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

As relevant today as it was when written

I love these books, and re-read them at least once a year. I would love to hear the author's thoughts on how he sees today's events and climate through the lens of this story.

So relevant today

I have always loved Orson Scott Card's writing, but had not read the Empire Duet. I must say, reading this in 2022, I found the topics and discussion very relevant to our current world situation. I enjoyed the 2nd book, Hidden Empire even more compelling than the first--but both are definitely worth reading. I am amazed how much I related to the characters in the book. Very thought provoking, and excellent storytelling!

Not as good as the first.

Started with a new respiratory, hemorrhagic pandemic in the mid 2020s, followed by an impending Russian invasion of Ukraine... then nothing about those things for the rest of the book. I enjoyed but wouldn't recommend it. Cole's choices are particularly implausible and out of character.

If you liked the first one, this one will let you down.

I loved the book before this, but this was a straight-up mediocre story made even worse by the terrible, completely unrealistic ending that completely demeaned every piece of story building that went into the main characters personalities, especially Cole and rubes unit.

Stick to fantasy

How could the creator of "Ender's Game" produce such tripe? Realistic SF is supposed to extrapolate from the present time, and Card fails to do this. He sets his conservative protagonists against "progressives", whom he forces into the villains' role by making them do things that real progressives would never, ever do. It's not even well-written. The ever-implausible story is interrupted by endless rumination on politics and religion. In respect of Card's past brilliance, I listened to the whole thing in hopes that he would pull out an interesting idea. And in the end he did, but it wasn't worth it. Card now joins Crichton on my list of good fiction writers who fail in the real world.

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.

Dull and pedantic

A sermon rather than a good story.

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.

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

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.