Shadow Puppets

By: Orson Scott Card

Narrated by: David Birney, Stefan Rudnicki

Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

Bestselling author Orson Scott Card brings to life a new chapter in the saga of Ender's Earth and The Shadow Series.

Earth and its society have been changed irrevocably in the aftermath of Ender Wiggin's victory over the Formics. The unity forced upon the warring nations by an alien enemy has shattered. Nations are rising again, seeking territory and influence, and most of all, seeking to control the skills and loyalty of the children from the Battle School.

But one person has a better idea. Peter Wiggin, Ender's older, more ruthless, brother, sees that any hope for the future of Earth lies in restoring a sense of unity and purpose. And he has an irresistible call on the loyalty of Earth's young warriors. With Bean at his side, the two will reshape our future.

Shadow Puppets is the continuing story of Bean and Petra, and the rest of Ender's Dragon Army, as they take their places in the new government of Earth.

Browse more titles in the Ender Wiggin series.

©2002 Orson Scott Card (P)2002 Fantastic Audio

Critic reviews

“David Birney's voice sounds purposefully fatigued, beautifully conveying the world leader Peter Wiggin's frustrated resignation, and Stefan Rudnicki's clipped, low baritone is perfect for the cloack-and-dagger email correspondence that bookends the chapters. Gabrielle de Cuir expertly handles both accents and emotion...[Scott Brick] tackles the Bean chapters with the youthful cynicism and passion that Bean embodies in this book, capturing the character's voice with wonderful passion.” —AudioFile

“The folks at Audio Renaissance have quite literally brought greatness to the text. They've included an introduction and a postscript read by Card himself, both of which place the novel and the audiobook in its context as well as enlightening us to the author's method of its construction. Multiple readers led by Stefan Rudnicki work perfectly to vocally illustrate each chapter, character and scene.” —Science Fiction and Fantasy on Ender's Game(A Science Fiction and Fantasy Essential)

“The ideal presentation of any book of mine is to have excellent actors perform it in audio format.” —Orson Scott Card from the afterword of Ender's Game

Pretty great 👍

The author's writing style is fairly bare-bones on fine descriptions of items and people, but, as always, great with describing strategy and reason. Fair with romance. Best of all, he keeps it all very clean.
Very little cursing and little innuendo.
Downright squeaky compared to other non-Christian author's and much cleaner than some supposedly Christian authors.

Wonderful story.

I almost didn't get this, due to the review my Joey saying there were homophobic topics. However, I wanted to complete the series so, I did. It was minor, and to me, was something easily missed in the story, be it no one draws your attention to it. The story is good, and very important to the Bean and Petria story line. the performance was amazing, as always.

Just as great as the last in the Shadow seires.

The story was just as good as the last book in this series. and even better was that there weren't as many cringe worth interlude tunes.

Did not disappoint

Not as good as Ender’s game but there is no sci-fi here really, only a poignant glimpse into human nature. Love, lust for power, reproduction, and meaning; pretty accurate account if you ask me.

Another solid installment of the shadow series

If you just finished Shadow Pt 2 and were on the edge on weather or not to continue. I'd say there's no decrease in the quality of the writing from the last book. Especially because I find this series far more satisfying than the proper Ender's series.

*possible spoiler*

I will say that Petra becomes a little baby crazy. Which I didn't have a real problem with, but I know it turned some other readers off.

Mostly enjoyable, but...

The story has too much religious fervor, for my tastes. I'm hoping the next episode is better.

Another Good Read in the Ender Series

You continue with Bean's story, and the positive here is that Card develops the character quite nicely.

However, the premise of the world going to war based on advice from 10 and 12 year olds is simply not believable in this one.

I was able to suspend disbelief in Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow, but he simply missed the mark with the story.

Overall, I recommend and will be moving on to Shadow of the Hegemon.

Shadow puppets - great story!

Bean is one of my favorite characters of all time. It's a thrilling story however I'm disappointed that the author had to use his characters to preach religious views

spotty recording

This production house is typically amazing, but there are some strange issues with this reading. I think the readers must have been mispronouncing "hegemon" because the word is dubbed over in a really jarring way throughout the production. There were places were they couldn't agree on how to pronounce Achilles. The audio quality also seemed of compared to previous entries in the series.

I enjoyed more time with these characters very much. A few times I had to roll my eyes because the author's personal political evolution is shining through in ways unseen in previous works. Bean's exploration of the morality of abortion as an example. Didn't stop me from enjoying the story. Anyone who made it this far in the series has no reason to stop here.

strange music

the novel it's self is amazing and the voice actors do a phenomenal job. the random music is off putting though