The Shadow of the Hegemon

You won me over making Bean the smartest person in the world and Greek but then lost me with Achilles being so much better at manipulating the world than (almost) every Battle School graduate.

The weakest of the original quartet and this series so far, hoping it picks up in the next one.

Best. Series. Ever.
This is my favorite book.

Loved this on my first read years ago. But in my 2023 re-read I found that it continues the trend from re-reads of the other books in this universe-all the characters are too smart and too capable. I decided not to continue at about the 50% mark. I was just over the Mary Sue trope in these books.

Shadow of the Hegemon was undoubtedly entertaining, but I felt there was something missing from the book when it stands alone. Key events for the overall story occur, such as Petra's kidnapping, Achilles' accension to power and the first interactions between Peter Wiggin and Bean. But everything seems to move so slowly, and is long foreshadowed/signalled/repeated thus reducing its impact.

Alternatively, the new setting of futuristic Earth after multiple Ender books and this novel's predecessor set in space is refreshing, and credit to Card for the international conflicts which occur in a logical and well-researched manner. Hopefully the sequel propels the story forward.

The military and politics in this book are a bit tedious. At times, it seems like a history book - rather than entertainment.

The storyline progressed well enough in this book but I was surprised to see that Josey is no longer a strong woman. Now she's a weak, whining fool who pines for Caim. The only reason I was interested in her section of the plot was my interest in what was happening to the city and the creature loose in it. This complete change in her personality threw me, and disgusted me. She seems to make every wrong choice possible and hides away in her room like a child.
Now as for Caim's storyline, I was happy to learn more about his abilities, or at least what he is capable of, but I wish there had been more to Kit's story. The small tease we received leaves me wanting to know about where she came from and who she is.
All together the action was great, the amount we learn about the shadow lands was suitable and at the end we are left with new questions to pique our interest in the next and final novel.

I enjoyed this book and finding out about events on earth after the war with the buggers.

I expected things to be farther along at the end based on the title however.

So far I'm enjoying the shadow series a lot more than ender series apart from ender's game. These books have felt more in the style of the first.

Not very futuristic science fiction, so it did not really appeal to me. Nevertheless, the book was brilliant, as you can expect of OSC. I am still eager to continue The Shadow Series. Hopefully, it will be a bit more political and less realistic military strategy.
What's interesting is that it is very similar to The Eugenics Wars Volume 2, simply significantly better.

Shadow's Lure is the second book of Sprunk's Shadow Saga, following the debut of “Shadow's Son” last year (2010). In this volume, we return to Othir immediately after the events of “Shadow's Son” as Caim heads north, looking for answers to his past and the murder of his parents. What he finds is a land under the grip of the Shadow, personified in the witch Sybelle and the hints of shadow born magic that darken the land. Meanwhile, Josey, as Empress, is struggling with the politics of a land that seems beset with chaos, not to mention assassins out to remove her. And then there's the fae Kit, who early in the book is whisked away from Caim as she has to deal with her own troubles.

“Shadow's Lure” needs to be read in sequence with the rest of the series, unfortunately. Sprunk gives the new reader nothing to identify with with the characters, plunging the reader into a world where the three main characters have very little direct interaction with one another. readers coming to this book directly from the end of book one, though, will appreciate that this book picks up within days of the first book.

Sprunk keeps the secrets of his world at bay, giving us only hints and suggestions. For now, this is enough, though the third book, “Shadow's Master,” has a lot of promises to deliver on. Sprunk's books will appeal to the sword and sorcery fans - assassins, magic, and action litter the novel, leaving very little room for the doldrums to creep in.

Hegemon leaves the confines of Battle School to enter a world of international politics, and as much as I love international politics, I was glad Card didn't abandon the characters and character-level plot. Bean grows, Petra grows, Peter grows (though he's relatively ancillary–he's neither protagonist nor antagonist), Achilles...doesn't really grow. In Ender's Shadow, for a few paragraphs, we actually saw into Achilles' mind. In this book, we see him act and others' evaluations of his behavior, but they add nothing new to his personality–in fact they fail to draw on the peak we got in the previous book.

Over all, this book is similar in style to the previous two and added an aspect I very much enjoy (high-level politics, not just individuals bickering and seeking power), but I didn't enjoy it quite as much. Achilles did not interest me, and the genius of Bean, Peter, etc. occasionally felt unbelievable to me when applied to human behavior rather than strategy. There's a point where Bean insists Achilles would have at least three back-ups–why at least three? I don't care how smart Achilles is or how well Bean knows him. Humans make decisions far too arbitrarily and options are far too varied to be predicted with that degree of specificity. Attempts to display the intelligence of the characters ranged from really good to kind of terrible.

Though not as good as Ender's Game or Ender's Shadow, this is definitely worth reading if you loved the previous two in this thread.