Shadow Puppets (Ender's Shadow) by Orson Scott Card, David Birney, Stefan Rudnicki, and Scott Brick

Buy Shadow Puppets (Ender's Shadow) here. To find out more information or to view another item in this category, click next Science Fiction. To go back to where you were looking, use the "you are here" links below. Thank you for shopping at audiobookoncd.com!

Shadow Puppets (Ender's Shadow)
Available from Amazon
Price: $29.16
Updated on 12-28-2008.

Features

Audio CD

Publisher: Macmillan Audio; Unabridged edition (July 24, 2007)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1593974825

ISBN-13: 978-1593974824

Product Dimensions: 5.7 x 5.4 x 1.6 inches

Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces ()

Amazon.com Review
In Shadow Puppets, Orson Scott Card continues the storyline of Shadow of the Hegemon, following the exploits of the Battle School children, prodigies who have returned to an Earth thrown into chaos after the unifying force of the alien invasion they stopped in Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow has dissipated. Foremost among these whiz kids is the brilliant Bean who, in Shadow of the Hegemon, rescued his comrades from his nemesis--the dastardly Achilles. Now, the down-but-not-out evil genius is again scheming towards global domination and vengeance against the irrepressible Bean. It's up to Bean and his newfound love, Petra, to outwit the young psychopath and save the world. Meanwhile, the other Battle School children are called to serve again as an expansionist China threatens the stability of post-Bugger War Earth. Shadow Puppets is, for better or worse, exactly what readers have come to expect from Card. There are thought-provoking musings on geopolitics, war, courage, arrogance, good versus evil, and the concept of children wise beyond their years dealing with grave responsibility. Unfortunately, many of these furnishings are looking a little frayed around the edges, but fans will enjoy an exciting, fast-paced plot and a suspense-filled conclusion. --Jeremy Pugh --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly
Card spins another adventure in the Enderverse, following the exploits of Bean, Petra, Peter Wiggin and many of the other Battle School students. Wiggin, the Hegemon of a floundering and fragile union of countries, has freed the sociopath Acheel. While Wiggin realizes the error of his actions, Bean and Petra are on the run to avoid Acheel's overwhelming realm of influence. Though Card's politics and beliefs permeate the narrative, none can deny his masterful storytelling, enhanced by the four narrators. While presenting different points of views and even voices within the story, they at times overlap and still perform well. Each seem to dominate a different perspective of the book. Birney's brittle voice identifies the cold calculating side of Wiggin while also imbuing at times the desperation and frustration of the aspiring world leader. Brick works best with the cool and collected Bean while De Cuir uses her stern lilting voice to embody the lead female characters. Rudnicki's deep, cold voice is the perfect choice for the almost toneless e-mails prefacing each chapter. A Tor Books paperback (Reviews, July 15, 2002). (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Reader Reviews
This review is from: Shadow Puppets (Ender Wiggin Saga) (Hardcover) The spectacular Ender's Game and its very good to excellent sequels established Card as a major SF writer. With Ender's Shadow, he came close to matching the brilliance of the original story. Then came Shadow of the Hegemon, with its focus on Peter Wiggin and Achilles, and it seemed like all the power, originality, and dramatic tension faded away, leaving only a shadow to lay across your mind. This latest work is neither as good as Ender's Shadow nor as mundane as Hegemon, but rather somewhere in-between. Here we find Bean growing beyond the norm, symptomatic of his genetic flaw that will eventually kill him while still a young man. And growing in other ways, as his relationship with Petra finally flowers under her tenacious insistence. This is probably the best part of this novel, as we see sides of the two that have not been in great evidence in the prior works. And we get some small looks into the thoughts and characters of some of the other Battle School graduates, mainly Virlomi, Han Tzu and Alai, each of whom contribute some major items towards Peter and Bean winning their current battle with Achilles. The Wiggin parents emerge from obscurity and are revealed to be (unsurprisingly) very intelligent and (surprisingly) quite forceful. All good things... So where does this book fail? The main failure is Peter Wiggin himself. For a man who could sway world opinion with his exacting, careful logic as Locke and browbeat everyone into emotional frenzy as Demosthenes, Peter is depicted here as a remarkably stupid, arrogant, and emotional teenager. Achilles, the demon, remains almost totally offstage, providing little room for dramatic confrontations, and what ones there are come off as almost anti-climatic. And finally, the circumstance that draws Bean back into the struggle between Peter and Achilles was totally preventable, a very sad and uncharacteristic lack of foresight by both Bean and Petra. These items do much to kill any major excitement in this work, even though the major (world) battle could have formed a taught political and military thriller. Is this book readable? Certainly. Card is still an excellent writer. His prose, descriptions, and dialogue (especially the back-and-forth between Bean and Petra) are all well formed and his moral insights flow from the premise of the story. But this one just doesn't have the edge-of-the-seat tension, the incredible insight into human character that have been the hallmarks of his best work.

Shadow Puppets (Ender's Shadow)
List Price: $39.95
Available from Amazon
Price: $29.16
Updated on 12-28-2008.