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

Great story and performance! Terrible audio :(

As usual, Orson Scott Card tells a great story. The audio sucks and there are weird, very bad edits that steal the show away from an otherwise fantastic performance.

beutifull

I hecking love Orson Scott cards books. This one is another masterpiece. i will say, however that it is for an older audience than enders game and is pretty graphic in more violent parts.

great book, great narrators, terrible editing

the editing was awful, but the narrators were good. random pieces of wood be spliced in from another recording. the most frequent edit was over every time the main narrator tried to say hegemon. I don't know if he was unable to pronounce the word, or it was different in another recording, but the new voice edited over that word every time was very poorly matched. Fortunately, the story is engaging enough on its own that the performance didn't diminish the quality of the book

Well done

I enjoyed the story as well as the reading. The same reader as the other Ender series made it a great listen

A Little Anticlimactic

I enjoyed the Shadow series nearly as much as the Ender series. I think it’s great, and I think this book is good.

The love story just doesn’t land, and having the focus shift from grand geopolitical machinations to a tale of two lovers set against the backdrop of grand geopolitical machinations feels like a letdown because I don’t think the relationship was established well enough.

Still a satisfying conclusion to a great story, just not as good as I’d hoped.

Excellent for Ender fans

The two-person reading is excellent, bringing out the story's drama, romance, and intrigue. I highly recommend this to anyone who has read the other Ender books, even, if like me, they found those uneven.

good for an nth listen

Card's bean-verse has excellent tone, and it really shows how bean grows up, the recording quality is excellent as always

good for the series

I enjoyed the story pretty good for the series didn't have any real issues with the reader was good I'll listen to the rest of the series

Nice story but not up.to.the others

Female cracheurs not well played. reader should review the way she shows anguish in her characters which become very exaggerates and almost irritating.

Love this side story

Very good story and I knew once I heard it I had to get a copy for myself... I have listened to this story and the whole series four times at least now