Orson Scott Card's Shadow of the Hegemon: A Book Review

Shadow of the Hegemon picks up on earth not long after the events of both Ender’s Shadow and Ender’s Game have come to a conclusion. This text follows Bean as he quests to find a place in this new world, but more specifically as he quests to better his arch nemesis Achilles, who has escaped from a mental institution and enamored world power Russia, and save his battle school comrades from the villain’s clutches before Achilles can take over the world. Further, Bean feels the constant pursuit of father time, for his life will end at only twenty or so years as his genetic anomaly takes over.

Playing out like a game of risk, the novel starts with a literal bang as Bean’s vacation home is bombed, and transforms into Bean’s almost inexplicable devotion to Petra, the only member of Ender’s jeesh to remain in Achilles’ clutches after escape attempts and releases. Unlink the other stories of the series, the novel is more of a spy novel, tackling espionage and world domination within the power vacuum the defeat of the Formics has created. Here world powers, no longer fearing for humanity’s existence, spring out on to the world’s stage, claiming battle school graduates as their strategists and seeking to renew age old struggles. At the outside, we see Peter Wiggin, who makes the moves to become the center of world power by occupying a position with none and seeking to establish the job’s relevance. To this plot line, that of rise of Peter, one almost wants more, to see the cogs and gears, to see what the one remaining Wiggin child can do.

While the novel’s pages turn, like the two books that will follow in the series, the story plays out for too long. There is only so much internal moaning and groaning of Bean that one needs. He is talented, interesting, and soon to be a giant, but the what happens after the war for humanity story is more political football than science fiction fodder. That is not to say that one cannot garner pleasure, but that Orson Scott Card could have condensed this tale and returned to chasing the stars, to settling the future.

Orson Scott Card's Ender's Shadow: A Book Review

While it starts unexpectedly crawling the streets of Rotterdam with orphaned children, Ender’s Shadow picks up steam quite quickly. Returning to the format that made Ender’s Game so great, Orson Scott Card decides that we are going to train a child to save humanity, only this time we witness the story through Bean, a member of Ender’s jeesh, and a backup to Ender’s role as commander. If Ender fails, if he falters (and he does), someone else has to push the buttons.

Graff occupies the very same role he did with Ender, but this time Bean’s minute stature and inquisitive nature allows the reader to snoop on Graff, to seem more of the behind the scenes, and to do so through the eyes of one of his boys. While in Ender’s Game and Ender we saw the blend of resentment and determination, the will to both win and decimate, in Bean we see the cold, calm calculation of a boy who learns that he is not quite human, that through genetic manipulation he will never live to see his twenties but will possess superior intellect. Thus he is plucked off the streets by a high ranking Catholic Nun and placed in battle school where he forever exists in Ender’s shadow.

Yet is Ender his enemy or is he one that Bean should emulate and protect? Written as a companion text, most who open this novel know the ultimate outcome, but Ender has support, Ender vegged out after killing Bonzo and was absent from command school, other people killed the buggers … err formics, and they too reacted. How did Petra live with her errors? How did the other children survive the onslaught of battles? Thus we learn more about the world, more about Ender, and tons about Bean. Card uses this text to launch another line of sequels and explore the social and political vacuum created by the absence of the great enemy. As one who thoroughly enjoyed Ender’s Game, I find equal but different joy in this text as well.

Orson Scott Card’s Ender in Exile: A Book Review

Ender in Exile is billed as the immediate follow up to Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game (a fantastic novel on its own) even though the text was not written for many years after. That said, the novel falls far short of its predecessor and is almost out of place in the quartet that forms the foundation of the Enderverse. In essence, this text is billed as a rewrite of the final chapter of Ender’s Game, we return to Eros and witness the plodding along of the children as war hits Earth and the once united front splinters into regional segments. Quickly, all of Ender’s jeesh returns to earth and Ender, who is the savior of humanity begins his journey of self-flagellation and redemption. Along the way he is to shape the universe, to establish the right of colonies to self-rule, and to find himself. Orson Scott Card uses the space to fill in gaps, to link items up, and to force his universe to converge. Unfortunately, force is an accurate description of the endeavor.

Yes, it is interesting to see how Ender’s family reacts to his victory, to watch Valentine struggle with the decision to either stay on Earth or follow her brother to his exile in the stars, but at the same time, the novel often feels like it is just filling space. The space is interesting, but it is just space. Ender is interesting, endearing, but, does anyone doubt that he will be the governor of the first colony when he lands even though the ship’s admiral is arranging a coup? Of course the skillful way in which Ender goes about this transition is fun to read, but do we need to read it, do we need to see an alternate, more detailed discovery of the formic Hive Queen? Does anyone question his reluctance to marry and even engage in teenage hormonal shenanigans when he is still coming to grips with the annihilation of a species?

At the same time, Card is attempting to fill in too many gaps. Whereas before this text Jane found Ender, now Graff knows of Jane, even if not in full, and links them up in terms of money management. This fact, like many of the overlaps between texts in the multiple series of this universe, seems too convenient, too contrived, especially when the battles of Achilles vs. Bean plays out on a distant colony dominated by Indians. These moments take away from golden opportunities and standout as revisionist history, thus diluting an otherwise rich universe.