Got a little lost in the politics

Alot of politics in this one, still a great book in the series. Can't wait to read the next one.

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awful sound effects

haha the transitions between chapters are the silliest thing i have experienced in a audio book. completely takes your from the story. I dont understan the thought process of whomever put them in! Other than that book is as good as enders shadow

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Great story, odd creative choices

really enjoy the ender series, this book is no different.

the reading is great, however, the music between chapters is distracting and it bothers me slightly, and the even more distracting issue is that it seems someone didn't like how "Hegemon" was said in the original version or something, because whenever it is said, there is a weird cut to a different voice that reads a couple words, always including "Hegemon"

honesty, if I knew that was going to happen, I'd have l looked to see if a different version existed.

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1 person found this helpful

Great book but awkward performance issues

I want to preface this by saying every single book I have listened to of Orson Scott Card on Audible with mostly the same actors has been amazing and I have greatly enjoyed getting to know the voices of the beloved characters in each one!

I love this story, following Bean is a great addition to the Enderverse. My issues with this performance is that the word Hegemon seems to have been audibly replaced after the original recordings. Some actors replacements are incredibly noticeable and very distracting, while others just seem disjointed. I find I get distracted from the story line from the jarring effect of it and also stay distracted by trying to figure out why they did this. Was it wrong pronunciations? Did they use the wrong word initially? I noticed only one that wasn't corrected where the actor said Hegemon with the G sounding the way you say Good instead of a soft J sound.

My second thing about this performance is that it seemed as though they told the actors not to pronounce any S sounds at the start or the end of their words. So "She said" sounded like "hee aid", "shouldnt" sounded like "houldn't", and "caress" sounds like "carehh". This was also very distracting especially when the words were a bit mumbled and I had to rewind to catch what it was supposed to say. Overall, I enjoyed the story but I was a bit disappointed in the presentation, which was very surprising as many, if not all these actors presented other Card books which I have been nothing but impressed and happy to listen to! This is my 22nd, yes twenty second(!) Orson Scott Card book that I have listened to on Audible.

If this is your first or among your first recordings (truly it is best to listen in the proper order to get the full effect of the convoluted story lines), please don't allow these quirky things in the presentation to dissuade you from listening to more books. It has been the only one that has been anything less than perfect in my opinion. Hopefully it isn't as distracting to others as it was for me!

Forever a fan of the books and actors!

-Sarah

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1 person found this helpful

Risk

Not my favorite, but is leading to great things. Heavy on political aspects and lacking on the sci-fi parts of the first Ender's books

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Short answer: worth listening even though the audio wasn’t the greatest

The story was good and kept me interested throughout. The audio was not very clear but the familiar reading cast continue to be excellent. Worth continuing your journey into the enderverse with shadow of the hegemon. Now It’s off to shadow puppets for me.

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Decent Story, rough recording

Right from the first second of the book, there was a noticeable drop in recording quality compared to the previous audiobooks. The audiobook It sounded like it was playing thru a wet sock.

Which would have been forgivable except for the spliced in corrections which sound like they were recorded in a totally different place and mixed in as an afterthought with no attempt to blend to the rest of the narrators tone or dynamic.
It's Really distracting to hear one tone of voice reading their passage and being interjected with a crisp, loud, almost nasally "THE HEGEMON" in a bunch of spots where they tried to squash in something they missed. What was the audio engineer thinking??

Lastly, Ditch the stupid keyboard riffs between the chapters. Nothing killed the flow and took me out of the story faster than these interruptions.

Story? Fine I guess. Seriously hampered by the sloppy throw together that was this audio project.

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3 people found this helpful

Bean and others after the Formic War

If you liked Ender's Game you'll probably like this! A cool continuation of the story back on Earth!

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Great continuation of Ender’s Shadow... poor audio.

Shadow of the Hegemon is a great book that contrasts the Enderverse within itself as a military/political novel, and less of a science fiction novel. A great read, and grows Bean in to a very loveable character.

As for the audio/performances... this is the 6th Enderverse book listened to. It’s the same team with many of the familiar voices from prior books. In my opinion, every book prior is a 5/5 on audio and performance. Crystal clear. Great voices. Their performances have great inflection and emotion. This book failed comparatively. The moment I started listening I wondered my it sounded so... muffled? Everything sounds like there’s a pile of laundry on top of the microphone. (compared to previous) that said it wasn’t impossible to hear so I adjusted. Then pronunciations come in to play. This cast can not decide how certain names and words are pronounced, and constantly switch with no explanation. In some cases there have been references to certain characters not knowing how to pronounce a name, but they will even have characters who have been pronouncing certain names over the span of multiple books just suddenly switch mid-chapter. Also, it seems one of the readers maybe had a different print of the book, because they had to cut out and replace audio throughout his reading. Example, every single time he reads the word “Hegemon” (it’s in the title of the book) the audio cuts and it’s someone else’s voice saying the word, at a different volume, and different clarity. It’s very jarring. And that isn’t the only example of this occurring. That said, their performances are still good. They read and express very well. there is just so many audio issues. It disappoints and pulls you from the performance.

I love the book, and I love this series. The audio on this particular book was lacklustre though.

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2 people found this helpful

Re-recorded

It seems they recorded the entire book pronouncing Hegemon as “He-gue-mom”. They re-dubbed the single word in most places which is quite jarring but they also left it in place in a variety of situations leading to inconsistency.

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1 person found this helpful