Rating: 
Summary: Card slips a little with this one
Review: After Bean, Petra, and the other Battle School children are returned home following the conclusion of the Formic War, they become pawns in the struggle for supremacy between nations. The evil genius Achilles, Bean's old enemy, kidnaps Petra and others in order to further his own plans for world domination; Bean must join forces with Ender's brother Peter to thwart him. Thus begins a novel of political intrigue and manuevering that at times reads too much like the narration for a game of Risk. Author Orson Scott Card has fashioned a good story, but dilutes its effectiveness with too much conversation and polemic. He passes up most opportunities to inject some action into the events. Characters die and nations go to war, but for the most part Card tells us these things through the dialogue of characters who are not present rather than putting us right there at the scene and showing us. A good story, but a step down from the previous book in this series, "Ender's Shadow."
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Story on the War after the War
Review: The Bugger War is over. The threat to humanity's existence is gone. Thus, the danger that united Earth in its defense is no longer present to prevent the simmering national and ethnic tensions from erupting into another World War. With nationalism running high, the children still stationed at the Battle School are kept from returning home until the Earth-bound war can be resolved, lest any party in this war get an unfair advantage from these military geniuses. The initial war and governmental powerplays among the Triad (the Polemarch, Strategos, and Hegemon political machines) end in short order and the children are free to return home. International tensions still simmer and threaten to explode at any time. Suddenly, many of the battle school children start to disappear. The mystery over what is happening to these children (who are all connected by being former members of Ender's army) and political intrigue involved in development of unifying world government of the Hegemon (mentioned with great import in "Speaker for the Dead") power the incredible thriller that is "Shadow of the Hegemon".
"Shadow of the Hegemon" continues the on-going saga of Ender's trusted lieutenant, Bean, whose story was first expanded in the spectacular "Ender's Shadow". Bean has found his true family with his former Battle School mate, Nikolai and his family. While content with this new life, Bean knows that trouble waits on the horizon. Bean's arch-nemesis, Achilles, somehow escaped from a criminal mental institution during the brief League War. As Battle School children start to disappear and an attempt is made to assassinate Bean and his family, Bean realizes that Achilles must be back in play. In the midst of this crisis, Bean must also contend with effects of genetic tampering that made him a super-genius, but will also cause accelerated growth resulting in an early death.
"Shadow of the Hegemon" gives the reader a chance to delve more deeply in the backgrounds and personas of a number of different characters. Where Bean was the primary focus in "Ender's Shadow", more time in spent exploring people like Petra Arkanian and Peter Wiggin, to name a few. Author Orson Scott Card shows a keen knowledge of world history as he sets actions in motion that will pit one nation against another in the course of this dramatic struggle to control or restore peace to this world. The action and plot developments are thrilling and, at times, downright shocking. "Shadow of the Hegemon" plays out in similar fashion to the Season 1 of "24". While not exploring the real-time aspect of "24", it still mimics it with the various political battles, plots for revenge, personal betrayals, and heart-pounding action.
This novel, along with most of the other novels in the Ender Saga, clearly demonstrate why Card is one of the most gifted science fiction writers there is. As stated in previous reviews of his books, Card's skill lies not in his ability write about ridiculous futuristic technologies, but to focus on the development of the individual characters. He has a gift for dialogue and an innate ability to make the reader empathize with the characters he writes about. Truth be told, "Shadow of the Hegemon" contains no elements that would make it a science fiction novel. It could be classified as a political thriller or action novel. It's the depth of Card's characters that make the reader not care that there aren't any spectacular space ships or alien species. With the exception of his existential rantings at the end of "Xenocide" and throughout "Children of the Mind", Card has created a near-perfect saga. "Shadow of the Hegemon" is just the latest jewel in that saga.
Rating: 
Summary: Same great characters, solid story
Review: In Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide, you get a few small glimpses of what Earth was like after the Formic Wars. In Shadow of the Hegemon, you get all the interesting details.While I don't think this was nearly as good as Ender's Shadow, it still has most of the same characters, and it is interesting to see what happens to them on their return from Battle School. The plot is not all that plausible, but Card writes well enough so that you don't think too much about that. The story is good, and the characters are great. The only problem that I have with this book (and this series) is I really never saw enough depth from the Achilles character to see him as a real person. I would recommend this to anyone who has read and enjoyed Ender's Shadow.
Rating: 
Summary: A disappointing followup to Ender's Shadow
Review: This novel continues Bean's story after the events in Ender's Shadow. Bean returns to earth to join his family which happens to be his good friend Nikolai's family. He and the rest of the Battle School children are threatened by the various countries across the globe that want to kidnap them and use their tactical skills in conflicts against each other. Achilles returns as Bean's nemesis in this book. This book starts going bad after Bean's character development stagnates about halfway through. After that it becomes more of a chase from one place to another with endless amounts of technical detail about the brilliant strategies that Bean and the other Battle School children are employing in the conflicts across the globe. Card does a lot better with fictitious battles in zero gravity than he does with something closer to reality. By the time the book ends it's hard to care who has won or lost or to figure out what exactly they did to end up there. Card's intent seems to be to mix up his coterie of characters and universe in a small scale war situation and explore the strategies and tactics involved. Unfortunately his dry descriptions of what should be done, what could be done and what Bean and the other kids end up doing takes up much of the latter half of the book. Peter, Ender's brother, and Ender's parents play small roles in the book as well, but mostly it follows Bean's path through the earth conflict. The book is a definite step down from Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow and has turned me off of reading further books in the series. The good thing about Card's previous books in this set was that he didn't focus too much on the details of what the kids were doing so much as their reactions to those situations. The characters were the focus, not the minute details of what they were doing.
Rating:
Summary: This novel is more like a thriller
Review: Shadow of the Hegemon is not at all about Peter Wiggins (who we all know eventually becomes Hegemon). No I don't get the title either then. Shadow of the Hegemon is all about Bean and his old nemesis Achilles and Bean's attempt to foil Achilles' little game of Risk and rescue his beloved Petra. The military strategy and geopolitical aspects of Shadow of the Hegemon easily overcame any weakness in the story. Rather than personal characterizations this novel is more like a thriller: will the brilliant Bean succeed? what will the insane Achilles do next? what is his plan? This may be explained by the afterword in which Card explains that this was really half a novel (the other half of which is now Shadow Puppet's I guess). Not nearly as moving or intense as Ender's Shadow, SotH is still a fine piece of work with a strong story and a page turning suspense level.
Rating:
Summary: This book is better than Ender's Shadow
Review: This book is filled with suspense from start to finish. As one by one Ender's jeesh, which destroyed the alien race, are kidnapped by Achilles, Beans arch rival from the days on the streets in Rotterdam. An epic book filled with excitement from start to finish.
Rating:
Summary: Not the best Ender book
Review: I thought "Ender's Shadow" was much better for the "Shadow" series... and this certainly doesn't compare to the original Ender series.
Rating:
Summary: Better than Ender's Shadow and more human
Review: I enjoyed the exploration of Petra's character in this book as well as her growth from smart-ass little girl to young adult. Many of the other characters who had just been mentioned by names are full characters in Hegemon. Taking place after the battle school has been disbanded, Shadow of the Hegemon encompasses a much wider scope, dealing with the politic of the countries/world that Ender has left behind. The most important focus of the novel are the events that lead Peter to power. His ambition leads him to the Hegemony, but Bean is there behind him in the shadows! Card's handling of politics between countries makes the book engaging, as it revolves around a kidnaping of Petra by Achilles and Bean efforts to save her. We even get to see what Battle school graduates are doing after Battle school; they are at the heart of military strategies in the book. Bean is more human in this book. He shows more emotion for people and he interacts more with his environment. Peter's role in this book was surprisingly small, but he plays a bigger part in the remainder of the series. It is well worth the read. It continues in the Ender tradition, but it 100% new events as opposed to Ender's Shadow.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable Page-Turner
Review: This book is the second installment of the second Ender's Game series (the "Shadow" series). It covers what happens on earth after the events of Ender's Game/Ender's Shadow. While not as good as Ender's Game or Ender's Shadow, it's definitely better than the last few books in the first Ender's Game series. Not the most developed book in terms of character development and so on, but fun and hard to put down.
Rating:
Summary: Events glossed over in regular series
Review: Though not as riveting as Ender's Shadow, SotH does a great job of showing you the events on Earth leading up to Peter's anointment as Hegemon, events that were barely even touched upon in the regular series that focused on Ender off-world.
This book at the end sort of leaves off in the middle of some subplots, setting you up for the third in the series, Shadow Puppets.
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