Shadow of the Hegemon

Shadow of the Hegemon is as captivating as any of the other books in the Ender Wiggin series. This one is based on political and military intrigue, more so than others. Card doesn't disappoint us.

I was quite disappointed, however, in the production of the audiobook. An otherwise well written and entertaining novel was very much diminished by the poor production values of this audiobook. Having heard half a dozen previous books in the Ender series as audiobooks, I had come to expect more from producer Stefan Rudnicki. In fact, as a frequent listener, I've never heard any audiobook produced this poorly. Please pardon my rant that follows.

There must have been something wrong with the way the reader pronounced the word hegemon, because every time it occurred, it was overdubbed. It was very sloppily edited - as if, had it been in print, it had been pasted over with the word hegemon typed on a strip of paper. Sometimes it was only the word and sometimes it was whole phases containing the word. It really began to be irritating.

Then, towards the middle of the book, the word occurred three times without being edited. It was pronounced differently. Twice with the accent on the second syllable, whereas in all the previously edited occurrences, the accent had been on the first syllable, the way I would expect it to be pronounced. Then, once, the word hegemon was pronounced with a hard g, rather than soft, like a j. Towards the end of the book, the overdubbing was done more skillfully, replacing only the middle syllable. Perhaps it would not even been noticeable had not the previous dubbing been of such low quality as to sensitize the reader to it. I found myself waiting with unpleasant anticipation for the overdubbed hegemon to be spoken, and wincing every time it was.

I thought it odd that the producer had had such after-the-fact consternation about the pronunciation of hegemon and yet was oblivious to the varied pronunciations of the name Achilles. From reading Ender's Shadow, we know that the pronunciation of the name of this character is the French 'ah-sheel'. Occasionally, a character, who didn't know better, would pronounce it 'Ah-kill-eez'. In The Shadow of the Hegemon, it is the various narrators who use the two pronunciations. The different pronunciations of Achilles probably would have gone unnoticed, had it not been for being attuned to listening for errors due to the horrid over-dubbings of hegemon. I'm glad they didn't perform the same aural butchery on Achilles.

There was at least one occurrence when a speaker's voice had an odd tinny sound, as if recorded using a defective microphone, or as if it had been electronically altered. The music transitions between chapters are a little cheesy. It seemed like something one might hear in a public broadcasting documentary for young children.

So, if you are working your way through the Ender series of novels, I recommend that you read a printed version of Shadow of the Hegemon, and avoid hearing the audiobook.