many other ways, given what their early years consisted of. Yet, there's not really any spark to the relationship. It seems to the reader as if they are having this romance because they feel that it's something that they should do, not because there is any passionate romantic feelings sparking between them. It can't carry near the same weight as the personal interactions and tender romance that took place in "Speaker for the Dead". That example is just thrown in as a perfect representation of Card's ability to convey human emotion. It's not quite as well-crafted here. It's not bad, though, so the reader still has some emotional investment in these two.
There are other elements of "Shadow Puppets" that are quite interesting. For the first time in all seven of the "Ender's" novels, the reader gets a chance to truly see the personalities of Theresa and John Paul Wiggins, the parents of Peter, Ender and Valentine. A great deal of time is spent on Peter's reluctant interaction with his parents and his eventual acceptance of their advice as relevant and appreciated. They come across as so much more than the bland, inattentive parents that readers were first introduced to in "Ender's Game". In addition, there are interactions with many other former Battle School students. Alai and Han Tzu are just a few of the names who play major roles in the events that shape this novel.
On the whole "Shadow Puppets" was a good read. If there are more books on the horizon, then all the better. However, if this is where the series ends, then so be it. It's not a bad way to go out.
Rating:
Summary: pretty good book actually
Review: i own this book and i loved the ender saga. this book solely revolves around bean and petra but is still a good book. i personally liked it because it had parts of what was going around in the world today in it. it could have been a little better but it is still ranked with 4 stars out of 5. a good book.
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