Shadow of the Hegemon

by Orson Scott Card, review by EUOL

Overall score:

One Sentence Synopsis: Bean--youthful lieutenant of the infamous boy-general Ender Wiggin--teams up with Peter Wiggin and several other Battle School graduates to try and prevent a psychopath from causing world war.

Genre: Vaguely military SF with a mild mix of political intrigue and a strong penchant for philosophic debates, both external and internal.

Continuity: Set in the world of Ender’s Game, this is actually a sequel to the book Ender’s Shadow. One could read it without having read Ender’s Shadow or Ender’s Game, but it relies heavily on characters from Ender’s Shadow. It leaves off at a moderate cliff-hanger, setting up for the third book, Shadow Puppets. Like most Card books, it has its own resolutions and introductions, and could manage to stand alone if necessary.

Review:

Shadow of the Hegemon is the sequel to the very successful and well-received Ender’s Shadow. While it is ostensibly the continuation of Bean’s story, it actually has a broader character focus, giving near-equal time to some other Battle School graduates along with--as the title implies--Ender’s political prodigy brother, Peter. The book gives token effort to explaining the difficult time Battle School children have adapting to the real world, but quickly launches into the true theme of the novel--the idea of a new arms race, one that uses battle school-trained children as its ultimate trump card.

Like Speaker for the Dead, Hegemon is less a sequel than its placing in the series would imply. While it follows the lives of characters we came to love in Ender’s Shadow, Hegemon is a very different book from its predecessor--something Card himself admits in Hegemon’s afterworld. Unfortunately, the transfer wasn’t handled quite as successfully as it was in Speaker. Hegemon, by necessity, lacks the brilliant parallelism that made Ender’s Shadow such a fascinating book. However, it also lacks the sense of mystery that drove Speaker. Instead, the book tries to built its tension through a dangerous political climate, in which Bean’s childhood nemesis (or, since they’re all still technically children, his early-childhood nemesis) has been freed from his mental institution. This child monstrosity, Achilles, is hunting down and capturing Battle School graduates to use in world-domination plans. The only one Achilles doesn’t care to capture is Bean himself, whom he just wants to kill.

The book’s main hang-up comes in its subjugation of its plot elements to its philosophic ones. In the past, Card has balanced these two halves of his books well, but in Hegemon the plot seems quite secondary. Events occur in a haphazard scheme, and few of the characters have definite projected goals beyond their own survival. While great events do happen--Peter Wiggin’s emergence into real-world politics, for example--they occur with an almost random nonchalance, as if Card realizes that the book lacks the conceptual greatness that has marked many of his other works.

Unbalanced though it is, the philosophic side is handled quite well. Characters in Card books don’t wrestle their inner demons so much as logically debate with them, and he is always at his best when he has characters who can argue amongst themselves. This book presents wonderful opportunity for such quandaries--in fact, most of the characters presented are far more morally interesting than Ender ever was. Bean can’t decide if he should support the overly-ambitious Peter Wiggin or not, and then he can’t decide if he really cares. He struggles with his own uncaring, selfish outlook on life, trying to inspire in himself the greatness he wonders if he should have. Almost every one of the viewpoint characters has a similar level of moral uncertainty--not just faux amorality, but real-life questioning of their own motivations and thoughts.

So, in a way, this book represents a Card book at its purest. Strip away the surprise endings of Ender’s Game and Speaker, remove the melding parallel structure of Ender’s Shadow, steal out the universe-ending danger of Xenocide, and you’re left with a group of interesting characters who are forced to make difficult decisions. One theme of both Bean books has been the idea of living down the aura of the all-powerful Ender. Several times in Hegemon, both in Peter chapters and Bean chapters, characters express their frustration at always being compared to Ender. I suspect there’s a little bit of autobiography in the sentiment. Card himself will always live in the shadow of Ender’s Game, just as Bean must live in the shadow of the character Ender. Regardless of what Card does, despite the fact that many of his later books are far superior to Game in style and characterization, Ender’s Game is the book Card will be remembered for. It almost seems like, with Hegemon, Card is screaming "No, that’s not what it was about. Forget the trick ending of Ender’s Game--it was a gimmick. This, this is what I want to be remembered for--characters who think, and who do their best to understand themselves and the world they live in"

And, almost, I was willing to accept that as being enough. Unfortunately, there are two problems overshadowing (no pun intended) this book. The first is the meandering plot I mentioned above. The second is the increasing difficulty I have accepting the insane genius of these children. I was willing to buy their resourcefulness when confined to a closed environment, such as the Battle School. I was even willing to accept that Ender, in Speaker and Xenocide, was able to avert the extermination of a species. However, I think Hegemon crosses the line. These children simply have too much power over the workings of the world--not just because they’re children, but because I have trouble accepting that any single individual could be so influential. In Hegemon, the Battle-School graduates (along with Peter and Achilles) are portrayed as the only people in international politics with any sort of tactical or practical sense. They recommend brilliant strategies, while all the other ‘regular’ generals act like idiots. They are presented as if their only worthy adversaries are people in the same ‘club.’ It is taken for granted that Peter can capture the title of Hegemon, and that Achilles will come to dominate any country that takes him in. The kids are omnipotent; everyone else might as well just give up.

These two hang-ups hold the book back. No Ender’s Game-like gimmick is necessary, but a stronger, more believable plot would better compliment these characters. As it is, the package isn’t balanced enough to achieve greatness. However, it is still a recommended read for anyone interested in the continuing adventures of Bean, as it does nicely advance his character, as well as give some depth to Peter and his family. (Though, like in Ender’s Shadow, Card is forced to scramble a bit to work out inconsistencies with the original book, and sometimes the meshing comes off a little contrived. That is to be expected, however, in a book that has such a pervasive parent hanging over its shoulder.)

Specific criticisms:

Setting: Setting isn’t as strong an element in this book as it has been in other Card novels. The action takes place in a moderate-future Earth, following war with an intergalactic alien species. Card doesn’t take much time developing cultures or settings, implying that despite technological advances, Earth societies are pretty much the same as their modern equivalents.

Originality: The idea of a group of children protecting the planet from each other is interesting, but there isn’t a great deal of awe-inspiring originality in this book.

Characterization: Like most Card books, this one is strong on characterization. In fact, that’s pretty much all the book is, considering the plot problems. The primary appeal of this book is the opportunity to look more closely at Bean and Peter Wiggin.

Plotting: As mentioned above, the plot is the weaker portion of the book. The climax is quick, and while its important for character development, it doesn’t really achieve much. Very little actual progress occurs for the main characters, and surprises and twists are few.

Fantastic Elements: Left without any new alien species, and with the children (instead of technology) proving the greatest weapons in a national arsenal, this book is oddly absent of genre elements. With some wiggling, it could have happened in an alternate-reality modern Earth instead.

Rating: 4 clocks (Out of six).

Good book. Enjoyable characters. Lacks brilliance. Fun for fans of the series, but not an absolute essential read for the rest of you.

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Written by EUOL on July 15th, 2003