The idea of religion as a way of life which was more successful than what it displaced. Interesting characters & problems, much drawn from history which made it even better. As usual, his afterword (which he read) was excellent. Card just took the basic idea & developed these novels. This short (only these 2 books so far) series is based on a concept that was being developed for a video game (now on Xbox, although with a different name) & comics.

Card did fill in just enough that you wouldn't be lost, but he didn't recap in detail, thankfully. I'd suggest reading the other book first, but you don't have to. I really enjoyed this continuation several years after the first book. The characters could have wanted to help others for the simple reason alleviating others suffering is a decent human thing to do when you have the ability to help, but no, it was all about religion. There's an alright story in there but I didn't enjoy it anywhere near the amount I did the earlier opening book with the religious aspect wedged in there which didn't seem to add anything to the story beyond lecturing. It's like they're the boogeyman and the author is displaying his prejudices, likewise there's a chapter opening where people who care about the environment and global warming are decreed as being, essentially terrible people with bad judgement. This time it's about a virus outbreak in Africa and the extension of American power, yet there's also considerable religious under & overtones to this book which I don't remember there being in the earlier volume.For example the entire drive of one of the main plot points is for Americans to go to Africa to nurse the infected because that's what good Christians do, and I can't help but feel there's a subtle dig towards Islam the way there's such an overwhelming volume of pro-Christianity references yet the only time Islam is brought up it's when the Nigerians are massacring civilians and stealing resources. I read the first volume of this series five years ago and thought it was a pretty good story, about an attempted coup in America.

Hidden empire by orson scott card