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What do people here think about "Shadow of the Hegemon" and "Shadow Puppets?" I remember thinking they were pretty good the first time I read them, but I just read them again, and I really wasn't impressed. If those had been the first books I had read by OSC, I probably never would have picked up another book by him. I thought they were pretty boring, and I mostly just finished them out of obligation.
It's a shame because the idea--genius kids playing a big game of chess with Earth's armies--could have been really good. The books just didn't do anything for me, though.
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Those books in particular, or the series as a whole? I remember I enjoyed them when I read them, fun and fast reads. Read Shadow of the Giant not too long ago, but I didn't enjoy that so much.
Posts: 11 | Registered: Sep 2006
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well, the only thing I didnt like about Shadow of the Giant was that they never explained anything about what happened to "Beans 9TH" as I like to call the last baby. I know He was sent to a colony world, but what about after that? did He found the colony that discovered Jade? real cliffhanger on that part. otherwise, the book was pretty good.
Posts: 240 | Registered: Oct 2005
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With any lengthy series published over a thirty-year period, it's very hard to know where to start reading---unless someone has a few recommendations. Trilogies, tetralogies, sequels, prequels, stand-alones...characters you like from one are minor figures in another...villains become heroes and go back to villains from book to book to book...inconsistencies nibble at the later books, while changes in concepts haunt the earlier ones. (I haven't read these particular ones...I'm only speculating from experience with other long-running series.)
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
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nice redundancy, there. anyway, just speculation, but what DID happen to Beans 9th? I know this is off topic, but its been nagging at me ever since I read Giant. I really liked the books, and I really did not notice any changes in writing styles, so I really could not be an accurate... whats the word? ah, yes. critic.
Posts: 240 | Registered: Oct 2005
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The shadow series was good in my opinion... however I think some of it was a bit low on the pickup.
I JUST finished shadow puppets and shadow of the giant. I read both of them in about 3-4 days combined. The thing though.. is that I actually put Shadow Puppets DOWN about a year to two years ago. The begining really didn't hook me like Ender's Shadow and Hegemon managed (I actually read Shadow of the Hegemon in one sitting, I can't really remember much at this point, but I enjoyed that day :P ).
I recently got back into a reading binge... started reading "Building Harlequin's Moon" by Brenda Cooper/Larry Niven. took a few months of vacation in the middle, but that book really struck a chorde with me. I wanted to get back to the books I had been reading before.. but it felt almost like a chore to settle down to Shadow Puppets, even though I really enjoyed the rest of the books. I moved my abandoned bookmark back from chapter 6 to chapter 1 and took it from the top.
The only other book that I got stalled on out of dread for it's content or style etc was Kim Stanley Robinson's "Blue Mars" I had loved the series up until Blue Mars settled into this infodump-ish excrutiating depiction of political constructionism. I even let the book itself get beat up before I finally convinved myself to continue (there's no way I was going to restart from the begining on that one).
I guess with shadow puppets and blue mars, my momemtum was crushed by the topic being discussed. I mean the start of shadow puppets was kind of outside my taste. Once I had given the book a breather though, I managed to get past it and on to some of the characters I actually cared about and the questions I could actually still REMEMBER would touched on. I may have continued reading Shadow Puppets the first time had the chapters been rearranged a bit, I guess I saw the hook, but didn't like the bait
One thing that I've never tried was to read any of OSC's book one chapter at a time. Going more slowly might actually make them less enjoyable to me, though I have no evidence of that. But every one of his books that's I've completed were read in 1-3 sittings. The only OSC book I've yet to complete now was that Redemption of Christoper Columbus one. I found it interest.. finished about 80% but stopped caring much by the time I got to what I think was going to be the climax. I might come back to it with new appreciation some day, but for now the bookmark stays where I left it.
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My mother uses facial tissues instead of bookmarks, and it makes me nervous about borrowing a book from her that she read while suffering from a cold.
Maybe I should start a topic about this somewhere else....
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