Mortal Engines

September 3, 2008 at 12:21 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Favourite Books, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror, Young Adult Literature

Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve (Young adult fantasy)

Although this book has some flaws, it’s an excellent first novel, and a solid introduction to the Hungry City Chronicles. The premise of the quartet is that, in a post-apocalyptic world where resources are scarce, cities have become predators. Built on wheels, treads, or runners, cities and towns hunt each other, devouring smaller prey to use their food, metal, and fuel.

Philip Reeve does a marvellous job with the concept, making it both entertaining and believable. I’m a fan of steampunk, and the technology and gadgetry in Mortal Engines has a wonder and magnificence that kept me glued to the pages. (I think my favourite innovation was the word “urbivore”–an eater of cities. Reeve clearly has a good sense of humour, but he keeps it under control; although the book has its funny moments, its tone is serious.)

It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried-out bed of the old North Sea…

The great traction city London is on the move again. It has been lying low, skulking in the hills to avoid the bigger, faster, hungrier cities loose in the Great Hunting Ground. But now, as its great mountain of metal lumbers along in hot pursuit of its quarry, the sinister plans it has harboured for years can finally start to unfold behind its soaring walls…

When Tom Natsworthy saves the life of his hero, Thaddeus Valentine, he doesn’t expect his reward to be being shoved down a waste chute and left for dead while his city roars away without him. Desperate to get back, he makes a temporary alliance with Hester Shaw, the girl whose thirst for revenge against Valentine led to Tom’s predicament in the first place.

The world-building in Mortal Engines is superb. The idea of traction cities is inventive, original, and just plain fun, and Reeve develops it with lots of detail. Unfortunately, characterization suffers a little as a result. The characters are all interesting and vividly-drawn, but none of them achieve the kind of depth I would have liked to see.

Ideally, I think Mortal Engines should have been much longer, with more time to explore all the places Tom and Hester visit, and to get to know them and all the people they encounter. What this book needed was more exploration of London, Airhaven, Shan Guo, and even Tunbridge Wheels, and more time to focus on Tom, Hester, Katherine, Bevis, and especially Anna Fang, who I would have liked to get to know better. Many events in the book would have made a stronger impact.

Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed Mortal Engines, and I look forward to Predator’s Gold, Infernal Devices, and A Darkling Plain.

Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, Hungry City Chronicles, Philip Reeve

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Fall of a Philanderer

September 3, 2008 at 11:37 am · Filed under Book Reviews, Favourite Books, Historical Fiction, Mystery and Suspense

Fall of a Philanderer by Carola Dunn (Historical mystery)

It had been a while since I read this, so when I bought a hardcover copy, I re-read it. It was just as much fun as I remembered.

Carola Dunn writes a series of charming mysteries set in England during the 1920’s, one of my favourite historical periods. I love the clothes, I love the manners, and I love reading about the effects of World War I on English life. The books in this series are definitely “cozies”, without the gritty realism that I find so alien and depressing. The main character is the Honourable Miss Daisy Dalrymple, the daughter of a viscount who died in the Influenza pandemic. Daisy’s brother, who was to inherit the title and family estate, and who would have provided for Daisy, died in the trenches. Daisy takes advantage of the loosening of social mores to embark on a writing career that would have been unthinkable for a woman of her breeding a decade earlier.

Fall of a Philanderer is one of the later books in the series, so Daisy has already met, fallen in love with, and married a Scotland Yard detective, Alec Fletcher. While on holiday at the seaside, Alec and Daisy discover the dead body of a serial adulterer, who seems to have been pushed off a cliff. Given his behaviour, the only surprise is that no jealous husband, enraged father, or jilted lover had bashed him over the head long since. Alec, forced to cut short his holiday and take over the case, has only too many suspects to choose from.

I’d recommend starting this series at the beginning, but it’s not necessary, and this book is as a good a place as any.

Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, Carola Dunn, Daisy Dalrymple

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Quid Pro Quo

August 30, 2008 at 2:04 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Favourite Books, Mystery and Suspense, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror

Quid Pro Quo by Manna Francis (Science fiction, mystery, short story collection)

This collection of one novella and five short stories is the sequel to Mind Fuck. As I mentioned in that review, almost the entire series is available online, but the print versions are much nicer.

Quid Pro Quo

The book begins with a novella which isn’t yet available online–it was written specifically for the print release, so that loyal fans of the online version would get a little something new as incentive for buying the book.

Liz Carey, a Specialist Investigator for I&I’s Corporate Fraud Department requests Toreth’s help with a joint CF/General Criminal investigation into a corporate kidnapping case. The kidnapping, rape, and dismemberment of 17-year-old Sofie Kenward would ordinarily be a job for the civilian police, rather than the Investigation & Interrogation division, but the possibility of corporate sabotage or fraud make it I&I’s business.

The team’s best lead seems to be a connection to the sensational kidnapping of Louise Selman fifteen years earlier, but her father wants the case buried–and when one of the Selmans, of Selman-Sterntech, one of the Administration’s more influential corporations, wants something buried, it’s more than an investigator’s job is worth to go digging.

“Quid Pro Quo” is another complex, twisty mystery, and quite satisfying in that respect. Surprisingly Warrick, the series’s other protagonists and Toreth’s regular lover, doesn’t appear in this novella beyond the first chapter. It makes sense, because so early in their relationship, when they haven’t even moved beyond their Friday night assignations, there’s no reason for Toreth to discuss his work or for Warrick to become involved in his cases the way he occasionally does later. I actually found the mystery so interesting that I didn’t even notice Warrick’s absence until the story was over.

Friday

This is quite a short piece, only eight pages long. A few months after “Quid Pro Quo”, Warrick thinks about some of the changes in his life since he’s been–involved–with Toreth. Looking forward to leaving SimTech for one of their regular Friday meetings, he has one last meeting with Cele, an old friend of his sister’s…and she’s sure to notice the fading bruises on his face.

“Friday” is one of the series’s first attempts to answer a recurring question: how can someone like Warrick, a fairly decent, ordinary human being, involve himself with someone like Toreth, a sociopath and professional torturer? Warrick will eventually come up with some answers, later on in the series.

Pancakes

Definitely no mysteries in this short story: Pancakes is all about relationships. Mainly, Toreth’s relationship (such as it is) with Warrick, but also some nice scenes between Toreth and the inestimable Sara, his admin (i.e. his secretary/personal assistant.) Toreth meets Warrick’s sister, Dillian, and in one of the funniest scenes from the series, Toreth meets Sara’s new cat.

For pretty much the first time since Mind Fuck, Warrick is forced to confront what Toreth does for a living, which doesn’t make him happy.

Surprises

Toreth proves his ability to maintain a semi-permanent relationship while taking commitment-phobia to new extremes when he has Sara help him pick out a gift for Warrick:

“Buy him something kitchen-y, then.”

Immediately he regretted telling her about his sudden gift-giving impulse, but it was much too late. Something kitchen-y. Something nice and domestic. For a moment he actually felt sick, the overly sweet smell of the melting chocolate catching at the back of his throat. “I wouldn’t know where to start,” he said, when the feeling passed.

Once again, no investigation. That’s not a complaint–as good a mystery writer as she’s proved herself to be, Francis is so good at writing complex, dysfunctional relationships that her short stories never feel like there’s anything lacking.

There are a lot of sex scenes, which usually aren’t my cup of tea. My automatic, completely involuntary reaction to graphic sex in a story is usually to skim rapidly through it–not because they make me uncomfortable, but because they’re almost always boring. Most of the time I don’t even notice I’m doing it. In The Adminstration, though, I really don’t mind them; this is one author who manages to make graphic bondage & donmination sex scenes interesting and funny, using them to explore characters and their relationships without putting me to sleep with tedious detail.

Family

For some reason, I’d forgotten how much I love this story. Toreth’s first meeting with Warrick’s family pretty much defines uncomfortable, with side orders of horror and hilarity. And the ending was so unexpected the first time I read, but so perfect, and it still makes me smile.

Family, besides being a really good character-driven short story, sets up a fair amount of background information that becomes important in some of the later novels.

Mirror, Mirror

This author really does have a way with sex scenes. Toreth just has so much fun setting up elaborate scenes for Warrick that I have fun reading about it. And the last line is just perfect.

It’s hard for me to evaluate this collection as a whole, because I’ve read all but the first story many times before, but I get the sense that it would work just as well for a first-time reader as it did for me. There’s a very nice progression in Toreth and Warrick’s relationship through the book, mirroring the ever-greater depth of characterization as the reader gets to know them better. The last two stories, Family Values and the very short Mirror, Mirror work well together to bring the collection to a close while leaving some interesting avenues for later stories.

This book won’t really make much sense without some of the background information from Mind Fuck, and it also contains spoilers for that novel, so the two should definitely be read in order. Quid Pro Quo is available to order from Casperian Books and from other major online booksellers like Amazon.

Except for the novella “Quid Pro Quo”, all the stories from this collection are available online (including “Unlucky Break“, the short story which became the first chapter of “Quid Pro Quo”).

Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, Manna Francis, R.I.P. III, short story collection, The Administration

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Mind Fuck

August 29, 2008 at 10:49 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Favourite Books, Mystery and Suspense, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror

Mind Fuck by Manna Francis (Science fiction)

This isn’t an easy book to summarize, and for once, I think the book’s blurb actually does a good job:

There are no bad guys or good guys. There are only better guys and worse guys.

One of the worse guys is Val Toreth. In a world in which torture is a legitimate part of the investigative process, he works for the Investigation and Interrogation Division, where his colleagues can be more dangerous than the criminals he investigates.

One of the better guys is Keir Warrick. His small corporation, SimTech, is developing a “sim” system that places users in a fully immersive virtual reality. A minnow in a murky and dangerous pond, he is only beginning to discover how many compromises may be required for success.

Their home is the dark future dystopia of New London. A totalitarian bureaucracy controls the European Administration, sharing political power with the corporations. The government uses violence and the many divisions of the feared Department of Internal Security to maintain control and crush resistance. The corporations fight among themselves, using lethal force under the euphemism of “corporate sabotage,” uniting only to resist attempts by the Administration to extend its influence over them.

Toreth and Warrick are more natural enemies than allies. But mutual attraction and the fight for survival can create unlikely bonds.

The story begins when Toreth and Warrick meet at a conference where Warrick makes a presentation about the new sim technology being developed by his corporation. A proposition by Toreth leads to sex, but in Toreth’s mind, that doesn’t constitute enough involvement to turn down a case involving SimTech. A student intern at the corporation has been found dead while using the sim, and the similarity to a previous death that was ruled accidental is enough to bring in I&I.

Mind Fuck is actually the first novel in a series of stories, of varying length, which make up The Administration series. I first read it online, and it is still available to be read for free. I’ve been in love with this series for a few years now, so I was delighted to find that a dead tree version is now available.

I ordered Mind Fuck and its sequel directly from Casperian Books, a self-publisher small press. I was a little concerned about the quality of the books, and the shipping time, since they ship only through US media mail. I needn’t have worried; the books arrived in exactly three weeks, reasonable for a package shipped from the US to Canada. The editions are wonderful, with beautiful covers and a crisp, clean internal layout that I find very pleasing, and very appropriate to the content. Each of the books came with a matching bookmark, printed with the book’s cover on one side, and the blurb on the back, which I thought was a very nice touch. I was also impressed with the quality; it’s my first time ordering online direct from a press, and I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.

Even the price was reasonable–$15 US apiece compares favourably to the standard Canadian price for trade paperbacks, and even with the shpping charge included, they were pretty much equal to what I’d pay at an ordinary brick-and-mortar bookstore.

Mind Fuck is set in the near future, and has some of the best science fiction world-building I’ve ever read. Although the technology is new, most of it is clearly the result of believable advances in today’s technology. There is mention of terraforming of Mars and of deep-sea habitats, but the only new tech that gets any focus is the sim. And what a shiny new piece of tech it is.

The way the author writes about it, you would think she had already built and programmed a sim system herself. Without going into tedious detail, she gives an amazing idea of the scope of the sim project and the limitations and liabilities that come along with it. It really is hard to believe that no such system exists in the real world. That it all came out of her head.

The same is true for all the day-to-day details of the world of The Adminstration; from criminal law to corporate contracts, a few well-placed details make the Administration so real it’s hard to believe it doesn’t exist. The characters, too, though they are so different from anyone I’ve ever met or imagined, are walking, talking, breathing people so alive I wouldn’t be surprised if they walked off the page and into my living room.

I’m not a fan of police procedurals, nor dystopian fiction, nor books with graphic sex scenes, yet this novel is all three, and somehow I love it because of, rather than in spite of, those traits. Part of it is that Mind Fuck is, at its foundation, a difficult, fascinating, engaging mystery. The first time I read it, yes, I wanted to know what happened to the characters, and more about the world, but I also wanted, quite desperately, to know the solution to the case. When the book did give me the answer, it was perfectly satisfying, even though I hadn’t seen it coming.

The police procedural format is, surprisingly, one of my favourite aspects of the book. I find the world of the Administration fascinating, and no part of it more so than its criminal investigation procedures. Toreth is also a great viewpoint character, because his thoughts about his interviewees and the about the policies he has to follow are always amusing.

As for the dystopia aspect…Mind Fuck isn’t 1984 or Brave New World. It’s not a cautionary tale, and both Toreth and Warrick are more privileged than victimized by the system, so I find it interesting rather than depressing. The sex scenes, although they are graphic, are not gratuitous. When sex is shown, it always advances the plot or deepens our understanding of the characters in some important way.

I could write much more about how utterly amazing this book is, but ultimately, all I really want to say is: go read it. As I said above, it is available to read online for free, or you can buy a print copy directly from Casperian Books, or from Amazon (though the author and publisher get a bit more money if you buy direct from Casperian.)

Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, A ~ Z Reading Challenge, Manna Francis, R.I.P. III, The Administration

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Children of the Mind

July 18, 2008 at 2:03 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Favourite Books, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror

102. Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card (Science fiction) 358 p.

Sadly, Children of the Mind is the conclusion of the Ender quartet. Although OSC has two new Enderverse books planned (one of which, Ender in Exile, is due to be released on November 11), they are both set earlier in the timeline.

Card originally conceived of the stories told in Xenocide and Children of the Mind as one book, but realized that there was too much going on for just one novel (much as he did with Shadow of the Hegemon and Shadow Puppets.) Writing two novels instead of one was undoubtedly the best option (and I’m not just saying that because I think two Card novels are better than one!), but it meant that the conlusion of Xenocide was a little weak, because the true resolution of the threads started there had to wait for the end of Children of the Mind. And not just plot threads–a lot of character development hadn’t reached a good stopping place by the end of Xenocide, by which I mean that a lot of annoying characters were running around unchecked.

As I said, Children of the Mind is not so much a sequel as a continuation of Xenocide, and any summary of its events will necessarily contain spoilers for that novel. I did like it much better than Xenocide, not so much because it was a superior novel, but because for the most, none of the characters got on my nerves. It was a much less frustrating read.

Now that I’ve finished both the Bean quartet and the Ender quartet, I’m not really sure which I liked better. The Bean books had more action and more sweeping consequences, while the Ender books felt quieter, more thoughtful, more focused on ideas and discovery. Children of the Mind definitely has a lot of ideas to chew over; even the ones I don’t agree with are interesting to think about.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Pages read: ?

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

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The Hallowed Hunt

July 18, 2008 at 10:49 am · Filed under Book Reviews, Favourite Books, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror

101. The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold (Fantasy) 470 p.

This is a re-read for me. It’s the third in a series, loosely connected to The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls, set in the same universe but without being a sequel. I am a huge fan of Bujold (or at least, everything except her latest series–I was disappointed with Beguilement and thought Legacy was crap.) If you aren’t familiar with her work, Lois McMaster Bujold is a four-time Hugo award winner who is best known for the Vorkosigan saga, a fun and fast-paced space opera series which so far consists of 14 novels, which are some of the most entertaining books I’ve ever read.

The Hallowed Hunt is a different kind of book. It’s set in a fairly standard medieval-type fantasy world, but one which rises above the usual mediocrity of such settings by (a) being more realistic than romantic, and (b) having an interesting and well-explored religion that drives the plot (and in various ways, the characters.) That plot is the main engine of the story, but the main characters are so well-developed that it almost feels character-driven.

The Quintarian religion is probably the most-cited element when the series is praised, and for good reason. Unlike many fictional religions, it actually feels real–it seems like one in which real human beings might participate, rather than an afterthought tacked on to make a pseudo-historical fantasy setting feel more realistic. It’s also not just Christianity in disguise, despite a few overlapping terms (”saint” and “holy family”, for instance, do not mean the same thing to a Quintarian as they would to a Catholic.)

As fascinating as the world-building is, though, it’s the plot and characters that make The Hallowed Hunt such an absorbing book. Lord Ingrey, a man whose soul is defiled by a spirit animal (through no fault of his own) arrives at Boar’s Head Castle to escort the corpse of a murdered prince back to the capital for burial, and to bring his murderer back for trial. The case, though disturbing, seems clear: Lady Ijada, who unfortunately caught the prince’s eye, was forced into a room alone with him against her will. When the prince’s guards, after ignoring her screams for some minutes, finally opened the door, they found Lady Ijada splashed with blood, holding the war hammer she’d used to kill the prince.

Although there is no doubt of Ijada’s responsibility for Prince Boleso’s death, there are a number of mitigating factors, including the prince’s madness and the evidence that he was dabbling in sorcery, and Ijada would certainly be acquitted by any fair court. But when those factors would embarrass so many members of the royal family, Ingrey knows very well that a fair trial is the last kind Ijada is likely to get.

As they travel back to Easthome, Ingrey discovers something even more disturbing–an uncontrollable compulsion to kill Ijada whenever his mind wanders. It’s clear that someone in Easthome doesn’t want Ijada to return alive for trial, and Ingrey has very little idea who might be using him as a tool to elminiate her.

I was disappointed with this book the first time I read it, but I liked it much better this time, mostly because I knew what to expect. Don’t go into The Hallowed Hunt expecting it to be full of action, because it isn’t. Even though things do happen, Ingrey himself spends most of the book reacting to events, trying to figure out what’s going on, and not really succeeding, because he just doesn’t know enough. Even when he figures out who the main villain is, he doesn’t have enough information to guess at what his antagonist’s plan is. That doesn’t stop The Hallowed Hunt from being a riveting novel, but it means it’s a story that’s most about thought and investigation than action.

Some of the minor characters, like Fara and Jokol, are so interesting that I want them to star in their own novels, as Ista did in Paladin of Souls. Particularly Jokol, who is a sweetheart. I would love to read about his relationship with Breiga, who also sounds like she would make a great character.

The Chalion series is a great work of fantasy, and although I’d recommend starting with The Curse of Chalion, The Hallowed Hunt is also a good place to begin.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Pages read: ?

Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, Chalion, Chunkster Challenge 2008, Lois McMaster Bujold

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Red Prophet

July 18, 2008 at 9:18 am · Filed under Book Reviews, Favourite Books, Historical Fiction, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror

100. Red Prophet by Orson Scott Card (Historical fantasy) ? p.

In this book, Card continues to tell the story of Alvin Maker, a young White boy who is more than he seems, with a magic beyond what anyone has seen, and an implacable enemy to go with it. The Tales of Alvin Maker is about more than its titular character, though–with this series, Card has set out to create a fantasy grounded in pioneer America, rather than medieval Europe. In this process, he’s created an alternate history and a rich mythology, full of magic and wonder. Red Prophet is less about Alvin Maker than it is about Tecumseh and the Battle of Tippecanoe–or at least, the versions of them that exist in this series.

So far, this is a great series, one that has some wonderful stories in it. I think, though, that those stories would likely resonate more with actual Americans, who presumably know and care more about American history than I do. (An alternate Canada appears in this book, but it’s so different from the real Canada, and so peripheral to the story, that it doesn’t interest me in any particular way.)

Card gives his characters distinct speech patterns and accents, which was a little jarring for the first few pages. Once I got used to that, though, it helped make the story come alive. And that’s one of the best things about this series–all the stories are alive in the way that all really good myths and legends are alive.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Pages read: ?

Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, A ~ Z Reading Challenge, Cardathon Challenge Redux, Orson Scott Card, Tales of Alvin Maker

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Shadow of the Giant

July 11, 2008 at 12:44 am · Filed under Book Reviews, Favourite Books, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror

99. Shadow of the Giant by Orson Scott Card (Science fiction) 367 p.

This is the last book in the Bean quartet, following Ender’s Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, and Shadow Puppets. I’m having trouble putting together a coherent reaction to this book: on one hand, there were some things in it that annoyed me, and others that I would have liked to be different; on the other hand, I loved this book.

There’s no point in writing a detailed summary of this book, since if you haven’t read the previous three, it won’t mean much, and if you have, you don’t need my summary to convince you to read it. Maybe it’s enough to say that this is the story of an attempt to unite Earth under one government, to build a world where everyone can live in peace. It’s also the story of some extraordinarily intelligent people who are involved in that struggle, on both sides of the issue. And of course, it’s the story of Bean, who doesn’t have much time left on Earth.

That, actually, is where I had my first problem. This series is about Bean, but as world events heated up throughout the books, we saw less and less of him. Ender’s Shadow was told almost entirely from Bean’s perspective, and hardly a page went by that we didn’t see what he was thinking or feeling. I really missed that intimate point of view in Shadow of the Giant. I like Bean best when I can see inside his head, and this book didn’t give me that chance.

It isn’t just Bean whose thoughts and emotions I would have liked to read about; even when Card gave us a glimpse inside a character’s head in this book, it was usually all tactical, strictly related to whatever crisis was happening at the time. I really felt the lack of a true understanding of that characters, especially Peter.

It’s kind of an obscure point, but I was a little annoyed by the IF’s policy of creating deliberately monocultural colonies. Actually, more than annoyed; it made me kind of angry. I suppose, having grown up in one of the most multicultural cities on Earth, I’m prejudiced in favour of that model; I think the worst thing for any culture is to be isolated from contact with all others. Sure, the colonists can learn about other cultures, languages, and religions over the ansible, but none of them will live with anyone who believes in those things.

I don’t want to complain too much about Shadow of the Giant, because I really did take pleasure in every moment I spent reading it. I’m so glad I got to see Peter through the eyes of other people, and that he isn’t the monster he was through Ender’s six-year-old eyes. In fact, I wish I could see more of Peter’s story.

Show spoilers

I was feeling obliged to rate this book 9/10, because there were ways I thought it could have been better, but I still wanted to give it a 10. And isn’t that what these reviews are about? Not some kind of objective measure, weighing faults against virtues, but just a way of sharing how much I loved a book, or didn’t. And I loved this one.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Pages read: 29,479

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

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Shadow Puppets

July 10, 2008 at 5:12 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Favourite Books, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror

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.

Show spoilers

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

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Shadow of the Hegemon

July 9, 2008 at 11:34 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Favourite Books, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror

97. Shadow of the Hegemon by Orson Scott Card (Science fiction) 442 p.

This is yet another winner from Orson Scott Card. I found it less plausible than some of his other novels, but the story was so good and so well-written that I didn’t care.

In this sequel to Ender’s Shadow, the war with the Formics is over, and the nations of Earth are ready to go back to fighting each other. The students from Battle School become a valuable resource ripe for exploitation by any nation or power able to control them, so it’s no surprise when ten of the eleven children who were Ender’s lieutenants are kidnapped by an unknown power. Bean does what he can to secure the release of the others, but he needs help from Peter Wiggin, who wants something from him in return–help with his plan to take over the world.

Shadow of the Hegemon is a fun book, without a dull moment in it. Watching all the Battle School kids plot and manipulate world affairs was great. One of the things I’ve always liked about Card’s writing is that his characters come from many different racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds, from many different countries, and that’s especially true in the Enderverse. It’s very refreshing to read a science fiction writer who doesn’t seem to make everyone a white American by default, throwing in a token minority when the plot demands it.

The plot of this book also gives Card a chance to show off his knowledge of global politics, history, and geography. I can’t comment on the accuracy or plausibility of most of it, but some of the things he says in his afterword make it clear that he’s researched the topic, and given it a great deal of thought.

So far, I’m enjoying this series as much, or even more, than than the Ender series. I hope the last two books are as good as the first two!

Rating: 10 out of 10

Pages read: 28,740

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

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