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.

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©2000 Orson Scott Card

good story, bad recording.

the book was excellent. I love reading about bean and his exploits. while the voice acting was as good as can be expected for a Orson Scott Card book, sound quality was less than the usual standard. several obvious edits.

Love the Series

I heard this book before and was a must have for my own audible collection. Good story and overall a must have for and enders game fan who does not have it...

honestly I will say the voice actors do a surpurb job bringing these stories to life

A fun read, but lacks the richness of enders game

I really like Orson's alternative world history universe, but having the antagonist be from the protagonist's childhood is under contrived. Just as having the main protagonist of enders game's brother be such prominent figures in this alternate world also feels under developed, and overly simplistic. It creates a streamlined story that is easy to follow but at the cost of depth and richness of the universe. over all a fun read

Love the thread of stories about Bean and others

Am always intrigued by the detail other other cultures, locations, and history. The narration, although very skillful, was distracting over the overlay of voice-overs correcting the word "hegemon." Also, this takes place a couple centuries in the future, but any historical reference, like comparing Achilles to Stalin or Hitler, makes it sound like nothing political happened in the 22nd century. The author could have fun creating some future history to fill the gap.

Good book, weird music and word replacements

First off, I want to say this is worth listening to. The voice acting and the story itself is wonderful. What I'm listing is just s little nitpicking to make it better.

The chapters would sometimes end on these dark serious thoughts just to be followed up with this light hearted music. It's off putting.

Also, the correction of the word 'Hegemon' by a different reader really takes you out of the story.

Other than that, it was a great experience

Book & Performance, 5 stars. Editing, 2 stars.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I'm maybe half way through this book, having recently read the 20th Anniversary edition of Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, and then Speaker for the Dead. I would give it 5 stars but for the exceptionally poor editing. There are errors in all publications, but the patched-in corrections in this book are atrociously obvious. MacMillon Audio should be embarrassed. I found the philosophizing rather tedious and soapboxish from the author in Speaker for the Dead. Yes, this book is less complex, but there's something about the internal dialog of Bean and Petra that I find much more palateable. The story moves along.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

I can't say enough for Scott Brick's voice art. I think I'd read stuff I wasn't genuinely interested in just to hear him read. He's got a gift. Too many voice artists act like they're on stage (one particularly disappointing such artist was involved in the David Eddings' series), which just turns me off when descriptions are being read - my brain likes to paint its own pictures, thank you very much.Gabrielle de Cuir, too, is gifted in her readings.

Review

Was good... This is a first review that I left... To many words that one has to type. Too many

So so good.

These books are so easy to listen to. The only down side is there is really lame music between chapters. Don't know why they have it. Other than that this is a fantastic story.

Love the story, performance is...lacking

I love the Ender & Bean stories, let me be clear about that. And this story is amazing. But the pronunciations of many words - specifically "Achilles" (the French or English pronunciation) and "hedgemon." Additionally, they obviously realized it and tried to edit in correct pronunciations, but not with the original voice actors. So, great story, but...less than awesome performances.

Almost ruined by redubbing

Great story. Mostly great voice acting, but apparently the narrator didn't know how to pronounce 'hegemon' across the whole book, so they redubbed just that word with another actor just yelling it in there, e.g. "it was the office of the HEGEMON(in other actor's voice) that was the weakest". Thankfully it's not talked about on every scene or I would have given up.