Shadow of the Hegemon

By: Orson Scott Card

Narrated by: David Birney, Scott Brick, Gabrielle de Cuir

Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

Ender's Game told the story of the boy "Ender" Wiggin and his hard-won victory over an alien race that would have destroyed the Earth and all of humanity. But Ender was not the only child in the Battle School. He was just the best of the best. In Ender's Shadow, Orson Scott Card told the story of another of those precocious generals, the one they called Bean - the one who became Ender's right hand, his strategist, and his friend.

And now Card continues Bean's story, and finally tells a tale long awaited by millions of fans. At last we learn what happened on Earth after the destruction of the Hive Queen's worlds, after humanity no longer had a single enemy to unify the warring nations. This is the story of how Bean turned away from his first friend, Ender, and became the tactical genius who won the Earth for Ender's brother, Peter, who became the Hegemon.

Please note: This 2001 recording represents the technology of the time when it was produced. This is currently the best available source audio from the publisher.

Browse more titles in the Ender Wiggin series.

©2000 Orson Scott Card

editorial

Editing wasnt impressive, you could painfully hear every splice where they inserted a correction. but overall amazing just like all the rest!

Good story, but strange editing...

The story we pretty good, but, to be honest, some of the editing choices were a bit distracting. There were random lines that clearly needed to be redone after the fact, but the sounds quality didn't match the original. So, the story would be going along & then those moment would come up & take you out of the moment instantly. However, like I said at the start, if you can look past that, the story is actually pretty good.

Might be my favorite of the series!

I'm impressed that each book in the Ender's Game universe manages to be so unique. This one feels like a giant game of Risk and I couldn't put it down.

Great story, tho there’s a blaring continuity error

Ender never grew up in Greensboro, NC. The Wiggin family moved there AFTER Ender went off to battle school.

Also the recording could have been edited better. They clearly had to edit in the correct pronunciation of “Hegemon”.

Best of Ender Saga

I have a few more Shadow series to go through, but so far this is the best of all the Ender saga I have read. I do regret reading Ender in Exile before the Shadow books which meant big time Shadow book spoilers.

Recorded in a tin can?

This is an excellent story (as are most by Mr Scott Card), read by extremely talented people. Then the money ran out, or something. It's strange that the sound can be so shabby in this day and age. And the music? SHEESH! The author and actors work hard to create an eerie, nail-biting mood, then in comes happy elevator music made on a kiddie keyboard from the 80's. Gone is the suspence!
Audible usually makes me feel that the books I buy here are well worth the price. Not this one though. I got sorta ripped off.
I still recommend this one though. Just be warned of the tinny, unprofessional production. Five stars for the story. Five stars for the actors. Half a star for the guy who was responsible for the sound and music.

Excellent, but listen to

Very interesting spin on the "Ender's Game" story. Highly recommended as a follow-on to that book. Exciting, I found it hard to leave the car (ie, stop listening).

Thank goodness for the story

The Shadow series is a terrific storyline, a true classic. This production almost ruined it. This truly needs redone. The voice actors are fine, for the most part, but the instrumental interludes are annoying in the extreme - untuneful, unrelated, interrupting, and overlong. However, the story is strong enough to overcome the production's flaws.

change in narrator

randomly changes narrator mid sentence for no reason. makes it hard to follow at times, or that the book jumped to a new place.

Great story, good narrators but weird overdubs

Would you consider the audio edition of Shadow of the Hegemon to be better than the print version?

No. I like both.

What didn’t you like about the narrators’s performance?

One of the narrators was very whiny sounding and didn't seem a suitable voice for the characters in this book. Most of them were very good, though.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Several

Any additional comments?

There are multiple places where a completely different person has been re-recorded over the original material. A couple places are phrases, but most of them seem to just be the word "hegemon". It's really really bad and annoying and completely takes you out of that sweet spot of story-listening-zen-state.