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Shadow of the Hegemon
It's out, the new Orson Scott Card book, Shadow of the Hegemon. I don't want to give away any more of the plot than is already apparent in the summary above, so let me tell you about the book indirectly, about my own reactions, what I liked about it.
First of all, I must admit it. I'm a Card fan. I was introduced to his work like many other Slashdot readers as a teenager when I read Ender's Game. The intensity of that story and the believable brilliance of the main characters hooked me from the start. The sequels, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind continue Ender's story, but are substantially different in style and tone from the first. Card's more recent bold experiment, Ender's Shadow returns to the events in Ender's Game and retells them in parallel through the eyes of a different character, Bean. That book recaptures some of the essence and style of Ender's Game while making the story into something completely new and original.
Shadow of the Hegemon charts new territory as a sequel to Ender's Shadow telling the stories of the aftermath of the Formics War. This is not a parallel book like its predecessor. It takes place during those years mentioned only briefly in Ender's Game as Ender travels through space on the colony ship. Ender plays no part in this book.
The book definitely has action, and I love it! While Card often writes so much about the inner thought processes of his characters that sometimes his stories can slow down, there's enough action and adventure and a fast enough pace to make this book a really fun read. I might characterize it as a cross between the slower moving intellectual style in the later Ender series books and the fast paced intensity in Ender's Game. It's a blend that works.
Among the many things I enjoyed in this book is Card's excellent development of Bean's human emotional self. While Bean is intellectually brilliant, as the book opens, he seems to go through the motions of human emotional interaction without truly having felt the emotion. Card seems to have captured the shortcoming that children who suffer deprivation of human contact early in life sometimes exhibit, and included it in the character of Bean. As the story progresses, Bean slowly develops genuine emotional ties with other human beings and the emotional side of his character matures considerably.
Like any work of fiction, there must be a suspension of disbelief. The character Achilles, Bean's enemy from his earlier years growing up in Rotterdam and again at Battle School, returns as a highly connected villain worthy of any James Bond movie. In Ender's Shadow Bean exposes him as the psychopathic murderer he is. Achilles, also a genius, has escaped from an institute for the criminally insane to wreak havoc on the world in general, and on Bean and his personal enemies in particular, as he ensconces himself in positions of power. In several places, Achilles seems to have a nearly omniscient ability to monitor the actions and whereabouts of his personal enemies, stretching my suspension of disbelief a bit thin as I read.
I truly enjoyed Card's character work in this book. I appreciate his willingness to create characters with backgrounds from many different cultures and locations. Card conscientiously takes the time to study and learn enough about other cultures and peoples. As a result, his characters have a depth and background beyond those in many novels.
Card creates characters with religious beliefs that are real to those characters who hold them. Even those characters who are atheist or agnostic in their own beliefs hold tightly to those beliefs every bit as tenaciously and religiously as do those characters who espouse a particular recognizable. Card always seems to treat religion with the respect others often neglect. His characters in this book, in particular Sister Carlotta, Ender's mother, and several characters from India and Pakistan, through their words and interactions, show how their own profound religious beliefs make up their core and affect their choices.
Another Card talent exhibited in this book, if not as strongly as it did in Ender's Game, is Card's ability to make smart characters actually act and behave intelligently. So many authors resort to devices that seem to say, "This character is smart because I'm telling you so," without any supporting evidence other than the author's word, or perhaps on the word of the author's supporting characters who may say in agreement, "Yes, that character is smart."
Card does sometimes tell the reader that his characters are smart, but he always backs it up with intelligent decisions, thought processes, and actions that make it believable. He's not perfect, but he is definitely among the top talents.
I was delighted and amused whenever I noticed one of the characters speaking or thinking and idea that I recognized as one of Card's own opinions or ideas. If you have read much of Card's work and are familiar with his own opinions as often expressed his non fiction and on his various Web sites (you can see some examples Card's political commentary at www.ornery.com) you too will catch his characters presenting some of those same ideas.
With so many intellectually gifted characters playing on the stage, sometimes they begin to sound a bit like each other. It's almost unavoidable for any author who writes as prolifically as Card to keep each character unique, fresh, and new. Card is one of the best at avoiding this problem, but it does crop up here and there.
When you finish the story, read the Afterword. Card's inclusion of a few words of commentary about the story writing process, how the book came to be, and about the decisions he had to make as he wrote it is fascinating. If you like Card, you will like this book. If you like action and international power plays, you will like this book. If you appreciate good writing and character development, you will like this book.
If you haven't yet read Ender's Shadow, I suggest you read it before you read this book. Like most of Card's work, this book can stand on its own, but it works better as a sequel since the book expects you to be familiar with the several main characters and their backgrounds.
You can purchase this book at ThinkGeek.
I finished reading it last week and its a fantastic book...
Eric Aitala
www.f1m.com
"Hegemon, I choose you!" ^_~
--M.
On the 1st of Feb according to www.amazon.co.uk.
Sorry, but that is badly written.
'Characters with religious views that are real to those who hold them?'
Isn't that a tautology?
'Like any work of fiction, there must be a suspension of disbelief'
This reads like someone reviewing a book for a grade school essay. Sorry. You don't need to say that.
This reminds of a restaurant review I read by someone (another lay person) recently who reviewed the McDonalds he went into as if it was a 5* restaurant, commenting on the quality of the fries.
You can't analyze trashy novels as if they were real literature. They're great for reading on the beach or whatever - but analysis? Never.
I'm not trying to be negative here, but if you're going to review something, you should be a little more critical of it. Try reading a book on literary criticism. There's quite an art to it, and I think you might find you have a genuine interest in it.
Dont have to preach to the choir, I've been a fan for years of his works. For those of you who arent familiar with his writings, here is a link to the first few chapters of the book to enjoy. http://www.hatrack.com/osc/books/hegemon01.shtml
Is anyone else bothered by the fact that Card chooses to name his villian "Achilles."
Most would consider Achilles to be a hero's name, but not Card.
Card is mormon and, like all mormons, homophobic.
As anyone who read the Illiad in high school knows, Achilles was homosexual.
Apparently in Card's eyes, this is enough to make him a villian.
Mormons worry me.
Espescially considering that 1 in 50 americans is a member of that church.
--Shoeboy
He churns out the same book over and over. Does this sound familar. The protagonist is a kid, more often than not with trouble in his life, but sometimes raised by a fine family who doesn't quite understand him. This kids runs into trouble, ranging from aliens to ghosts to the government, but always he is a pawn and doesn't understand what is going on around him. On page 275 he discovers the Matrix, er, I mean the omnipresent controlling influence in his life. By the end of the book he has defeated evil, or is dead but has still been victorious over the evil that he had to give his life to defeat.
That should sound familiar to everyone who has read his books not only because they are almost all like that (though Redemption was a little bit of a break and a nice historical piece) and is probably pretty close to the life story of the average
Lot's of the denizens of
--
I'm the AC that wrote the prior post, and I'm wondering if you ever wrote anything? If you did, you would have known that you had to pick a title, titles don't come flying out of the sky.
Why did OSC pick Shadow of the Hegemon? Why is he associating shadow with an evil, dangerous force?
Why not Spectre of the Hegemon or some other title without loaded racial connotations?
What the hey? You need to stop reading John Grisham novels and pick up some actual literature.
I havn't read Shadow of the Hegemon yet, but in Ender's Shadow, the title was meant to indicate Bean's existance as a shadow of Ender, always seen as less important than Ender was.
--- Remember, there is no ozone.
I don't think that came out of anything racial; the reason for the malevolence is that people prefer to hide what is evil, and a good way of doing that is to keep it in darkness, rather than keeping it "well-lit." In that context, the word "shadow" is immensely appropriate.
Neither of those contexts appear terribly relevant to either of Card's "Shadow" books; the other meaning of "shadow" comes in that the shadow is some sort of pale imitation, an "inverse reflection" from something real, that lurks near that "real thing." That set of characteristics apply quite well to Bean in these books. He "lurks" near the Wiggins brothers, and is something of an "imitation" of them.
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
Wow... so deep. I think thats what I was trying to say ;)
I was about to write this, but glad I read the posts before writing something BOTH redundant and off-topic
But you are correct, the darkness association with band and evil is a primordial instinct associated with the night being when humans were hunted.
The so-called racial origin discussed above is a load of BS invented up by someone wishing to promate their agenda.
The ivory tower has never had to reach so h
As much as I'd love to see the movies, I'm not holding my breath.
Funny and all, but enough with the Mormon stuff, it may have an impact on his writing, but discussing the religion outside of the context is fairly pointless, and off topic, not to mention annoying to someone who is sick of religious debates.
Now to escape that corner he's painted his universe into, Card is going back and rehashing the old stories from new points of view. I'm sure they're adequately written novels (meaning I'm sure he's learned a lesson from Xenocide). But I just don't have any interest in reading them.
I'd much rather see Card start a NEW universe...he's sucked all the fun out of this one.
Genocide Man -- Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass murder can be hilarious.
I'm not too terribly sure how shadow is extrapolated into a racist subtext. I mean, if he had called it The Hegemon's Slice of Watermelon or That Nappy Hegemon (see the Nappy Hair argument for more info), I'd understand it. But as far as I can tell, the use of the word shadow indicates an absence of light. I suppose the fact that OSC is a member of LDS puts him under greater scrutiny for being a racist, homophobic, baby-killing, styrofoam using, non-recycling jerk, but jeez, calm down.
Allegorical shadows have been a fixture of Card's Enders Game series. Ender was constantly under the shadow of Peter, his older brother; Bean was under Ender's shadow; the Piggies were under the shadow of the big trees (don't recollect what they were called); and there are probably more, but I'm too lazy to find them. While Card's obsession with shadows may be a failing of his as a writer, much like John Irving's constant references to incest, they don't make him a racist.
--Brant
Brant
Argle. Bargle.
Obviously you require a class in telling the difference between the two. Card's whole Ender series is literature. You're trying to make a distinction that simply doesn't exist.
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Obviously from the earlier books Peter is much more important than Bean, but again we are seeing the story from Peter's shadow's perspective.(ie Bean).
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I too am reading the second shadow book right now and have read almost all his other books, he is my favorite author. I even have a hard back, signed copy of Ender's Game. But it seems to me as if the lessons he is trying to teach his readers, and yes he does try to teach his readers things not just entertain them, are becoming more blunt. In Shadow of the Hegemon Sister Carlotta talks to Bean about God and Bean and Ender's mother talk about religion and spirituality. I still enjoy his writing but it is getting more and more full of his religious beliefs, like he is trying to make the heathens find god or something, and that's not his job. - -dram
-Grant
|grant.henninger.name|
(I miss Jane.)
I'm pretty sure that his name is given for more than just the reason given in the book.
... his evidence includes the first two letters in the word GAME
I mean wasn't Achillies an near Invulnerable Warrior with one fatal flaw.
Is it not possible that OSC picked the name Achilles for THAT reason (as opposed to this whole homosexual theme)
I mean look at the Original post
as further proof that it is a story about homosexuality.
GA = GAY
that's the thing about news-forum style conversations, you can never really tell when a guy is joking
(to the original poster: please don't take this as evidence that someone out there thought it was a GOOD joke, i could tell that it was a joke though)
I don't know where to start.
'Shadow' doesn't necessarily have negative connotations - 'to stand in someone's shadow' does not mean that you are evil somehow. That's how Card is using 'shadow', and if you've seen the cover of "Ender's Shadow", you'd know that. In the first book, he was talking about Bean, who is in Ender's shadow -hence the name. Now again, the next story is about Bean, who is now standing in Peter's shadow. Peter is the Hegemon, the leader of the nominal world government. Hence, Shadow of the Hegemon. Card isn't even implying that the Hegemony is evil.
Also, in case you missed all the other Greek names in his books - oh, I don't know, say, Ender's Shadow, which had Nikolai, Julian, etc.? Moreover, it's not out of place, as it comes from a city where children's names are doled out by kitchen aides or other children as well. The symbolic importance of Achilles is easy enough, as Achilles really acts like the historic Achilles throughout most of the books. (Note that I mean the historic Achilles, who wasn't exactly much of a hero)
Blah. I won't waste more of my time arguing with a primarily troll post - I did however just want to make sure that someone who saw this post didn't think any of it was true.
Given this new knowledge, do you think that it is at all possible -- consciously or unconsciously -- that Card did just such a thing (purposely make references between homosexuality and evil) as the original poster suggests?
Card is not in the habit of making homosexuals villains. See Songmaster. Additionally, he has plenty of heterosexual villains (see, oh, just about anything, including the fact that Achilles seemed pretty straight in Shadw).
Also, the essay you quote shows that he's not subversive about the way he goes about expressing his beliefs about homosexuality -- he's happy to put it out front.
Finally, I think you misunderstand the essay. It's not, as a focus, a scathing rejection of anyone who is homosexual. He _does_ reject the idea that you can live a life based on your identity as a homosexual and remain part of the LDS church (which really, doesn't take being a nuclear physicist to figure out). That's where he draws his line. You can't beleive the Mormon Church is what it says it is and be what it asks its members to be if your allegiance to your sexual tendancies is higher than your allegience to the Church.
--
Libertarianism is rich wolves and poor sheep playing gambler's ruin for dinner.
Luckily, Mr Card has provided a patch at http://www.hatrack.com/misc/hegemon-corrections.sh tml .
I love to read OSC, and I've enjoyed all of his books. I wanted to respond to the people that talk about Orson's beliefs, and how he does a lot of teaching in his books. I enjoy reading when he talks about spirituallity, like in Children of the Mind, and Ender's Shadow, but mainly is because I'm a mormon just like OSC. I had never really thought about how much he does tell, or try to explain many of our beliefs to the readers, until I read most of your replies. Part of the "Mormon Culture" is to tell people about our beliefs, so I feel that's what OSC is doing in his books. The cool thing is that he uses Catholic characters to portray the religios teachers. Many of the characters react the way, people react to when I explain my beliefs. So what OSC is doing is making you feel, just how the characters are feeling, disbelief. His portuguees influence comes from his experience as a Missionary in Brazil. This part of him is very clear in Xenocide.
There you have it, my 2 cents
Thanks.
--
Libertarianism is rich wolves and poor sheep playing gambler's ruin for dinner.
All the characters, I noticed suddenly, had the same goody-goody intelligence, the same over-analyze-everything nature, and the same (or diametrically opposing) moral compass. It included everyone -- good or bad, human or alien, biological or computer. Ender. Peter. The piggies. Jane. The hive queen.
Where had I seen these people before?
Then it dawned on me.
Orson Scott Card, stop watching Star Trek.
I object to that article, and to the next reply.
What is a Hegemon?
Is it like a Pokemon?
Or is it more like a Digimon?
It must be closer to one or other of these two extremes...?
"Anybody remotely interesting is mad, in some way or another" - Doctor Who
As far as I can remember, Achilles was nicknamed that because he limped. Nicknames pulled out of the classics were pretty common in the Ender books.
If you really want to find something sinister in that choice, perhaps Card was implying that the Greeks made a hero out of a murderous sociopath -- which Achilles probably was by modern standards, along with most of the other main characters in Homer. Or in any Roman, Middle Ages, or Renaissance history for that matter. Standards have changed somewhat; be thankful for it. Of course, in many parts of the world, a successful murderous sociopath is still a hero, to one side, and the USA is just one short step away from that...
In 1988, some college friends and I found that Orson Scott Card was listed in the Greensboro phonebook. That naturally resulted in a road trip, and two of us drove all night to go say hi. Mrs. Card asked us to come back around noon, since her husband was down with the flu. Although he wasn't feeling well, Mr. Card--I can't bring myself to call him Scott--was incredibly kind to us.
I admit, we hadn't really thought things through. We were in college. I guess we expected to drop by, say hi, and leave. But Mr. Card was fantastic. He invited us into his home, and offered us food and drink. He even offered to let us crash on his couch, since both of us were exhausted. He showed us his PC with WordPerfect 5.1 just installed, "where the magic happens." It was really kinda anticlimatic. There were piles of publisher books just inside the living room of his townhouse, and he gave us a few bags' full, even helping us carry them out to my car.
All of this is relatively prosaic, but what struck us most was the sheer niceness of the guy. He and his family were just so NORMAL. He was actually quite flattered that we'd taken an interest in him; he said normally people weren't really all that excited to meet him personally, but they just liked to read his books. (I understand he was unlisted after that, though!) He was one of the most genuine, sincere people I've ever met.
I really haven't read much of Card's in the past ten years, but I'll never forget that day. Whatever other people write about him, whatever his involvement with the Mormon Church, Orson Scott Card is a good guy, maybe even with capital G's. He's a treasure.
Later,
--Fred
I find this an interesting point of view, considering the fact that your daughter is sneaking over to my house every night...    
-- Defenestrate Microsoft!
Uhm. I shouldn't do this, but, uhm.... You do realize that's a generalization?
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