Hidden Empire: The Empire Duet, Part 2

By: Orson Scott Card

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Orson Scott Card, Rusty Humphries

Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

In this sequel to Card's best-selling novel Empire, Averell Torrent has become president of the United States, with enormous political and popular support, and, if people only realized it, a tight grip on the reins of both political parties. He has launched America into a get-tough, this-world-is-our-empire foreign policy stance.

But Captain Bartholomew Coleman, known as Cole to his friends and enemies alike, sees the danger Torrent poses to American democracy and the potential disasters involved in his foreign military adventures. He quickly runs afoul of the president, and on the run, he and a few friends and allies seek proof of how Torrent orchestrated the political takeover - by assassinating a president and nearly starting a civil war.

©2009 Orson Scott Card (P)2009 Macmillan Audio

mlleErica

I love Orson Scott Card -- in fact Ender's Game was the first audio book, and the first sci-fi book I remember enjoying. Stefan Rudnicki could read the telephone book and make it sound like poetry. But I have been disappointed by the Empire duet.

Some parts read like a top notch thriller, but this is a book lacking the heart, character, and subtley of OSC's usual style. The characters on all sides commit acts that make them unsympathetic -- as a listener I didn't know who the good guys were, even when I was told.

I'm giving it a 3 because of Rudnicki's narration, but I'd skip it unless you're an OSC junkie.

Hidden Empire

Listen to Empire first and continue the story with this book. Another wonderful and thoughtful story from Orson Scott Card.

Red State vs. Blue State-> Benevolent Dicatator?

Orson Scott Card does nothing if he doesn't thoroughly analyze a topic through his novels. Some may be pure fiction, such as time travel analyzed in Pathfinder and Ruins, stand-ins for the non-fictional such as the Ender series where he analyzes hatred of and hostility towards those who are different (Ender's Game), then dealing with the consequences of how you treat those who are "other", alien or different than you. In Empire and Hidden Empire, Mr. Card reflects on the political chasm of those who are conservative and those who are liberal (red state vs. blue state), a civil war that results from the chasm and a potential leader who views the only solution to that and other global problems is to become a benevolent dictator, albeit one who keeps the form of democracy.

As is my typical practices, I went between the Kindle and Audible versions of Empire but the Audible version only of Hidden Empire. Mr. Card provides the narrative introduction to each chapter while Stefan Rudnicki narrates the core of the story. Mr. Rudnicki is a consummate narrator and he brings his golden voice, deft pacing and perfect inflections to bear on these stories. He ranges from a Southern soldier and an eastern-seaboard house wives / political wonk to an Hispanic soldier and a Nigerian boy; now that's range. An amazing job, as always. Rusty Humphries joins the narration effort in Hidden Empire and does fine job essentially playing himself. If you enjoy audio books, you'll like this version.

For full review: wp.me/p2XCwQ-Yu

Fun and fabulous!

A great book. Well read, hard to turn off. I HIGHLY recommend "Hidden Empire"!

A Must Read Sequel!

What made the experience of listening to Hidden Empire: The Empire Duet, Part 2 the most enjoyable?

Hidden empire took the initial storyline constructed in Empire and moves to a conclusion. Fitting its author, the conclusion cannot be guessed though Card does a great job of offering foreshadowing points that you connect in retrospect.

One enjoyable part of the series is the manner in which he builds conflict among the numerous factions and clearly articulates his premise.

What did you like best about this story?

This story brought my sadness to teams, smirks of happiness and the whole gambit of emotions in between. Card delivered on the series. Definitely a must read.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

There were three voices in this performance -- one of the Card's voice.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, I listened to it in two sittings. It is approximately 11 hours long, so hunker down and get some popcorn.

Boring and Preachy

This book has the makings of a decent plot, a plot absolutely ruined by dull and extremely long sermons by Card's characters defending what I assume to be his religious and political views. While I am in agreement for the most part with his religious and political views, I do not read fiction to verify my beliefs I read it to enjoy a good story. If your willing to put up with the ponderous dialogue between characters the book may appeal to some as there is a decent story in here, but for most this will be a waste of money and time. On a side note it seems as if the author of the synopsis never read the book he just kind of guessed what the sequel to empire would be like.

Dull and pedantic

A sermon rather than a good story.

FOX News Happy Time

Not really sure why this had to be a book when it plays on FOX news every night. Demonized eco-liberal-progressives striking at the heart of everything that is America protected only by the wonderful forces of the all wonderful conservatives. Sorry, just not up to the Ender series at all.

Just plain wrong

About a one third Orson of the way through the novel gets preachy and try to deny the science behind global warming with pseudo science. .It did not make sense in2009 when the book was written. It makes even less sense in 2019.

what a preachy, boring snoozefest

I got halfway through and deleted it from my phone. Narrators were phenomenal as always, but OS Card really let me down. I'll probably return this and get a better book