While I admit that I’m tiring slightly of the Enderverse audiobooks, which I’ve been listening to nonstop for the last couple of months in an attempt to visit stories that I haven’t read in years, as well as fill in any gaps where I’ve missed a book release (god this sentence is long), I must say that Shadow Puppets is one of the best novels in the series, and one that I remembered quite well, despite not having read it in at least seven or eight years.
“Maybe we’re assigning Achilles supernatural powers,” said Petra. “He isn’t a god. Not even a hero. Just a sick kid.” “No,” said Bean. “I’m a sick kid. He’s the devil.” “Well, so,” said Petra, “maybe the devil’s a sick kid.”
So big bad Achilles is back, and Hegemon (and dumb kid) Peter Wiggin has helped Achilles escape from Chinese custody — into Peter’s own control. Of course, since it’s Achilles, he has already figured out a way to make this work for him and we watch in horror as Peter learns a very hard lesson. Meanwhile, Bean and Petra have fallen in love, and fight over reproducing — since Bean’s illness will likely pass on to their children. And across the world, war rages on as Battle School grads pick sides and try to recover from Achilles’s hold.
This book (and series) works best when we get to see various sets of characters interact. Bean and Petra’s prickly love is wonderful; John Paul and Teresa Wiggin get a more expanded role here, which mostly involves tormenting Peter; and it’s always nice to see the other Battle School grads pop up (Virlomi, Han Tzu, Suri and his long game). While the sequels to Ender’s Game focus primarily on philosophy and religion, the Shadow series makes itself all about war. We watch Card move pieces around the planet as various countries go to war, and there’s a lot of (mostly) interesting strategy talks. Mostly, I just like it when Teresa and John Paul give Peter shit.
