Hidden Empire is an entertaining enough read, but ultimately doesn’t provide enough thought or plot to make it a really compelling story. It wrestles with one big question that’s worth asking: for a world leader impacting things on a global scale, do desirable ends actually justify some pretty rotten means? Is it acceptable to manipulate, lie, cheat, and kill some of your own if a greater global good is accomplished as a result?

However, that question only really occupies one small chunk of the story, and the rest of it fell flat for me.

Conclusion: less than compelling, far from OSC’s best work, but if you’re an OSC fan it’s worth a quick read.