Just completed Shadow Puppets, the third book in the Shadow series of the Enderverse. Last time I explored this universe, this was my stopping point, though one more novel existed at the time. I have to say, I liked this much better than last time. Again, I attribute this to an increased undersatnding of geopolitics, as the nations of the earth are fighting each other. Card does a interesting job describing the way politics, ethnicities, and nationalities affect loyalties. He shares an interest in peoples of the earth with me, and so I enjoy it very much. However, some of his ideas are a little harder to swallow, though considering this is around 150 years (give or take, it's never made explicit) in the future, perhaps things will change. For example, a Muslim man of Russian ancestry is an Israeli citizen in this Israel-Arab alliance, and he retains his Russian name. I won't spoil too much, but the Muslim world renounces its extremism, makes right with everyone including Israel, translates the Qu'ran into other languages while considering them equally sacred (presently, only the Arabic Qu'ran is really the Qu'ran, and the rest are simply attempts at accommodating those too lazy to learn Arabic--I'm not even permitted to touch a real one). Sectarian differences are cast aside. Nationalities (i.e. the various Arab nations) don't prevent unity of action. Neither do the ethnic differences, such as Persians, Arabs, Turks, Kazakhs, Indonesians, etc. In another vein, he almost always describes a person's nationality or ethnicity, though such things are not always obvious. A random, yet Vietnamese soldier walks into a room. An Indonesian cab driver offers a ride. How do we know these things?! It's all a bit humorous, but it didn't really bug me. Overall, it was still fun, though flawed.
SPOILER SECTION
Bean ages and marries that gal he rescued in the last book. But his genetic abnormalities give him pause to have children, as they could be gifted intellectually like he is, but also subject to the same growth abnormalities. He is convinced to proceed and provide in vitro fertilization, but his nemesis kidnaps the tubes containing the fertilized ova. This nemesis is also losing influence in the world, and Bean ultimately defeats him. Meanwhile, Peter lost much of his power as figurehead of the world, but is starting to gain it back. Really, the biggest flaw in this book is the foolishness of the protagonists. Bean has perhaps become too human in intellect now. What I mean by this is that while he could perceive and prognosticate some unrealistically insightful conclusions at 6 years old, now he overlooks stuff that his wife (bright as she is, no one in the world is as bright as Bean) picks up on. And Peter, in his efforts to conquer the world by reason and word, makes some extremely foolish political decisions that conveniently set the stage for the book
END SPOILERS
So I liked it. Not without flaws. Not always realistic. Possibly not even interesting for everyone. But for someone like me who loves to imagine the "what ifs" of a not-too-distant future of the world, it was satisfactory. It's the weakest of the Shadow series so far, but last time I didn't even enjoy it much, so it's moving up.