Shadow of the Hegemon
by Orson Scott Card

After Card finished the "Ender" series, he decided to go back and re-look at it but from the viewpoint of other characters in the original series. Shadow of the Hegemon is the second book in the Shadow series that started with Ender's Shadow.

In this book, after the defeat of the Formics, all of the children that were from Battle School have returned to Earth. Unfortunately, some people recognise that these children, trained in military strategy, may be used as stepping stones for conquest and have started to kidnap them.

The story mainly follows two of the children that were commanders under Ender Wiggin: Bean, who escapes kidnap, and Petra, one of the children who is kidnapped and forced to work on strategy for her kidnapper. Bean is able to deduce who the kidnapper is and what may be his probable plans and decides to fight force with force. He goes to the elder brother of Ender, Peter Wiggin, to get his help.

Thus begins a battle for world domination. On one side is Bean and Peter Wiggin, on the other is Petra and her kidnapper who may turn out to be a psychopath and is willing to deceive and betray anybody who gets in his way.

It is hard to believe that children can behave as military geniuses, able to talk about throwing whole armies at each other in their ambition for world domination. But these are no ordinary children; these are children who, since young, have been taught in the 'art of war' and, after the defeat of the alien Formics, now find themselves with nothing to do, with no childhood to return to and end up being used as stepping stones to world domination.

As usual, Card writes to try to get you to feel just what each character is going through, but it feels less successful in this book. The children try to outmaneuver each other, constantly making up and discarding battle plans and confrontations. Their conversations are very adversarial and tend to resemble TV drama serials.

Despite this, you may find yourself getting interested in the characters, especially Bean, who is the main focus in the book. You get to learn more about Bean but what you find out may make you uncomfortable and feel pity for him.

As a sequel, it suffers from trying too hard to maintain the drama and drive of the previous book, Ender's Shadow, which you will need to read in order to understand the events in this book. It also lacks some suspense since it has to agree with events mentioned in the previous Ender saga so you may know just how events will turn out. But it is still worth reading to find out more about Bean, Peter Wiggin and what will happen in the world they are shaping.

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Shadow of the Hegemon by Orson Scott Card

Shadow of the Hegemon
by Orson Scott Card