Book Review: Shadow Puppets (Book 7 of 100)

hadow Puppets is yet another one of Orson Scott Cards seemingly endless series of Ender related stories. I listened to this one on audio book. The interesting thing about this particular novel was that Ender wasnt even in the story as a person at all. Instead, this story focused on the relationship of Bean and Petra, two of my favorite sidekick characters from the more Ender related books in the series. When the novel takes place, Bean and Petra are all grown up or at least older teenagers with all the accompanying hormones. They decide to get married. I think this is because Bean has a genetic impairment which while raising his intellect and physical prowess will also cause him to die early.

As a disability rights activist, I am curious what Card's obsession with disabled people is. Every book has someone with a disability in it especially the Ender books. There was Mauro, El Yado, and now Bean. One might also argue that Mac Street of his Mean Street novel was also disabled. The same could be said for all the kids from Battle School who all became emotionally disabled in some way as a result of what they were put through. Obviously, you do not do that to children and expect them to come out fine psychologically. But, I digress. It is also interesting to note that the bad guy in this particular novel, Ashell (not sure of spelling) is also disabled but seems to, as is atypical for this authors characters, to have let his disability embitter him.

This is a fast paced adventure with many twists and turns. And, if you are a fan of the series, the ending is going to annoy you as much as it annoyed me. It ends at a very crucial moment and you do not know what actually happens. I hate when authors to that, but I guess it is a good way to get you to buy the next book! As I already told you, because of his political views, I never plan to give this person money. I will simply wait for it to come on inter-library loan.

I give this book an eight out of ten. I would have given it a nine if the ending had not annoyed me so much. But, it did so this is the score I am giving it. I hope he answers the question of what happened after the end of this book in Shadow of the Hegemon. I will be most upset if he leaves it hanging. So much so, that I might have to actually write the man a letter.