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lordofbooks's review
adventurous
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
aesoptails's review against another edition
1.0
I enjoyed many of Card's other book (Ender's Game, Speaker of the Dead, etc). In my opinion, his writing has an infused magically quality of it. Unfortunately in Empire, it completely lacks that and feels more like a work of an amateur than of a professional writer.
One of the biggest qualms I had was the constant info dumps done by the characters. What could have been a great action-adventure booked with information paced throughout evenly, there's only a few scenes of actions and then many chapters of characters just talking. Nothing wrong with talking, but with the characters being flat and uninteresting results in me not caring about what they say. Ideas and themes could have been disseminated much better.
Not to spoil too much, but the book labels itself as the next American Civil War that doesn't actually has much of a... well... war. There is only a few true skirmishes throughout the book with no true war being conducted.
However, one of the redeeming qualities is the action scenes (of the few it has).
I wouldn't really recommend this book unless you are a Card Fanatic. There are much better books out there on this same subject.
One of the biggest qualms I had was the constant info dumps done by the characters. What could have been a great action-adventure booked with information paced throughout evenly, there's only a few scenes of actions and then many chapters of characters just talking. Nothing wrong with talking, but with the characters being flat and uninteresting results in me not caring about what they say. Ideas and themes could have been disseminated much better.
Not to spoil too much, but the book labels itself as the next American Civil War that doesn't actually has much of a... well... war. There is only a few true skirmishes throughout the book with no true war being conducted.
However, one of the redeeming qualities is the action scenes (of the few it has).
I wouldn't really recommend this book unless you are a Card Fanatic. There are much better books out there on this same subject.
opentopersuasion's review against another edition
3.0
A good read, the first Card book I've read in a long time. As a thriller, it could have been better. The best part was probably the afterword where he talks about the dangers of extreme fanaticism in politics.
quoththegirl's review against another edition
3.0
I had picked this up not knowing anything about it other than that it was by Card, so I figured it would be good. The premise was rather fascinating: another civil war, this time divided more or less along party lines, exploring the animosities between the two political parties and how easily these differences could explode into open conflict if we're not careful. Interesting take on things, at any rate.
zzazazz's review against another edition
1.0
So bad and written with an obvious anti-liberal agenda that it has made me question my earlier admiration of his other novels.
kittarlin's review against another edition
3.0
A bit heavy on the cautionary side of "cautionary tale" for my taste - sort of felt like a strange form of propaganda. [b:Little Brother|954674|Little Brother|Cory Doctorow|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1349673129s/954674.jpg|939584] was much more frightening and realistic seeming. Empire reads like a half-season of 24, and it's likely the similarity was enough to compromise the realism the author was going for.
munchin's review against another edition
2.0
Easily the worst Card book I've ever read. He needs to keep his politics at a sub-audible level (or sub-readable or whatever). Some of his silly proselytizing in this book is just insulting. At least it works as a fun action-adventure book with a few very surprising twists.
erinboberin's review against another edition
2.0
You could definitely see the bias of the writer being very right leaning.
suburban_ennui's review against another edition
2.0
"Who are you, and what have you done with Orson Scott Card?"
This book was a real disappointment, although it does seem to have been diminishing returns with Card for some time now. (Stop writing Ender/Bean books, and finish the Alvin Maker series would you.) Books like "Ender's Game", the excellent "Homecoming" series and the early Alvin Maker books have given way to increasingly preachy, moralistic tales. Which would be fine - an author's politics don't really affect my enjoyment of their work, usually - if the quality of the actual writing hadn't sunk so much. Card's characters now just seem like mouthpieces for his own political statements. There's no descriptive prose, no details, nothing to make you *care* about these people.
(sigh)
This book was a real disappointment, although it does seem to have been diminishing returns with Card for some time now. (Stop writing Ender/Bean books, and finish the Alvin Maker series would you.) Books like "Ender's Game", the excellent "Homecoming" series and the early Alvin Maker books have given way to increasingly preachy, moralistic tales. Which would be fine - an author's politics don't really affect my enjoyment of their work, usually - if the quality of the actual writing hadn't sunk so much. Card's characters now just seem like mouthpieces for his own political statements. There's no descriptive prose, no details, nothing to make you *care* about these people.
(sigh)