Shadow Puppets, by Orson Scott Card

This is the sequel to Shadow of the Hegemon. The nature of the plot is very similar to that of the episode which precedes it in the "Bean series". The story is centered around Achilles, Bean's arch enemy, and his attempts to turn "the system" against Peter Wiggin, the Hegemon, and in his favor. Although many have said that the book is excruciatingly slow, I liked it a lot. The characters are interesting and well-fleshed out, even the worst villain.

I think that the flurry of action toward the end is an artifact that is starting to feel strange, repetitive, and even a bit obvious since it happened in the previous book almost exactly as it happened in this. Still, I'm a fan of the series and will continue reading if for nothing else at least to see how Card's creativity will develop it further.