Empire (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Right-wing rhetoric trumps the logic of story and character in this near-future political thriller about a red-state vs. blue-state American civil war, an implausibly plotted departure from Card's bestselling science fiction (Ender's Game, etc.). When the president and vice-president are killed by domestic terrorists (of unknown political identity), a radical leftist army calling itself the Progressive Restoration takes over New York City and declares itself the rightful government of the United States. Other blue states officially recognize the legitimacy of the group, thus starting a second civil war. Card's heroic red-state protagonists, Maj. Reuben "Rube" Malek and Capt. Bartholomew "Cole" Coleman, draw on their Special Ops training to take down the extremist leftists and restore peace to the nation. The action is overshadowed by the novel's polemical message, which Card tops off with an afterword decrying his own politically-motivated exclusion from various conventions and campuses, the "national media elite" and the divisive excesses of both the right and the left.
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From Booklist

Some video-game developers asked Card to write a scenario for "an entertainment franchise . . . about a near-future American civil war." They came to the right man and held off on releasing the game until he completed this relentless thriller, which couldn't be timelier and is, for all its hyperactivity and flip, Hollywoodish one-liners, heartfelt and sobering. Its heroes are two special-ops army officers who keep their oaths to defend the U.S. against all enemies when far too many of their ostensible colleagues have decided to abandon theirs. A rocket hits the west wing of the White House, killing the president, vice-president, and secretary of defense. While those directly responsible are Arabs, the next day, 14-foot-tall, bulletproof, armed globes on mechanical legs, backed by shooters on individual hovercraft, seize New York City by killing anyone in uniform. None of the new attackers looks anything other than American. A "Progressive Restoration" administration is established in the city, and it encourages other cities and states to join it to restore government as it should have been but for the stolen elections of 2000 and 2004. Intriguing plot wrinkles come fore and aft of those basic developments, there are many deftly shaped supporting players, and major shocks explode in a split second (no Stephen King slo-mo for Card!). Moreover, all the action doesn't obscure the author's message about the dangers of extreme political polarization and the need to reassert moderation and mutual citizenship; indeed, it drives it home. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (November 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765316110
• ISBN-13: 978-0765316110
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (206 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #278,729 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Some Good Ideas but Disappointing..., December 19, 2006

By	John J. Conway (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I looked forward to Orson Scott Card's novel EMPIRE,since I'm a huge fan of his ENDER'S GAME and ENDER'S SHADOW series as well as THE FOLK ON THE FRINGE.Unfortunately this book was written almost as a big budget action movie,any holes in the plot or characters will be carried along by breathless chases and loud explosions and a James Bond villain with his own secret hideout. There were glimpses of brilliance here,and I was expecting a little more than a Twilight's Last Gleaming or Seven Days In May Right Wing Military coup. ***SPOILER ALERT*** The technology that the villains trot out when they take over Manhattan (I refuse to even comment on that,)was completely ludicrous and unnecessary to the story.
The idea of circles within circles and an Augustus like character were good ideas,but the whole red state/blue state conflict was simple minded and not fleshed out at all.I wish Mr.Card would rethink the idea of a Yugoslavia-like US Civil War because I think he had the makings of a great story there,but I don't think this was it.I wish he had read Robert Kaplan's THE COMING ANARCHY as preparation.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Problem book, December 29, 2006

By	E. Williams "SF reading librarian" (Hamilton, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book arose as a commission for a particular purpose: to serve as a foundation for a scenario of a future United States, embarked on empire. The scenario is to be used for further narrative development by others. Within these constraints, Card has come up with a fairly ingenious and disturbing chain of events to get us from where we are now to where the commission needs the US to be. One can see the hallmarks of the story's eventual fate in someone else's hands (not so skilled as Mr. Card's) in the somewhat trite incipient love interest, which seems so forced as to be required by contract probably. Some may find the lack of resolution in the ending annoying; that problem also comes from the narrative necessity of Mr. Card's commission. I disliked the book, but found I had to finish reading it to get it out of my head. For what it's worth, I have no need whatever to read/watch/play any sequels.

I recommend the author's note at the end, which runs to several pages, and explains the circumstances of the story's construction as well as Mr. Card's personal politics. I am sorry Mr. Card is so angry about the treatment of his work (and hence his livelihood) by politically motivated people. There can be little doubt that this has had a significant impact on the slant of the book. Whether it lends the story credulity or not, I cannot say.

Considering the book on its own merits is a rather different matter. The plotting is good, by and large, with only one troubling lacuna, no small feat with the number of doublecrosses in the book. The characterization is not up to Card standards, though he has set up the main characters for some interesting moral problems later. The background is unexceptionable largely, though, as a member of the academic community, I am thouroughly tired of the stock representations of academics.

No need to reread this book, as I have reread others of his; on the other hand, I am going to suggest my library purchase it.

254 of 349 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Wait for the paperback or use your library, December 7, 2006

By	Rick "cpto" (East Hanover, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

Ender's game is one of the great science fiction novels. It's characters are well-rounded and the society Ender lives in gradually unfolds as we see him react to it.

The somewhat lurid cover of Empire--and Card's name--led me to pick the book up from the new books section of my local Barnes and Noble. I really looked forward to several enjoyable hours in Card's universe, thinking, perhaps, that it was a prequel to the Ender novels.

I always give a science fiction author my willing suspension of disbelief when I start a story. To do less is to imply that I already know all about the story line. But this participation by me as a reader is fragile, and depends on the skill of the author and of me as an educated reader to keep alive.

Sadly, that belief died an excruciating death during the first few chapters, and never recovered. Card has complained that Empire is viewed as good or bad depending on the political views of the reader. That may be the case but as an independent voter, leaning toward Libertarian, I am not wedded to either the far right nor the far left. I find them both equally odious.

I enjoy Atlas Shrugged as well as more liberal stories such as Brave New World (liberal in the classic sense that the state knows best). In Empire, Card tries to paint both sides as evil, with the liberals in the most evil column and the conservatives in the "maybe-a-little-evil" position.

Fine. I can live with this when it is skillfully woven into a story line. I didn't see that in Empire. CNN = bad. FOX = good. Red states = good. Blue states = bad. Again, if it is a given, I can accept that in a story. But Card seems to have forgotten that editorializing through characters is a thin film to base a book on.

There are other problems with Empire, such as the unexpected and unsupported actions of various characters. Without giving anything away, an example is "minor character stepping out of place to affect major character and then being tossed aside". Sure, people can act irrationally, but if they do so in a story, more than a couple of paragraphs are needed to explain their actions. If not, the action reeks of Deus ex machina. Worse, this problem occurs several times during the novel.

Empire must reflect the views of the author, else it would be a story and not an apologia. In the end, it robs the reader of money and time, supplies little entertainment, and illustrates how a writer--any writer--can fail when stepping outside their expertise as a story teller.

Empire is a great disappointment. Do yourself a favor and don't let it be one to you, too. Think fondly of the Ender saga and hope the next book returns to Mr. Card's otherwise excellent output. Harry Turtledove could have handled the story very nicely, but then I wouldn't have the chance to complain about Mr. Card's amateurish venture.