Blatant, poorly thought out propaganda, with the tiniest threads of interesting story telling occasionally showing through. . That glimmer is the second star. This is the last time I will hold out any hope for what once was a favourite authour. ( )

Sequel to Empire, a story seemingly ripped from the headlines of the Trump era by OSC's imagination. Some reviewers don't like the apparent political leanings of the author, but I read the book as fantasy, not as history nor prognostication. Yes, it could happen, but shouldn't be rejected because the reader can't stomach the story. Main characters both help to save the world...and make cookies. Fun read, ( )

Very frightening and timely - Empire #1 is paperback on WICKER SHELF 2 & Hidden Empire is a hardback on SHELF 11.

Hidden Empire — A deadly plague devastating the world leads the American President to declare severe immigration restriction. Captain Batholomew Coleman must navigate a hostile population, while protecting researchers, in the hopes of finding a cure.

Averell Torrent has become president of the United States, with enormous political and popular support, and, if people only realized it, a tight grip on the reins of both political parties. He has launched America into a get-tough, this-world-is-our-empire foreign policy stance.

But Captain Bartholomew Coleman, known as Cole to his friends and enemies alike, sees the danger Torrent poses to American democracy and the potential disasters involved in his foreign military adventures. He quickly runs afoul of the president, and on the run, he and a few friends and allies seek proof of how Torrent orchestrated the political takeover - by assassinating a president and nearly starting a civil war.

I read the first volume of this series five years ago and thought it was a pretty good story, about an attempted coup in America. This time it's about a virus outbreak in Africa and the extension of American power, yet there's also considerable religious under & overtones to this book which I don't remember there being in the earlier volume.

For example the entire drive of one of the main plot points is for Americans to go to Africa to nurse the infected because that's what good Christians do, and I can't help but feel there's a subtle dig towards Islam the way there's such an overwhelming volume of pro-Christianity references yet the only time Islam is brought up it's when the Nigerians are massacring civilians and stealing resources. It's like they're the boogeyman and the author is displaying his prejudices, likewise there's a chapter opening where people who care about the environment and global warming are decreed as being, essentially terrible people with bad judgement.

There's an alright story in there but I didn't enjoy it anywhere near the amount I did the earlier opening book with the religious aspect wedged in there which didn't seem to add anything to the story beyond lecturing. The characters could have wanted to help others for the simple reason alleviating others suffering is a decent human thing to do when you have the ability to help, but no, it was all about religion. ( )

Hidden Empire, Orson Scott Card, 2009

Sequel to Empire, super-powered good guys become bad guys for a good reason; but is the real bad really bad?

After reading some other reviews of this book it might not be amiss to provide another viewpoint. I don't believe Card is describing a right wing manifesto. The anti-hero here seems to be succeeding at creating a more rational world government (remember the "Hegemon"?). There are also some very cogent references to Julius Caesar in the book.

My take is that Card is describing a very unlikely attempt by someone who WANTS to be good and just and knows that the Jimmy Carters don't stand a chance at achieving anything useful, much less profound. He understands that there's a very real danger of becoming the enemy, but at the time of this story line, he's trying to surround himself with..."Jiminy Crickets?"

The question that has come up in these reviews is: is the attempt to insert some justice into the world worth a few "broken eggs"? Would it be evil to go back in time and murder a young Adolf Hitler? I remember contemplating taking a Masters in Political Science and commenting on the "ick" factor associated with politicians. The department dean asked me what kind of people made up the majority of politicians? It didn't take me but a few seconds to realize that most politicians are lawyers....people trained in criminal behaviour! People who often seem to have a distorted view of history. From there it's logical to think that a History professor might be just the right person to navigate the pitfalls of historical precedent--assuming he could also navigate the pitfalls of psychology, a la Abraham Lincoln.

I personally am not assuming that Card thinks there's anyone out there now that has the skill and temperament to even attempt such a juggling trick; and I don't think he's recommending it, either. I think he's writing a book of fiction describing an ideal situation and how it might happen: if pigs could fly and if we had some super-weapons, here's how it might be done. [Read "Bio of a Space Tyrant" by Piers Anthony for another view of the possibilities. One not as logical as this one.

When I finished the book I kept rehashing in my head how the hero could have agreed with the other "good" guys and then persuaded them to bide their time until the anti-hero actually turned to the dark side, and THEN stepped in. Why waste the opportunity of accomplishing some good changes in the world, just on the off-chance that it'll turn out bad, sometime in the future? ( )