Book: Hidden Empire
ISBN-13: 978-0765320049
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.
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Further Information
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