98. Shadow Puppets by Orson Scott Card (Science fiction) 372 p.

With China now controlling much of Asia and the power of the Hegemon severely diminished, Peter Wiggin decides that using an old enemy would be a good idea, as long as he can keep him under control.

One of the biggest disappointments about Orson Scott Card’s writing, for me, is that I rarely find his characters as likable when they grow up as I did when they were children. Both his male and female characters tend to take on very traditional gender roles as they grow, if not in the way they act, in the way they relate to each other and in the way they think. It makes them a little less sympathetic to me, and also less plausible. It didn’t spoil my enjoyment of this book, but it means I’m not surprised that I enjoyed this book a little less than Ender’s Shadow and Shadow of the Giant.

This book picks up pretty much where Shadow of the Giant left off; the two books were originally intended to be one story, but Card divided it in two and expanded it. I’m glad he did, because I enjoyed both books immensely, but I also think it was something of a mistake. Having Achilles as they main villain in one book works well. Having him continue through two books makes the main cast look like idiots. In fact, in order for Achilles to gain enough power to be a threat once again, they have to act like idiots.

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The best parts of Shadow Puppets are those which are only loosely connected to Achilles, like the war, and especially the parts from Virlomi’s perspective, in India, and the sections about the fighting itself. Even the Achilles thread, although not as tightly-plotted as I would expect from Card, results in some well-written character developement for Peter and Bean.

I think I would have found the Bean and Petra thread much more suspenseful and moving if I believed that human life begins at conception, but I don’t. I was still interested, but probably not to the degree another reader might have been.

Still, even though I didn’t like it as much as its prequels, Shadow Puppets is still an excellent read.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Pages read: 29,112

Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, Bean quartet, Cardathon Challenge Redux, Enderverse, Orson Scott Card