Rating: 
Summary: Not as great as the others, but still great.
Review: In this review I'll assume you've read AT LEAST Ender's Shadow before this one, so I won't describe the story itself. If you haven't, read Ender's Shadow first, this book is a direct sequel.
I've read the entire Ender books published to date. All six of them. All the other got five stars, best books I've ever read. This one got only four stars.
Why, you ask? Well, don't get me wrong, Shadow of the Hegemon is still a GREAT book, only I enjoyed it a bit less than the other books in the series. While reading the other five in the series, there wasn't a single dull moment, swallowing every line with interest. With this book, for the first time, there were a few dull moments.
The parts of world geo-political intrigues were a bit boring for me: China vs. Thailand vs. India vs. Burma (etc.) is reasonable to a degree, but can, when stretched, be a bit too much.
And, for the first time I encountered some modern-day religion (Mormon?) references here (Wiggin parents), which aren't my cup of tea. Still, this book is great. And Card fans will certainly enjoy this book (and others too). Not as great as the others, but still great.
Rating: 
Summary: is o.s card a one book writer ?
Review: o.s.card wrote ender's game, which was one of the great sc-fi fiction i ever read, then he went on and wrote sequels, based on ender's game epilogs. later he got tired, started to write paralex stories : ender's shadow, which was ender's game by a prespective of other chracter : bean - an upgrade to side figure in ender's game. shadow of the hegemon is a sequel to ender's shadow, and in some way a magnifying glass action on some of the side stories or background stories in the original ender's game. what's wrong in this book, and this are just main points :
1. the original background stories in ender's game, were very unclear, and didn't have any importance, what so ever on the plot.
2. the upgraded hero, bean character is totaly un-convincing, i can't beleive such a chracter can exist, and act like it does.
3. upgraing petra arkanian to a female heroin character - she was a side figure in eneder's game and wasn't a positive one eather - "politiocly correct" move from scot ?
4. upgrade to ender's family - is parents are not the idiots, like they were portrated, and petter is not a monster, looks artifial, again did i say "politicly correct ".
5. a realy bad plot, and un-reliable one about the new achiles-bean conflict, i could understand a chapter before bean "the geneous" what achiles is up to, and he had to learn it from informer !. so finaly this is a bad story, that it's only purpuse is to milk you some more money, and prepare you to the next sequel in bean-peter weigen stories. waste of time for those wo read ender's game.
for those who didn't read scot - read ender's game - that's cover all is creation.
Rating:
Summary: What if Ender's Game was set on Earth?
Review: 2 stars for the story, 0 stars for the politics Ok, I thought Ender's Game was really fantastic. Of course I read that book when I was a kid and so maybe Orson Scott Card's political jabberings flew over my naive little head. I just read Shadow of the Hegemon today, interestingly enough on the train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai (as some of the events are set in Thailand). There are several major problems with this book. First, it is really set in the present day with only a fig leaf of being in the future. If it was really set in the future, why do all the nations have the same boundaries and general political/social outlook as today? Why is China the bad guy and the U.S. [ prostituting] itself in trading with China? Why the angry denuciation against fashion-bound American intellectuals by Ender's Mom who reveals herself to be a religious nutcase a la Orson Scott Card? If you make it to the end of the book, and you likely will, because the story isn't too bad...Well, the basic plot line that there are a bunch of military geniuses running around and they are sought after by the different powers is pretty solid. But unfortunately, when they are no longer needed by the story, the various geniuses just disappear. If Thailand is fantastically transformed into a heavyweight by having one of these geniuses on call, why is China's rise to power a fait accompli if there are so many other geniuses running loose out there? I think the reason that Ender's Game worked was because it purposefully kept some of the details of how genius Ender's crooked little mind worked out of the picture. That combined with a change of venue and an otherworldly foe was enough to keep awkward questions from arising in our brains. The genius of Ender's Game was also that while the kids were super-smart in their military capabilities, they still acted like little kids in other ways. In Hegemon there is too much effort to show off the thinking of the kids... This whole book is a good object lesson in why Ender's Game was enjoyable--alien foe whose motives are shrouded in mystery, novelty of kids being warriors, slightly sinister nature of the main character (remember wondering if he would turn out like his older brother?), and real tension in the political/personal relationships. In Hegemon, you've got other humans as the enemy, and worse, recognizible as present day people, the novelty is gone from kid-warriors, the characters are honestly cut-outs and fairly bland, and there isn't any thriller like tension between characters. We know that Achilles is bad, Petra is good. Achilles is not going to be reformed, Petra will not be corrupted. Ah, its all pretty tedious. I wish I hadn't read this book so as to recollect Ender's Game in a better light.
Rating: 
Summary: Shadows the rest
Review: Whatever they see, they destory. Whomever they touch, they kill. Saviors of bridges, summoners of helicopters, commanders of armies. They are the battle school children. The Good:
-Bringing the Lord of the Flies back on earth felt closer to home and infinately more intresting than a tube in space.
-Developing Achilles in to a charming villian that's hard to hate.
-Seeing Bean rise up from the shadows and lead armies to victory The Bad:
-Wished Card used the children in Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow in this episode instead of using unfamilar and under developed characters like Virlomi and Suriyawong. Whatever happened to Hot Soup, Alai, and Crazy Tom? The Ugly:
-Every question is a moral question
-The Anti-United States tone
-Religious overtone with technocratic zeal
Rating:
Summary: More interesting than Ender's Shadow, but not believable.
Review: [....] Now comes Shadow of the Hegemon. It is much faster paced. I did enjoy its story better than Ender's Shadow simply because Bean is a bit older and I thought it would develop a similar relationship between Bean and Peter. I thought we'd get a glimpse of what Ender would write about the character of Peter in his "Hive Queen and the Hegemon" -- but no. Peter is a sniveling bratty teen who somehow commands great authority and respect as an online persona but has no backbone of his own. If Bean doesn't push him to do the least little thing, he'd rather just play on his computer. Also, I didn't like the formula way Card tries to make his characters smart: "I know that you know that I think what you will do so I will do the opposite thing..." -- All his "smart" characters "think" like this and it gets a bit weary and boring because you hit a paragraph of this twisted thinking and you know how it's going to end, but there's still a paragraph of info that's not needed. Beyond that, Card is becoming more and more cynical in his writings about the U.S. He's also actively interjected himself as an adult into characters in his book (much like Robert Heinlein did) to lecture us, the readers, on what he thinks instead of letting his own characters speak for themselves. So we are regailed on how America is a country in decline and in bed with the Chinese. Card is becoming the Dr. Laura of science fiction, using his books as a vehicle to espouse his political and religous views. [....]
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing.
Review: I loved Ender's Game and, although it didn't measure up to the original, Ender's Shadow was an intriguing look at the same events from a different perspective. I read Shadow of the Hegemon to find out more about the fate of Bean, which certainly appeared as very problematic in Ender's Shadow, but I was very disappointed. Somehow, it was much easier to suspend disbelief about warrior children when the story took place off-planet and Earth was facing annihilation by an alien invader. Somehow it just doesn't work very well when the plot revolves around Earth politics. Moreover, it's hard to work up much interest in a character like Peter Wiggin, who has already been established as a nasty piece of work. Shadow of the Hegemon has its moments of excitement and some engaging characters in Bean, Petra, and some of the other Battle School grads, but the baddie here, Achilles, is just not credible (13 year olds or whatever age he is just don't take over the world this easily!) and Peter Wiggin is eminently forgettable. It looks like there is another sequel coming, but if the focus is on Peter Wiggin and Achilles again, I think I'll pass it up.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing and tedious
Review: Ender's Game is a classic; Ender's Shadow is remarkably good; this book I found disappointing. It picks up where Ender's Shadow left off: the war against the aliens has been won, which means that all of the domestic tensions set aside for that battle have re-emerged in full force, and the brilliant children who won the war for Earth become prizes in those battles. Again we focus on Bean with more emphasis on Peter Wiggin, Ender's brother. Early on, it's a gripping read as many of the child generals are kidnapped and attempts are made on Bean's life. Later on, though, the book bogs down in pages and pages of talk about how to deal with the politics, which I found tedious. I also found limits to my suspension of disbelief with the continued dominance of the children over the adults in military and political strategy. One sees that in young adult fiction and can accept it, but I don't see very many young adults finding this book very interesting. As I said, it's rather a disappointment and not at all up to the level of its predecessors.
Rating:
Summary: Keeps you waiting for more
Review: Once again, Card has done it and this time he's done even more by answering so many questions that were left open in Speaker of the Dead. We get more insight into what makes Peter, the ignored Wiggin tick and how he managed to gain his influential position. With more fascinating characters and background, the second Shadow adds more depth to the Ender series. Can't wait for the remaining ones!
Rating:
Summary: Great Book, but not as good as Ender's Shadow
Review: This is the sixth novel in the Ender's Game Series. It shows what is going on in an alternative location from where Ender is. I really enjoy reading novels that have a parallel story elsewhere and piece together what is happening from other books in the series. This novel delivers in helping to piece together some of the activities on Earth. I always wondered what happened on Earth after Ender leaves on the colony ship. All the knowledge you get from reading Ender's game is that his Brother the Hegemon conquers the world. This novel helps fill some of the pieces but leaves much left unsaid. Bean, the brilliant child who was an important battle school solider for Ender is now in pursuit of Achilles. Except the rivalry between these two is involving Earth as the playground rather then the slummy streets of Rotterdam. Very few novels have the subject of children taking over the world. Teenagers and younger children will get a kick out of the power these child geniuses attain. Although the characters are very one-dimensional, the problems they deal with and the emotional battles taking place are well written enough to overlook this. When I heard about this book at first I was hoping it would be more of a conquest book but card leaves that for a future novel. I love books with the subject of Human's future history and this book delivers. Card has some good references to non-western cultures which helps keep interest in the book till the end on top of a predictable ending. Expect a follow-up novel from Card.
Rating:
Summary: Lifeless
Review: OSC is capable of much more depth than Shadow of the Hegemon has. It is a watery story with little character development and the pace of a poorly played chess game. Granted, it is difficult to write characters who are supposed to be smarter than the author, but OSC did it with Ender's Game..... OSC admittedly wrote Shadow while concurrently writing a different story. It shows.
| 
