Empire

December 4, 2006
When the United States stands on the brink of civil war between "blue states" and "red states," Maj. Reuben Malek and Capt. Bartholomew Coleman use their special ops training to maintain the country's unity. With the president and vice president assassinated within minutes of each other, and New York City taken over, the two must figure out who has planned this and how to prevent the growing tension between left and right. Unfortunately, Card's conservative bias seeps into this tale with repeated jabs at "liberal media" and even a guest appearance by Bill O'Reilly helping out the good guys. These juvenile assaults distract from Card's keen storytelling skills. As a co-narrator, Card sticks mostly to the superfluous job of reading chapter introductions, saving his passion for his afterword, where he lambastes both the left and the right for their extreme and exclusionary acts. Rudnicki makes this audiobook worth attention. His deep sturdy voice provides the rich and engaging narrative that pulls in any listener. He reads the book smoothly, adding energy, characterization and authority to all aspects of the story. Without Rudnicki, this empire crumbles. "Simultaneous release with the Tor hardcover (Reviews, Nov. 6). (Nov.)" .

In a departure from the science fiction and the historical re-creations for which he's known, the ENDER'S GAME scribe explores what might happen if a civil war were to break out in early-twenty-first-century America. The battle lines this time are drawn not along North and South, but between liberal and conservative. Stefan Rudnicki's hypnotic bass voice reflects both Card's cynicism and his guarded optimism as he narrates the story of Major Reuben Malek and Captain Bartholomew Coleman, who find themselves in the middle of a coup mounted by a thinly veiled George Soros. The author adds to the experience by reading chapter epigraphs and the insightful afterword. S.E.S. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

June 1, 2007
In "Empire", Card imagines a near future United States where extremist groups have brought the country to a standstill. Enter Maj. Reuben Malich, a highly decorated army special ops agent assigned to the Pentagon, who has received orders to sketch out ways terrorists might succeed in assassinating the president. Reuben designs several scenarios of varying complexity and passes them up the line. During an outside meeting with his new assistant, Capt. "Cole" Coleman, Reuben and Cole find themselves in the middle of a terrorist attack that results in the deaths of the president and vice president. As suspicion falls on Reuben and Cole, they attempt to discover how Reuben's plans fell into the hands of the terrorists. To compound matters, a group known as the "Progressive Restoration" takes control of New York City and declares the current U.S. government unconstitutional. Reuben and Cole work with the interim president to unearth who is behind the Progressives and if they had anything to do with the assassinations. On the one hand, "Empire" is entertaining, though not one of Card's best efforts. On a deeper level, some of the text sounds more like social commentary than fiction, and it tends to lean heavily to the right. As primary reader, Stefan Rudnicki does a good job giving life to the novel. Recommended with reservations.Tim Daniels, Georgia State Univ. Lib., Atlanta

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