• Listen to “Bridesicle” by Will McIntosh at Starship Sofa.
• Listen to “Charlie Harmer Looks Back” by Brendan Detzner at Pseudopod.
• Listen to “Eros, Philia, Agape” by Rachel Swirsky at Tor.com.
• Listen to “A Light in Troy” by Sarah Monette at PodCastle.
• Listen to “Remote Control” by R.R. Angell at Transmissions From Beyond.

Comics and Graphic Novels

• Get a sneak peek of the graphic novel version of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Novels and Preview Chapters

• Catch up on The Hollows before you read the latest in the series, Black Magic Sanction, by downloading Dead Witch Walking Free with Bonus Material.
• Chapter 8 of the Creative Commons licensed science fiction novel The Cardinal and The Thief is now available online.
• Download Black Crusade by Ari Marmell as a free download.

Short Stories

• Read “The Final Now” by Gregory Benford at Tor.com.
• Read “Who in Mortal Chains” by Claire Humphrey at Strange Horizons.

Zines and Periodicals

• Beneath Ceaseless Skies has released its latest, Issue 38.
• Flurb number nine is out!

• Listen to “The Identifier” by Mark Patrick Morehead at PseudoPod.
• Listen to “The Mermaid’s Tea Party” by Samantha Henderson at Podcastle.
• Listen to “A Programmatic Approach to Perfect Happiness” by Tim Pratt.
• Listen to “Willpower” by Jason Stoddard at Dunesteef.

More Links

• BooksShouldBeFree is a great website for downloading free classic audiobooks.

Novels and Preview Chapters

• Jim Butcher is releasing a chapter a week of his upcoming book Changes.
• Read the First Chapter of Seth Grahame-Smith’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

Short Stories

• Read “Cross Purposes” by Elizabeth Moon at Suvudu.
• Read “The Final Now” by Gregory Benford at Tor.com.
• Read “Make Believe” by Michael Reaves at Suvudu.
• Read “The Notebook of My Favourite Skin-Trees by Alex Dally MacFarlane and more besides at DayBreak Magazine.
• Read “The Nonesuch” by Brian Lumley at Subterranean Online.
• Read “Small Burdens” by Paul M. Berger at Strange Horizons.

Vintage Fiction

• Download “The Sensitive Man” by Poul Anderson at ManyBooks.net.

Zines and Periodicals

• Flurb has released its Spring-Summer issue, featuring “The Goddess of Discord Lives on Mulberry Street” and “Insect Girl Climbs to Paradise.”
• Horror Bound magazine has released issue eleven.
• Popular Science has put its entire 137-year scanned archive online for free!

• Listen to “The Clapping Hands Of God” by Michael F. Flynn at Starship Sofa.
• Listen to “Down on the Farm” by Charles Stross at Tor.com.
• Listen to “Learning to Fly” by Garth Upshaw at Pseudopod.
• Listen to “Metal Dragon Year” by Chris Roberson at Transmissions From Beyond.
• Listen to “Not My Slave” by Derek Palmer at Dunesteef.

Flash and Micro Fiction

• Read the flash fiction “Away In An Incubator” by Duncan Shields at 365 Tomorrows.
• Read the flash fiction “Vindication” by Patricia Stewart at 365 Tomorrows.

Novels and Preview Chapters

• Harper Teen is offering a preview of The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong, as well as the next two books in the series, The Awakening and The Reckoning.
• Jim Butcher has finally released a preview of Changes, the next book in The Dresden Files. The man knows how to jump to the point.
• Listen to an audio sample of Blake Charlton’s novel “Spellwright” read by Mark D. Hines over at Vimeo. Includes four chapters.

Poetry

• Cultural Climate by F.J. Bergmann at Strange Horizons.

Short Stories

• Read “Alone With Gandhari” by Gord Sellar at Clarkesworld.
• Read “The History Within Us” by Matthew Kressel at Clarkesworld.
• Read “The House and the Baboon” by Bill Ectric at Candlelight Stories.
• Read the Nekropolis short story “The Midnight Watch” by Tim Waggoner.
• Read “Small Burdens” by Paul M. Berger at Strange Horizons.

• Listen to “The Gambler” by Paolo Bacigalupi at StarshipSofa.
• Listen to “Three Days and Nights In Lord Darkdrake’s Hall” by Leah Bobet at PodCastle.

Comics and Graphic Novels

• Vertigo has posted the prequel to its I, Zombie series, entitled “Trick or Treat.”

Novels and Preview Chapters

• Pyr is offering a preview of Empire in Black and Gold by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
• Read a the first chapter of Kim Harrison’s upcoming Black Magic Sanction.
• Tor Forge is offering previews of many of its upcoming March releases, including , including Michael Moorcock’s The MadGod’s Amulet.
• Vera Nazarian is offering an excerpt of her book, Mansfield Park and Mummies.

Poetry

• Read Little Ghosts and What If by Duane Ackerson.

Short Stories

• Read “The Devil and God are Raging Inside of Me” by Richard Whittaker.
• Read “The Library of Babble by Michael Bishop” at Subterranean Press.
• Read “The Jacob Miracle” by Katherine Sparrow at Brain Harvest Magazine.
• Read “Sundowning” by Joanne Merriam at Strange Horizons.
• Read “Tourists” By Sean Craven at Tor.com.
• Read “The World House” by Guy Adams at Hub Fiction.

Vintage Fiction

• Download “Let ‘Em Breathe Space” by Lester Del Rey, circa 1953.
• Download the “Rastignac the Devil” by Philip José Farmer, circa 1954.

The Folding Knife by K. J. Parker
Geosynchron (Book Three of the Jump 225 Trilogy) by David Louis Edelman
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin
Xombies: Apocalypticon by Walter Greatshell

DVD Releases

Beyond Sherwood Forest
Erica Durance of Smallville does a SyFy movie. In it Maid Marian and Robin Hood defend England from the the Sheriff of Nottingham’s dragons. Yeah. You should have stopped reading at “SyFy.” Did the producers not grasp the concept of hit points?!

The Box
You know the story it’s based on. You know it stars Cameron Diaz. Why do you pretend you’re not going to rent it. They already know you are. That’s why they didn’t bother trying very hard.

Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant
Based on a popular kids series, the vampires in this movie don’t sparkle and they don’t disembowl people, so I went MEH about half-way through. Still, you know, it probably wasn’t designed to target twenty-somethings.

Dead Snow
If you need to know anything more about this movie than the fact that this movie contains gruesome footage of Nazi zombies, then you should take a pass on this. Because those of us who get it don’t want to listen to you bemoan the lack of plot and production values.

FlashForward Season One
Everyone in the world blacks out and has a vision of themselves in the future. Then, they very slowly set about fulfilling their own prophecy, never stopping to think that maybe if someone would just pull out a gun and shoot a few of the main characters, the entire storyline might be resolved in one episode. Skip it. Read the book.

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths
A Lex Luthor from a parallel universe asks for help solving all of his world’s problems. The Justice League jumps at the chance, and conveniently has all the loose ends tied up roughly one hour later. Huh.

The Universe: The Complete Season Four
Using stunning HD graphics, The Universe explores the solar system and far-flung cosmic phenomena. This series has a long track record of making astronomy interesting, and it’s a must-have for science buffs.

In Theaters

The zombie horror flick The Crazies (R) and the buddy cop movie Cop Out (R) both open, so, while they both look like fodder for late night cable, it’s going to be a good box office weekend for guys.

Author: Orson Scott Card
Series: Sequel to Empire
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Science Fiction
Release: Dec. 22, 2009
Length: 336 pages (Hardcover)

Rating: C- (65 / 100)

Verdict

Though this book is marketed as a tie-in to the 2009 video game Shadow Complex, Hidden Empire bears more resemblance to Card’s Mormon fiction Seventh Son than to the epic science fiction of Ender’s Game. It’s three hundred pages of overly-simple characters facing philosophical dilemmas punctuated by infrequent action sequences that lack any emotional punch.

Long-time fans of Card’s work may enjoy another nostalgic taste of their favorite childhood author, but most readers are going to be disappointed by this flaccid, heavy-handed morality tale too dull to be considered science fiction and too pedantic to be called a political thriller.

Pros: Intriguing underlying concept. Extremely contemporary setting. Great quotes.

Cons: Preachy. Heavy-handed with the politics. Overly-simple characters. Distinct lack of action sequences. Disappointing ending.

Synopsis

In Brief: When a lethal virus spreads across the continent of Africa, U.S. President Averell Torrent responds with ruthless efficiency. Soon, Captain Coleman begins to suspect that Torrent is using the virus to advance a plot that will transform America from a democracy into an Empire with himself on the throne. Now, Coleman is in a race to discover the truth before it’s too late.

Official: The war of words between right and left collapsed into a shooting war, and raged between the high-technology weapons on each side, devastating cities and overrunning the countryside.

At the close of Empire, political scientist and government adviser Averell Torrent had maneuvered himself into the presidency of the United States. And now that he has complete power at home, he plans to expand American imperial power around the world.

Opportunity comes quickly. There’s a deadly new plague in Africa, and it is devastating the countryside and cities. President Torrent declares American solidarity with the victims, but places all of Africa in quarantine until a vaccine is found or the disease burns itself out. And he sends Captain Bartholomew Coleman, Cole to his friends, to run the relief operations and protect the American scientists working on identifying the virus. If Cole and his team can avoid dying of the plague, or being cut down by the weapons of fearful African nations, they might do some good. Or they might be out of the way for good.

Review

I’ll always treasure the Ender series for introducing me to hard science fiction at a young age, but (and it saddens me to say this) the quality of novels Orson Scott Card is producing is steadily declining. At first, I thought that it was simply a case of his books being written for an audience younger than myself, but with the release of the Empire series, it’s become starkly obvious that Card has made a conscious shift from entertaining audiences to preaching at them.

I picked up Empire and Hidden Empire because they tied into the video game Shadow Complex and I had hoped to find a bit of action-packed hard science. What I found instead was that the books are little more than a series of soap box moments strung together into the semblance of very simple – and sometimes absurd – political thriller.

Don’t get me wrong, Hidden Empire is well written. Card’s prose is beautiful. His arguments are as compelling as they are quotable. However, somewhere along the line, he just stopped writing about anything I care about, and I feel a little deceived that the change wasn’t evident before I picked up a copy of this book.

Where Card’s musings on human nature in the books following Ender’s Game were insightful, his commentary on Christianity seems to be almost smug and his politics are snipping at best. Where Ender’s Game has become a classic of the genre, Hidden Empire lacks a compelling underlying concept, leaving the book light on sci-fi elements.

The one possibly redeeming point of this book is that Card may be preparing to follow in the footsteps of Isaac Asimov and Terry Goodkind by connecting two seemingly disparate series into one single sweeping storyline. If the exaggerated political maneuvering of Hidden Empire and its predecessor are setting the stage to serve as prequels to Ender’s Game, it’ll go a long way towards making the entire series relevant again. On the other hand, if the two series don’t interconnect somewhere, then Card’s reuse of names, narrative style, terminology and more are sure signs that this author’s wellspring has run dry.

So, be warned. Unless you enjoy Christian fiction, you’re going to find this book a grave disappointment. Wait until you can pick it up at the library, if you pick it up at all.

Similar Books

If you enjoy this book, you may also enjoy these very similar series:

• Ender’s Game (Ender, Book 1) by Orson Scott Card
• Seventh Son (Tales of Alvin Maker, Book 1) by Orson Scott Card

Further Information

• Read a preview of Hidden Empire at Google Books.
• Visit author Orson Scott Card’s official website.
• Visit the publisher’s official website for Hidden Empire.

Live Free or Die (Troy Rising) by Jon Ringo
The Ruling Sea by Robert V.S. Redick
Shadow Prowler by Alekse Pekhov

Paperback Book Releases

The Book of Unhidden Secrets by DaNae Hagelberg
Defender Of The Terran Empire by Poul Anderson
Death Got No Mercy by Al Ewing
The Empress of Mars (The Company) by Kage Baker
The Folding Knife by KJ Parket
Jade Man’s Skin (Moshui) by Daniel Fox
Raven’s Ladder (Auralia Thread) by Jeffrey Overstreet

DVD Releases

Halo Legends (DVD and Blu-ray)
Halo follows in the footsteps of Animatrix and Batman: Gotham Knight with an animated anthology. Each of its 8 episodes is created by a separate prominent Japanese anime producer.

Law Abiding Citizen (DVD and Blu-ray)
This hybridization of legal thriller and serial-killer shocker flopped at the box office, but it’s sure to be a hit on late night cable. A guy killing people from prison? So plausible it’s frightening!

Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus (DVD)
The California coast is terrorized by two enormous prehistoric sea creatures as they battle each other for supremacy of the sea. If you’re not getting your B-movie fix with the SyFy channel, pick this one up.

Ran (Blu-ray)
Kurosawa’s brilliantly conceived retelling of Shakespeare’s King Lear. Lord Hidetora announces his intention to divide his land equally among his three sons, resulting in a power struggle that drives Hidetora insane, destroying his entire family and kingdom.

Small Wonder: The Complete First Season (DVD)
A man invents a robot that looks like a little girl but then decides to keeps her true nature a secret. A TV critic for USA Today called it a contender for worst TV show of all time, but I consider it to be a classic of the eighties!

Anime Releases

20th Century Boys 2: The Last Hope
Bleach Uncut Box Set: Season 4, Part 2 – The Bount
Claymore: Complete Series Box Set
Dragon Ball Z: Dragon Box Two
Naruto Uncut Box Set: Season Two, Vol. 1

In Theaters

Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island (R) hits theaters this weekend. They delayed it’s release date from October to February, when box office bombs are typically slated, which does nothing to recommend it. Still, Shutter Island looks to be the first decent thriller of the year.

• Listen to “Biographical Notes to ‘A Discourse on the Nature of Causality, with Air-planes’” by Benjamin Rosenbaum at PodCastle.
• Listen to “The City Quiet as Death” By Steven Utley and Michael Bishop.
• Listen to “Dreams of the White City” by Jay Lake at Transmissions From Beyond.
• Listen to “The Language of the Whirlwind” written by Lavie Tidhar at Clarkesworld.
• Listen to “The Mechanical Aviary of Emperor Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar” by Shweta Narayan at Shimmerzine.
• Listen to “A Princess Of Earth” by Mike Resnick at Dunesteef.
• Listen to “Pulp Cover” by Gene Wolfe at StarshipSofa.

Comics and Graphic Novels

• There’s a new Torchwood Comic online. In it, the aliens have landed… see how Captain Jack and the rest of the Torchwood team fend them off in our brand new and exclusive Torchwood Comic.

More Links

• obooko is a new website devoted to giving new writers the opportunity to test-the-water before committing to print. And for established authors to promote their work. The idea is that new writers self-publish and gain experience and feedback by agreeing to make their work available in digital format for free to a limited audience.

Novels and Preview Chapters

• Download Book Three of The Lost Tribe of the Sith at StarWars.com.
• Listen to a preview of the audiobook of A Dark Matter by Peter Straub.
• Suvudu points the way to a pile of novel previews:
  • Against All Things Ending by Stephen R. Donaldson – Chapter 1
  • Bearers of the Black Staff by Terry Brooks – Chapter 2 [Video]
  • Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb – Prologue – Chapter 4
  • The Mystery Knight by George R. R. Martin – Novella Excerpt
  • Naamah’s Curse by Jacqueline Carey – Chapter X [Video]
  • Spellwright by Blake Charlton – Prologue – Chapter 4
  • Shadowheart by Tad Williams – Prologue [Video]
  • Shadowrise by Tad Williams – Chapter X, Chapter 3, Chapter 8

Poetry

• Here’s a cool idea. The Inevitable Zombie Apocalypse has compiled the Google searches that brought users to its site into a “Google poem” its calling “I am the Walking Apocalypse”.
• Tropism offers a poem for Valentine’s Day: Scientific Romance.

Short Stories

• Read “After We Got Back the Lights” by Eric Del Carlo at Strange Horizons.
• Read “Harboring Pearls” by Mike Resnick at Subterranean Online.
• Read “Tales from The New Universe: Gunny Homn” by Patrick Hester at All Things From My Brain All Things From My Brain.
• Read “Treaty” by Jennifer R. Povey at Cosmos.

Zines and Periodicals

• The Final issue of The Internet Review of Science Fiction (IROSF) is online.