Hidden Empire, Orson Scott Card
Hidden Empire, Orson Scott Card
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Hidden Empire

Author: Orson Scott Card

Series: Empire #2

Narrator: Stefan Rudnicki, Rusty Humphries

Unabridged: 10 hr 10 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/22/2009

Synopsis

In Hidden Empire, the sequel to Card's bestselling novel Empire, Averell Torrent has become President of the United States, with enormous political and popular support and, if people only realized it, a tight grip on the reins of both political parties. He has launched America into a get-tough, this-world-is-our-empire foreign policy stance.

But Captain Bartholomew Coleman, known as Cole to his friends and enemies alike, sees the danger Torrent poses to American democracy and the potential disasters involved in his foreign military adventures. Cole quickly runs afoul of Torrent; on the run, he and a few friends and allies seek proof of how Torrent orchestrated the political takeover that included assassinating a President and nearly starting a civil war.

About Orson Scott Card

Orson Scott Card is best known for his science fiction novel Ender's Game and its many sequels that expand the Ender Universe into the far future and the near past. Those books are organized into the Ender Saga, which chronicles the life of Ender Wiggin; the Shadow Series, which follows on the novel Ender's Shadow and is set on Earth; and the Formic Wars series, written with co-author Aaron Johnston, which tells of the terrible first contact between humans and the alien "Buggers." Card has been a working writer since the 1970s. Beginning with dozens of plays and musical comedies produced in the 1960s and 70s, Card's first published fiction appeared in 1977--the short story "Gert Fram" in the July issue of The Ensign, and the novelette version of "Ender's Game" in the August issue of Analog. The novel-length version of Ender's Game, published in 1984 and continuously in print since then, became the basis of the 2013 film, starring Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis, and Abigail Breslin. Card was born in Washington state, and grew up in California, Arizona, and Utah. He served a mission for the LDS Church in Brazil in the early 1970s. Besides his writing, he runs occasional writers' workshops and directs plays. He frequently teaches writing and literature courses at Southern Virginia University.He is the author many science fiction and fantasy novels, including the American frontier fantasy series "The Tales of Alvin Maker" (beginning with Seventh Son), and stand-alone novels like Pastwatch and Hart's Hope. He has collaborated with his daughter Emily Card on a manga series, Laddertop. He has also written contemporary thrillers like Empire and historical novels like the monumental Saints and the religious novels Sarah and Rachel and Leah. Card's work also includes the Mithermages books (Lost Gate, Gate Thief), contemporary magical fantasy for readers both young and old. Card lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife, Kristine Allen Card. He and Kristine are the parents of five children and several grandchildren.

About Stefan Rudnicki

Stefan Rudnicki is an award winning audiobook narrator, director and producer. He was born in Poland and now resides in Studio City, California. He has narrated more than three hundred audiobooks and has participated in over a thousand as a writer, producer, or director. He is a recipient of multiple Audie Awards and AudioFile Earphones Awards as well as a Grammy Award, a Bram Stoker Award, and a Ray Bradbury Award. He received AudioFile’s award for 2008 Best Voice in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Along with a cast of other narrators, Rudnicki has read a number of Orson Scott Card's best-selling science fiction novels. He worked extensively with many other science fiction authors, including David Weber and Ben Bova. In reviewing the twentieth anniversary edition audiobook of Card’s Ender's Game, Publishers Weekly stated, "Rudnicki, with his lulling, sonorous voice, does a fine job articulating Ender's inner struggle between the kind, peaceful boy he wants to be and the savage, violent actions he is frequently forced to take." Rudnicki is also a stage actor and director.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jim on October 21, 2014

I really enjoyed this continuation several years after the first book. I'd suggest reading the other book first, but you don't have to. Card did fill in just enough that you wouldn't be lost, but he didn't recap in detail, thankfully. This short (only these 2 books so far) series is based on a conce......more

Goodreads review by Katrina on November 28, 2023

Tonight's edition of "I Read Them So You Don't Have To": Hidden Empire, Orson Scott Card. Card is a serviceable storyteller, as seen by earlier books, but if you read his Worldwatch columns, this is pretty much the fictionalized version of those, topped with a liberal dose of what my SO calls Risk fa......more

Goodreads review by Matt on January 30, 2010

In some ways I sort of feel sorry for Orson Scott Card. He went through a period of genious as a relatively young man when he wrote Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, and it has been all downhill from there. I still like the science fiction that he writes and I still try to read everything else......more

Goodreads review by Danielle on April 01, 2010

Hidden Empire, aka, OSC Takes Writing Lessons from Dan Brown. And also, the movie Outbreak. I shall sum-up this book in one sentence: "Do the ends justify the means?" That's the entire point of this book. The idea for the story was ok, but the execution was bland at best, and often ventured into horr......more

Goodreads review by Annette on July 29, 2010

This book actually made me cry, and I honestly cannot remember the last book that managed that feat. :} It's about a lot more than politics, cool futuristic military tech, or conspiracy theory: it's about whether or not Christianity actually means something more than Mass on Sunday and a few prayers......more

Quotes

“Audie Award winner Stefan Rudnicki, nationally syndicated talk-show host Rusty Humphries, and the author himself read, all delivering superb performances.” —Library Journal

“The sum of it all is a fine addition to Card's already-impressive canon.” —Providence Journal

“I love audio books, and this is a good one…I highly recommend Hidden Empire.” —SF Revu

Awards

  • Prometheus Award Nominee
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