Heartfire

Rating:
Summary: This can't be the end!
Review: I feel like Romeo, crying to OSC, "Oh, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?" And he/Juliet replies, all innocent, "What satisfaction canst thou have tonight?" To which I reply, "Book VI!!"

Unlike most readers of Orson Scott Card, I found myself in the odd (and, I suppose, somewhat enviable) position of having a week of free time and discovering the Alvin Maker series with five books in it. So, for the last eight days, I have literally been living in his alternate America. I was utterly captivated by the books: "Seventh Son," "Red Prophet," "Prentice Alvin," "Alvin Journeyman," and now "Heartfire." I read them so quickly and so close together that I can't really review them as separate books; this is sort-of my review of the whole series (up to this point).

In this version of America, there are three separate countries on the east coast (New England, Appalachee, and the US), plus the Crown Colonies of the south that are still tied to England. Almost everyone has some sort of supernatural "knack." Alvin, the main character, is the seventh son of a seventh son and the most powerful man anyone's seen in a long time. He's on a quest to build Utopia -- the "Crystal City" -- but he doesn't know how he's going to do that (and perhaps OSC doesn't either). While the first two books were mostly about the Red-White conflict, the next three have been about the Black-White conflict -- specifically, abolitionists against the supporters of slavery. The next book will probably involve the Civil War, as Peggy (Alvin's wife, a "torch" who can see possible futures in people's "heartfires") was unable to prevent it.

Any reader who hasn't read the first four books will be hopelessly confused, so don't even bother -- go read the first four! In book five, while I liked knowing what was going on and getting to know Calvin, Verily, and Peggy better, I did miss some of the old friends (like Takum-Sa, Taleswapper, and the Vigor Church folks). I can't call into question the wisdom of plot choice, as some other reviewers have, because I assume Card still has a handle on where he's going (we can only hope); although I wasn't quite sure why Alvin had to go to jail again. Perhaps a subtle reminder that people don't like what they can't defeat. I found the Camelot storyline to be quite interesting, and I thought that this book had the series' best dialogue. Toward the end, it seemed like Alvin was invincible; I'm glad for Calvin's spark of redemption (I hope it will stick), and I enjoyed the scenes of Alvin's triumph, but...

I think he has enough disciples now. Get us to the Crystal City, and do it soon!

(As a sidenote, I think that questioning Card's intelligence because of his choice of religion is uncalled-for. I think that most religions seem ridiculous to those who don't believe in them.)

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as the previous books in the series
Review: I originally read this when it first came out, then re-read the series when I got the new book (The Crystal City) for Christmas. This one was not as good as the other books in this series.

The story started off very slow, with a lot of nonsense about Arthur Staurt and Audobon (who could have been left out of the book completely) and birds. While this was explained somwhat at the end of the book, it was still too much and too slow. The book does get better near the end, but by that time, there has been too much junk preceeding it to make it seem worthwhile. The dialogue between Denmark and Gullah Joe is particularly boring and painful to read.

I give this book three stars only because of the characters, which are still great, and the ongoing story of Alvin's quest to build the Crystal City, but it wasn't a great story on its own. If you've read the other books in the series, this one is worth reading just to continue the story, but just barely. I hope the next book can return to the great stories from the previous books, if not, then I hope it will at least be the last in this series.

Rating:
Summary: Bad, Bad Cover Art
Review: I would have given this book an additional star if it wasn't for the terrible art on the cover. I was embarrassed to read this novel in public. The marketing for this series really cheapens the writing. My friends laugh at me when I show them these books, then insist they are good. I would never buy such an ugly book in hardcover. Get with the times, TOR.

Rating:
Summary: Card has written a poor journeyman work.
Review: I've followed Orson Scott Card's career from his first professional sale of science fiction. Reading his short work was aptly described as "playing pattycake with Baby Huey." If you seek out these early works, you can see a writer who worked his way through a brilliant apprenticeship to become a solid talent.

Card's Alvin Maker series is ambitious, there's no denying that. The first books in the series laid out nothing less than a coming-of-the-Messiah story set in an altenate North America where magic works and the Revolution didn't. Any writer who could bring that off deserved respect and Card had mine.

Until lately, that is.

In the terminology of the Alvin Maker universe, Card seems to have banked his heartfire, the spark of divinity that defines our talents and course in life. Where Seventh Son turned a pioneer family's struggle to find a new home into an epic tale, Heartfire lets an archetypical struggle between good and evil slide into being! ! a mere spat between bratty siblings.

Oddly enough, the book generated the most emotion in me in a way that I doubt Card intended - his description of the Puritan New England colonies. What was most chilling wasn't so much the description of the overbearing theocracy so much as the implicit assumption that such a theocracy would be admirable if only it didn't get 'out of hand.' It's one thing to describe psychic abilities in terms of theology when the characters are obviously steeped in their mythos, but when a Big Brother State is put up as something of a 'near-miss', well, thanks, but no thanks. I'm from Texas, a place that has just decided to throw away millions of educational dollars on the whim of a group of religious fanatics, a place that leads the thundering herd of no-nothings in stamping biology back to a pre-19th Century level. I don't need to read about how wonderful it would be to live in a Christian country. I'm familiar with history. I already know of a! ! time when the world lived under Christianity. It was call! ed the Dark Ages.

I wish I could chalk up my dislike of this book to Card's theistic bent, but that just isn't the case. The entire series has been steeped in theism which did nothing to put me off. No, the sour theological undertaste is only disturbing because the book has so little working for it.

I hope Card can get his act together, get his head back on straight and write the next book in the series in a way that blows this place-keeping little tale out of my memory. Otherwise, I think I'll just save the cash.