Hong’s Cave

I think the Card’s contrived way of telling a story — the way that makes it seems that the whole story is told by an omniscient, ethical being — becomes more apparent in Shadow Puppets. I was tempted to defend him that this is because he was trying to tell a story within the bigger history that had been told already, but his previous Ender’s series had the same feel as I look back.

It’s not a bad story, but I can’t help but make a comparison of Deep Fritz as it describes the whole sequence of a yet-to-be-played chess game (not that, it can actually “solve” the game, but quite close toward the end).

Although the writing is smooth and the whole story is easy to read, there is not much suspense nor much of character development (we already know what all these characters are like), and most of the characters are so smart that nothing really surprise them. Card tried to incorporate some international politics here, but it’s a bit dis-illusionary to think that those countries involved can be “controlled” like that, like pawns.

I am a fan of the series (but if I think about it, I only really liked Ender’s Game), and have read all of them, but I am beginning to think whether I should continue if there comes another sequel (I probably would though).