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. ( )

I had a hard time trying to decide between 3 or 4 stars. I sometimes have to remind myself that 3 stars is still considered good, maybe not great or perfect but still good and worth the read. I really did enjoy the book and it was what I was expecting. In this one we follow Bean and Petra having returned to Earth after the war and the politics and political problems the world faces with having super intelligent and trained commanders returning home. Of course there is Achilles who becomes a thorn in the whole mess. If you liked the Ender series and Ender's Shadow then you should like this sequel to Ender's Shadow.
I had read Ender's Shadow a long time ago when it first came out but remember most of it so I did not re-read it again before starting this.
( )

Shmeh. Ender's Shadow was a refreshing visit back to Ender's Game. This was not. ( )

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. ( )

Aside from a few chapters, that was a slog. ( )