Empire and over 630,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle – Amazon’s new wireless reading device. Learn more

Buy New
 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
Buy Used
Used - Good See details
$3.77 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
Fulfilled by Amazon

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
Express Checkout with PayPhrase
What's this? | Create PayPhrase
More Buying Choices
158 used & new from $0.01
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Empire
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book
Start reading Empire on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don’t have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Empire [Hardcover]

Orson Scott Card (Author)
2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (230 customer reviews)
List Price: $24.95
Price: $18.21 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $6.74 (27%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Only 4 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).
Want it delivered Monday, August 2? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
28 new from $2.87 111 used from $0.01 19 collectible from $4.50

Formats

 Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition --   $7.99 --
Hardcover $18.21   $2.87 $0.01
Paperback --   -- --
Mass Market Paperback $7.99   $4.15 $0.01
Audio, CD, Audiobook, CD $30.36   $7.96 $3.70
Audible Audio Edition, Unabridged $20.98 or $7.49 with new Audible.com membership

Frequently Bought Together

Empire + Hidden Empire + Ender in Exile
Price For All Three: $42.69

Show availability and shipping details

Buy the selected items together

  • In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • Hidden Empire by Orson Scott Card$16.49

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card$7.99

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Hidden Empire

Hidden Empire

by Orson Scott Card
3.5 out of 5 stars (30)  $16.49
Treason

Treason

by Orson Scott Card
4.7 out of 5 stars (42)  $10.87
A War of Gifts: An Ender Story

A War of Gifts: An Ender Story

by Orson Scott Card
3.9 out of 5 stars (57)  $5.99
Ender in Exile

Ender in Exile

by Orson Scott Card
3.7 out of 5 stars (103)  $7.99
First Meetings in Ender's Universe

First Meetings in Ender's Universe

by Orson Scott Card
4.1 out of 5 stars (62)  $6.99
› Explore similar items

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.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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
See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (November 28, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0765316110
  • ISBN-13: 978-0765316110
  • Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (230 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #481,861 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

More About the Author

Orson Scott Card
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

› Visit Amazon's Orson Scott Card Page
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:
Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
tidal pool
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
White House, Major Malich, Aunt Margaret, New York, United States, President Nielson, Captain Coleman, Progressive Restoration, General Alton, Tidal Basin, Special Ops, Aldo Verus, Reuben Malich, Vice President, Friday the Thirteenth, Secret Service, Averell Torrent, Holland Tunnel, New Jersey, Hain's Point, Fox News, Captain Malich, Soldier Boy, Speaker of the House, Lake Chinnereth
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Empire
75% buy the item featured on this page:
Empire 2.6 out of 5 stars (230)
$18.21
Ender in Exile
7% buy
Ender in Exile 3.7 out of 5 stars (103)
$7.99
Hidden Empire
7% buy
Hidden Empire 3.5 out of 5 stars (30)
$16.49
A War of Gifts: An Ender Story
7% buy
A War of Gifts: An Ender Story 3.9 out of 5 stars (57)
$5.99
Explore similar items

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(42)
(21)
(13)
(12)
(10)
(8)
(7)
(5)
(5)
(4)
Agree with these tags?
See all 107 tags...

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags
 

Customer Reviews

230 Reviews
5 star:
 (42)
4 star:
 (36)
3 star:
 (31)
2 star:
 (37)
1 star:
 (84)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
2.6 out of 5 stars (230 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
61 of 80 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)   
This review is from: Empire (Hardcover)
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.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


 
58 of 76 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Barely recognizable as OSC., September 28, 2007
By Hawk Season (Greenville, NC) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Empire (Hardcover)
I don't mean to scathe an author I have for so long respected, but given my reaction to this book I don't see how I can do otherwise. On one hand, plot mechanics and the language of the book are blatantly recycled from his Ender series. The obsession with the word "jeesh" and certain actions with .22 pistols are laughable distractions for anyone who's read any other OSC.

The other hand, the more important hand to me, is that Card's language throughout is blatantly offensive to my value system. Card and I have opposite sociopolitical views, which I have known for a long time. That said, I have respected him for years because he always argued his value system in a way that I respect. From reading Card's work in the past, I was able to understand and sympathize with Conservative viewpoints. That said, he abandoned his intellectual approach in this book in favor of cheap shots barely worthy of best seller of the week pulp novels. I had to check the cover every few minutes to make sure it was still an Orson Scott Card book.

The only entertaining parts of the book, which ends in a total fizzle, are the action sequences... which are practically written to go straight to a movie. It's strange, the moment the book goes to an action sequence bizarre sci-fi machines come out of the woodwork. Nothing believable ever happens in the entire book, and the action sequences only serve to drop the credibility of the story.

I don't recognize this author as the man who wrote Ender's Game or Xenocide, two of my favorite books. He spends too much time taking cheap shots at modern pop culture, giving responsibility for a bloody and amoral civil war on absurdly single-minded "progressives" (the word "Progressive" is used in a derogatory fashion the whole book) who are bitter about Gore's loss in 2000, and championing the military much in the style of the Transformers movie to make this anything but a cartoonish joke of a novel. The occasional efforts to lighten this radical right wing blitzkrieg with assertions of right wing wrongdoing are pitiful and forced, quite patronizing.

I have nothing against people of different political persuasions, nothing that would cause me to wish extreme violence upon them, and I know no one who does... on either side of the aisle. This is not about my views as a left leaning American, this is about my views as a human. I'm ashamed of Card right now.

Really, I could go on and on, but I'd rather not. Mr. Card, I expected so much better from you. I'm actually a good bit sad right now.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


 
265 of 362 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
This review is from: Empire (Hardcover)
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.





Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Right wing screed
I've long been a huge fan of Card's, however this book is wretched. The plot is straight out of some wingnut's fevered imagination with a style about at the level of freshman... Read more
Published 1 day ago by Ralph

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun read.
Not perfect, but the book was pretty fun. It felt like a James Bond story.
Published 15 days ago by J. Hart

4.0 out of 5 stars "Right -wing rhetoric?" LOL
For anyone to brand this as rhetoric - for either left or right - simply did not read the book.

This story is about idealogical extremism run amok. Read more
Published 16 days ago by Ben Wand

3.0 out of 5 stars A tad shallow, but a definite page turner
I'm a tad surprised by the reaction to this book. While not a deep story, it's quite readable. I really find it odd that people who find Ender's Game believable get too upset... Read more
Published 21 days ago by TechDawgMc

5.0 out of 5 stars "People fail to remember"
People need to remember that this book was about a future civil war in America. The two most polorized views right now are political, and I think O.S.C. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Devin Bodine

4.0 out of 5 stars Uncle Bob
I had to comment on this book!

I've been a huge fan of Card for a long time, and the premise of this book, when I found it in the book store, I had to buy it and read... Read more
Published 1 month ago by R. Langford

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth Reading
I'm amazed at all the liberal reviewers trying to convince others not to read Empire. It actually does a great job of presenting both sides (i.e. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Jayson Cluff

2.0 out of 5 stars Fox News vs. MSNBC gets ugly, with a little sci-fi plus Moderate woe-is-me self-victimization by the author
A sad departure from the author's enjoyable work such as Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, Card was hired to write this book by a game company. Read more
Published 2 months ago by rockfan3929

1.0 out of 5 stars Sadly, I think he's lost his mind
I have a hard time connecting this book with the guy who wrote Ender's Game, one of my favorite books. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Rare Reviewer

1.0 out of 5 stars Awful right-wing blathering
Being a huge fan of the Ender series I could not believe this trashy book was penned by the famous Orson Scott Card. Read more
Published 3 months ago by J. Dulnev

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
Read the first five chapters online! 7 1 month ago
video game 7 July 2009
› See all 2 discussions...  
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
   

So You'd Like to...

Create a guide

Look for Similar Items by Category

Look for Similar Items by Subject

Search Books by subject:













i.e., each book must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...
 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.