Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Shadow Puppets
    Shadow Puppets
    Shadow Puppets
    Audiobook10 hours

    Shadow Puppets

    Written by Orson Scott Card

    Narrated by David Birney, and Stefan Rudnicki

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Bestselling author Orson Scott Card brings to life a new chapter in the saga of Ender's Earth and The Shadow Series.

    Earth and its society have been changed irrevocably in the aftermath of Ender Wiggin's victory over the Formics. The unity forced upon the warring nations by an alien enemy has shattered. Nations are rising again, seeking territory and influence, and most of all, seeking to control the skills and loyalty of the children from the Battle School.

    But one person has a better idea. Peter Wiggin, Ender's older, more ruthless, brother, sees that any hope for the future of Earth lies in restoring a sense of unity and purpose. And he has an irresistible call on the loyalty of Earth's young warriors. With Bean at his side, the two will reshape our future.

    Shadow Puppets is the continuing story of Bean and Petra, and the rest of Ender's Dragon Army, as they take their places in the new government of Earth.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    Release dateSep 27, 2002
    ISBN9781593974831
    Shadow Puppets
    Author

    Orson Scott Card

    Orson Scott Card is best known for his science fiction novel Ender's Game and its many sequels that expand the Ender Universe into the far future and the near past. Those books are organized into the Ender Saga, which chronicles the life of Ender Wiggin; the Shadow Series, which follows on the novel Ender's Shadow and is set on Earth; and the Formic Wars series, written with co-author Aaron Johnston, which tells of the terrible first contact between humans and the alien "Buggers." Card has been a working writer since the 1970s. Beginning with dozens of plays and musical comedies produced in the 1960s and 70s, Card's first published fiction appeared in 1977--the short story "Gert Fram" in the July issue of The Ensign, and the novelette version of "Ender's Game" in the August issue of Analog. The novel-length version of Ender's Game, published in 1984 and continuously in print since then, became the basis of the 2013 film, starring Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis, and Abigail Breslin. Card was born in Washington state, and grew up in California, Arizona, and Utah. He served a mission for the LDS Church in Brazil in the early 1970s. Besides his writing, he runs occasional writers' workshops and directs plays. He frequently teaches writing and literature courses at Southern Virginia University. He is the author many science fiction and fantasy novels, including the American frontier fantasy series "The Tales of Alvin Maker" (beginning with Seventh Son), and stand-alone novels like Pastwatch and Hart's Hope. He has collaborated with his daughter Emily Card on a manga series, Laddertop. He has also written contemporary thrillers like Empire and historical novels like the monumental Saints and the religious novels Sarah and Rachel and Leah. Card's work also includes the Mithermages books (Lost Gate, Gate Thief), contemporary magical fantasy for readers both young and old. Card lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife, Kristine Allen Card. He and Kristine are the parents of five children and several grandchildren.

    More audiobooks from Orson Scott Card

    Related to Shadow Puppets

    Titles in the series (4)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    Science Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Bassey Come Home

      Jan 5, 2023

      Bassey Come Home
      3 min read

    • Article

      Places, Please

      Sep 18, 2023

      Pirates. Petulance. The Prefu. Who’d have thought the first official week of Campaign 2023 would deliver the makings of a Gilbert and Sullivan musical. With the curtain finally up, the most anticipated all-singingall-dancing act was Treasury opening

      4 min read

    • Article

      ‘I Just Had To Do Better’

      Mar 18, 2024

      ‘I Just Had To Do Better’
      7 min read

    • Article

      Love Under Fire

      Oct 6, 2021

      Love Under Fire
      8 min read

    • Article

      Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine Gives Boris Johnson His Churchill Moment, If He Can Finally Engage Some British Intelligence

      Mar 7, 2022

      Having lived in Asia for so long now that I've lost my right to vote in British elections, I can only gaze at the politics from afar. And recently, it has looked like insanity. I must say that at times I envy my 82-year-old mother who suffers from pr

      5 min read

    • Article

      Cruel Means, Bitter Ends

      Nov 10, 2021

      “In order for this speech to mean anything to me, I’ll need to dispense with the usual demagoguery and, instead, make an attempt at honesty. With this in mind, there is one thing I have to make clear. I’m not in this race to serve your interests, but

      12 min read

    • Article

      Bernie Bro

      Mar 24, 2021

      Were you a fan of Godzilla and King Kong before this project? ■ Absolutely! I’m a huge manga fan, and I used to draw Godzilla. For some reason, I was always a Godzilla fan more than a King Kong fan, because the story of King Kong is so deep-rooted. I

      1 min read

    • Article

      Occupied

      Jan 8, 2023

      Occupied
      4 min read

    • Article

      Leter Books

      Mar 10, 2022

      letters@viz.co.uk ◻ HOW COME you don’t see Bruce Forsyth on telly much any more? He used to be all over the place on primetime BBC, but since his death he’s only been in a few repeats on digital. Come on Brucie, pull your finger out. Ben, Whitstable

      9 min read

    • Article

      The Irishman

      Dec 27, 2019

      The Irishman
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Truth About Steve Bannon

      Aug 30, 2020

      The Truth About Steve Bannon
      5 min read

    • Article

      It’s All A Can Of…

      Aug 15, 2019

      I HAVE decided to stop worrying about life anymore. There is no point. Everything has gone completely bonkers. Prime Minister Boris, President Trump, Corbyn and Farage in the wings, not to mention Ann Widdecombe and climate change. And are the latter

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Heat On Biden May Be Politically Driven

      Apr 5, 2019

      The knives are out for Joe Biden. To read some of the media accounts, Biden is the latest politician to run afoul of the "MeToo" era. His accusers have followed the usual script, "breaking their silence" after much introspection. They insist they are

      3 min read

    • Article

      What The Hang

      Jul 2, 2023

      Hear ye. Hear ye. All rise for Judge Luxon. The Court of Bang ’Em Up For Life is now in session. When it comes to election-year tough-on-crime policies, the Nats are repeat offenders. It’s a bit boring. This would have added a bit of zing: at the ann

      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Shadow Puppets

    3.5/5

    1,257 ratings23 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Started losing interest in the series in the last book, so I won’t keep going. I was barely interested in Bean’s story anyway.
    • 3/5
      In this book the first half deals mainly with the character’s relationships and philosophical dilemmas while the second half is more political/military. I wish it would have been more fluid. I also did not feel as attached to Bean’s character as in the previous two books.
    • 3/5
      I read this book in one day (granted, while travelling) so it was good enough to not want to put it down. While it wasn't amazing I am definitely interested in the characters and their arcs. However, I did feel that the writing was a bit heavy handed, childish, and preachy at times. I'm not reading it for the author's craft (if you want that, go run get The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss) but to see where everyone ends up. Ultimately this is the 7th (? wow) book I've read by OSC and it feels like things are getting weaker. However, I'll probably stick it out and read the next one.
    • 3/5
      Good but not as strong as the previous books.
    • 3/5
      This book is about the battle school alumni making good or bad things happen in the world. The first part of this book deals mainly with the character’s relationships-- the second half is more political/military. I kept looking for Dr Evil and Mini-me to pop out. Thankfully, they did not. The series is about Bean, but the reader does not identify with him as well as in previous books...even though he and Petra are making un/ethical decisions about child bearing. This book is definitely not as intriguing sci-fi as some of the others in the Ender Game series. It's more like a romantic cop book crossed with a dash of Clancy.
    • 3/5
      It's hard to imagine that Shadow Puppets came from the same author as two of my favorite books, Ender's Game and Pastwatch. Card's characters behave so strangely that I was frequently jolted out of the story. Bean and Petra fawning over each other? Petra desiring Bean's babies AND telling him about it nonetheless? WTF? How old are they? I don't care how intellectually gifted you are. Nobody sane acts like this. I could easily see Orson Scott Card's personal religious beliefs screaming at me throughout the narrative.Side note: Since I was listening to the audiobook, it doesn't help that each and every one of the readers performs using this smug tone. It's really off-putting. This has been true for all the Shadow Series audiobooks but it really shows in this one.
    • 1/5
      This book is Orson Scott Card's excuse for a diatribe, and an unfortunate waste of paper. All previous characterization is disregarded in favor of hijacking individual characters' personalities and morphing them into a singular voice, telling the reader one thing: The meaning of life is to "make babies."
    • 3/5
      Oops! I skipped book two and went straight to book three. It stood on its own though and I enjoyed it. It carries on the story of Bean as he tries to finish the struggle between his nemesis--Achilles.
    • 2/5
      What this book set out to teach me: companionship (marriage) is only satisfying if it's comprised of both sexes; no one can be truly happy unless they've contributed to the human race by procreating; and life starts at conception. Preachy lame. Done with this series.
    • 1/5
      I hate to say this. I'll preface it by saying that I love Ender's Game. And really liked Ender's Shadow. This, the 7th in the Ender series overall, and the 3rd in the Bean wing of said series, was excruciating. It was not so much story as it was an extended pro-life, pro-Christianity, pro-America humorless trudge through a paper-thin plot. I'm not going any further with this series.
    • 4/5
      I am such a lover of the cast that reads OSC audiobooks. Although this one had a lot of military plot points that aren't my favorite, I still plowed through it in a few days of listening. I liked Bean and Petra's storyline but I always miss Ender and Valentine when they aren't around...Peter and his mother are both rather annoying.
    • 2/5
      Orson Scott Card tries to be Tom Clancy in this novel that continues the story of Bean one of Ender’s jeesh (close confidants/ friends) from the critically acclaimed Enders Game. I like Card and I like Clancy, but Card trying to write like Clancy is a big mistake and leaves it lacking on both the sci-fi and the political thriller side of things. Becoming a book with few surprises, and only familiar characters to keep you engaged. Hopefully the next book in the series goes back to the sci-fi roots from which is was born.
    • 4/5
      This, the third in the Shadow series was more of a page turner than I expected, which is why I put off reading it for so long. I thought plot was too slow moving in the previous book, but this one kept me going and had an ending that is making me eager to read Shadow of the Giant.
    • 2/5
      It was a reasonably good book.I wasn't too keen on some things about it, though:• With this and the previous book, Peter Wiggin somehow seems to be labeled as being less intelligent than both Ender and his sister, while in Ender's Game, he and his sister were both labeled as being exactly equal to Ender in intelligence (though they had character 'flaws' that kept them out of battle school); now they make it sound like Peter not only had character flaws, which they don't express in this series, but that he's actually significantly less intelligent—and I'm not talking about his being down on himself.• Bean's decisions at the end just seem a little fatalistic, like he's surrendering for no apparent reason, and not like things he, or anyone, would actually do—but then I guess he was trying to do the unexpected (but that it actually works—well, I'm not sure what to say about that). I'm glad that Achilles died in the end, though: that, at least, should mean he won't be the focus of the next book. That he didn't seem to anticipate the potential help of the Thai kid and his guards seemed a little surprising, though.• Bean doesn't really seem to have many reasons to like Petra, let alone marry her. Their personalities definitely don't seem the types I would think would gravitate toward one another, but hey, stuff like that can happen, even if it grates on my nerves a little in a book. I guess it's because I can relate to Bean's personality in a lot of ways, but I can't seem to relate to how he likes Petra (since she's not the type I would likely go for, since she seems to try to insult everyone she's around with everything she says, even if it is meant for humor or playful banter much of the time; plus, she tries to be competitive with people whether or not they themselves care about being competitive, and that, I think, is manipulative, and, unfair—there are a lot of people like her, and I'm not saying they're evil or anything, but they're not the sorts I would seek out, personally).• Bean seems to have some traits of the upper middle class (not the things I relate to), pertaining to his attitudes toward formal education in his manner of thinking and some of the things he cares about, which I don't think match his upbringing at all. I've noticed this in every book, so far, although they are subtle things (perhaps even arguable for those of varied experience), and the author probably shouldn't be blamed, since it probably wasn't apparent to him.• They make it sound like every kid from battle school is now magically a great tactician, while in Ender's Game, tactics didn't seem to be everyone's cup of tea (though they were still supposed to be pretty smart), even near the end. In fact, in Ender's Game, few seemed to do anything that wasn't traditional in the way of tactics—now it's like they've all learned to think outside the box to a much higher degree (unless their boxes have just expanded so much that it doesn't matter). It's nice to see this side of things, although the lack of explanation as to how it came about troubles me somewhat.• Bean doesn't seem to be any smarter in this book than he was in Ender's Shadow (and according to things characters said, he should be getting smarter all the time)—although it's good that the author addresses that Bean is wondering something like this himself (so we can suppose maybe there's a pending explanation in the next book). Maybe the problem is that the author is just having trouble making him any smarter and still having the book seem at all realistic. I think he was trying to give his characters more weaknesses in this book than in previous ones (a stylistic thing to please people who like that).There's a lot of political intrigue in this book, just as with the previous one.It's interesting, and you learn things important to the characters found in other books. I preferred the previous books (especially Ender's Shadow), but this book has it's good qualities.
    • 4/5
      As the 'Bean' series of Ender books goes on, I find I have less to say about them. They aren't bad, just aren't that great, and aren't really telling us anything all that new. I still love Bean, Petra and the conflicts with the other Battle School grads, which makes these good books, but not great ones.
    • 3/5
      I think this is probably my least favorite of all the Ender/Bean books so far. The whole stolen embryo thing was too predictable and too obvious to seem realistic. I couldn't believe Petra suspected Volescu did not have a non-destructive test, but, she didn't suspect he'd help Achilles. I also had a lot of trouble believing that Bean and Petra would not have taken the embryos with them or had much more security to protect them.Also, will Peter ever realize his parents aren't dumb? Even when they saved his life he was grateful, but, didn't seem to realize they always know more then he thinks they do.The only thing I really liked was getting to know Alai better in this book.
    • 3/5
      In this book the first half deals mainly with the character’s relationships and philosophical dilemmas while the second half is more political/military. I wish it would have been more fluid. I also did not feel as attached to Bean’s character as in the previous two books.
    • 3/5
      This book seems to show that Card can't write a series well. He does great with stand alone books, but series falter. The story of Bean continues in this book, but the storyline felt forced. Perhaps it is me, but I missed the "logic" that he used to join certain characters. The ending, for the book, is not out of left field, but for the series, this ending, this entire book, doesn't really seem to fit well.
    • 3/5
      I always love the intense thought process of the kids in the Ender series. They are always having to assess the best way to win, to come out alive, to outwit the other person.It is fun to see these kids starting to grow up.
    • 5/5
      It has been a long time since I read part of the Ender series. This continues the story of Bean and his archenemy Achilles. Achilles is "rescued" from the Chinese government by Peter, the Hegemon. Peter intends to use Achilles for his own purposes, but finds out he can't control Achilles. Bean and Petra explore having children, despite Bean's fear they will inherit his superfast-growing disease. Card knows how to bring readers into his story; I was sad when the book ended. Card is a NC native and I got this book autographed at B&N.
    • 4/5
      This book follows the storyline of Shadow of the Hegemon and Ender's Shadow which I read over the last couple years.
    • 4/5
      Ditto Shadow of the Hegemon. It's not like Ender's Game or Ender's Shadow because it is largely a political book. Still very good.
    • 3/5
      Probably not really as good as the other books in the series, but your investment in the characters so far elevates this still good novel.