Shadow of the Hegemon (The Shadow Series, #2) in Building a SciFi/Fantasy Library

Aug 15, 2008 Stephen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: award-nominee-locus, war-sff, science-fiction, political-fiction, audiobook, children-behaving-badly, military-fiction, 2000-2005, humans-rule-the-galaxy

5.0 stars. Sometimes love is not a strong enough word so I am going to borrow from Woody Allen, "I LURVE THIS BOOK!!! This is my second favorite book in both Ender series (behind only Speaker for the Dead). In fact, like Speaker for the Dead, I thought this book significantly surpassed its predecessor, Ender's Shadow which I loved by the way.

This story takes place in the latter half of the 22nd century (so my poster above is for the 2208 elections), soon after the end of the Formic (aka B

5.0 stars. Sometimes love is not a strong enough word so I am going to borrow from Woody Allen, "I LURVE THIS BOOK!!! This is my second favorite book in both Ender series (behind only Speaker for the Dead). In fact, like Speaker for the Dead, I thought this book significantly surpassed its predecessor, Ender's Shadow which I loved by the way.

This story takes place in the latter half of the 22nd century (so my poster above is for the 2208 elections), soon after the end of the Formic (aka Bugger) War when all of the gifted children of the Battle School that fought under Ender have returned to Earth. Upon their return, these gifted warriors all become instant national treasures in the eyes of their respective countries who want to use their vast expertise in strategy and tactics to assist them in the global war that they know is coming. It seems once the threat to humanity has been eliminated, people are going back to thinking of their own petty dreams of power...typical.

Ender, whose very presence on Earth was seen as too much of a destabilizing force, has agreed to be sent into exile to avoid a global fight over the use of his abilities. Personally, I think he should have shown up with his mates and kicked the idiots in power in their collective, narrow-minded asses, but that's just me.

Anyway, soon after their return, the former members of Ender's Army or “jeesh” are kidnapped and an attempt is made upon Bean's life. I won't give away any spoilers, but from this point forward the plot unfolds as a massive, complicated version of the board game "Risk" with moves, countermoves, alliances, betrayals and some absolutely stunning battle maneuvers with the end prize for all of this being global domination.

The scope of this book is amazing, but the best part about it is Card's writing and his attention to detail. Especially impressive is the dialogue between the various gifted characters (most notably Bean and Peter Wiggins) and how authentic it sounds. This certainly belongs among the elite installments of the Ender series and I give it my HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION!!!

Nominee: Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.
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