Rating: 
Summary: Indian/White AWars in a Revised America
Review:
Card's second novel in the Alvin MAKER series (see SEVENTH SON)
Focuses more on national events than the simple tale of the boy, Alvin Miller, in early America. In this alternative world, religion proves but one of many factors directing men's lives: superstition, folklore, and forces undreamed of by most men. The Unmaker is stealthily at work, rending more than any Maker can create or restore. Folks have special talent too: to ward, to fend and to hex, and to doodlebug. A Spark can set fires with his mind; a Torch can predict the future, or several possible versions. How will Alvin be expected to help mankind?
In this revised geographical North America many forces are working viciously for war, with only a few urging peace. The Indians themselves (called Reds) are divided on this epic controversy as two brothers seek to attract increasing numbers of their own people to their respective causes; one to unite
all Reds to fight the white men and drive them back across the sea; the other to live with whites in peace.. The Prophet has his visions and his duty, as does the war leader, but they both come to respect the ten-year-old boy who senses the greensong of the land beneath their feet, who learns to walk in Indian ways.
Meanwhile the French and English struggle for control of the New World, where Americans exercise their fledgling democracy. This tempestuous mix is further poisoned by the personal schemes of Governor William Harrison and Senator Andy Jackson, with their own private agendas of power and revenge. How can a mere boy keep the feuding agents apart and stave off Red massacre? The day Measure and Alvin set of for the lad to become an apprentice blacksmith begins a year of incredible personal growth for both the Miller boys. How can all 4 dedicated protagonists prevent the carnage of Native Americans?
<P> Master storyteller Card has woven a fascinating tapestry on his literary loom, with the warp of Fantasy and the woof of History, connecting all with the shuttle of Superstition. Readers who delighted in Alvin's growing awareness in the first novel will eagerly await his entrance after the start of this second book. Darkly brooding, emotionally riveting, this book is for adults of all ages to savor.
Rating:
Summary: Captivating.
Review: After reading 'Seventh Son' I could not fathom how Orson Scott Card could follow a book o such poignance and brilliance. I now know I should have had faith. 'Red Prophet' is far more dark, and addresses disturbing issues such as racism, religious discrimination and the search for purpose. As 'Seventh Son' a masterwork of Magic Realism. Due to personal preference I disliked elements of the ending, but just when I was unsatisfied by the ending I picked up 'Prentice Alvin' that continues the tale magnificently. READ THIS BOOK!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Excelerating adventure in the world of Alvin Maker
Review: As the first volume was sometimes struggling to put together the world (spending less energy to create adventure) this second volume become much more ballanced. The world of Alvin Maker becomes even more interesting, and the flow of events is strong enough not to let you stop reading this book. Excellent work, I wish I could have more of theese kind.
Rating: 
Summary: Slow going, but still worth reading
Review: At the end of Seventh Son, Alvin goes off to become a prentice blacksmith. Red Prophet is about what happens instead. It's very slow going at the start, as Card has to introduce us to a whole new set of characters including a couple whose names we know, but not in this form: Napoleon, Andrew Jackson, and William Henry Harrison. The three are presented in a very negative light, as they are all anti-Red, but at the same time they are working toward opposite goals. Nevertheless, I'm reading this series for the interest I have in the character of Alvin Miller, Junior (Alvin Maker), so this becomes a bit of a trial. It is, in fact, not until around page 90 that Alvin is even mentioned, and he doesn't become lead character again for some time later. Taleswapper, his mentor, doesn't show up again until two-thirds in -- albeit very mysteriously. Red Prophet, however, is still a solid continuance of the story, even though it is presented as tangential. Alvin, with the help of Ta-Kumsaw, Taleswapper, and a former "likker-Red" called Lolla-Wossiky -- Ta-Kumsaw's brother -- who becomes the title character and changes his name to Tenskawa-Tawa, discovers ever more about his abilities, including that his half-Red, half-White soul allows him to do things that either side cannot. We get to see him heal a lot, and perform new feats of natural magic while confounding the Reds (who can usually sense the Whites' hexes, but not Alvin's). All in all, Red Prophet is a good entry in the series and gives us a lot more information than we had before. However, it doesn't flow like Seventh Son did, and it was a struggle to get through; the suspense quotient just wasn't there. If the next book (Prentice Alvin) is this difficult to finish, I may not get through the series at all.
Rating:
Summary: A solid Card
Review: Better than the first book, we can see (and fell) the growing of Alvin personality and powers, in the middle of a suberb historic/fiction plot, historical persons reewrite in new but truly verosimilar caracteristics, Lafayette, Napoleon, Tecumseh, Finn, etc.
Rating:
Summary: The saga darkens
Review: Book II of Card's Alvin Maker fantasy alternative history of frontier America covers some of the same ground as in Book I, Seventh Son, but now through different eyes. Rather than the mostly idyllic and rational vision of the white man's world-that-was-or-might-be, centered on Alvin's family, this story mostly gives us the Red man's view of white oppression versus working to live together. White's forest clearance vs. Red's forest custodianship is the most powerfully expressed metaphor of the contrast, while the black, Unmaker, rivers run through. Certain central events in Alvin's numinous awakening to his powers in the first novel are now seen from an unsuspected "other" side, not that of the Devil as the intolerant Rev. Thrower would have it, but from the native Shaw-Nee or Kicky-Poo side of the rivers. This book includes a version of Tippecanoe, the massacre that made William Harrison our President, that chills the blood. Card has an especially different take on liberty-loving Lafayette, an associate here of Napoleon rather than dead Washington! Really, these amazing shifts in view on American political icons are one of the great appeals of this series.
The other appeal, of course, is that Card is an imaginative teller of tales. He infuses this tale with a mythic, sometimes elegiac and mystical, quality, despite dialogue cast in backwoods provincial patois. Card is imagining a more hopeful frontier experience, among Hoosier "hill-billys," where the green hope of the Reds and their Napoleon is crushed finally. The story has become fiercer, bleaker and more desperate. It can be hard going because attention is not always on the central character, but digresses into sweeping quasi-historical tangents that only eventually feed back in to the "main story"--if that really is Alvin. I suspect the more you know of frontier history in the old Northwest Territory (after the East Coast Revolution and before the Cowboy Frontier of the West), the more fun these stories will be. That adds a level of detection to the interest of the story. The similarity here to Card's totally brilliant ENDERS GAME is the coming of age of another boy, who also struggles with "swarms" and powers whose strength is only slowly revealed.
Rating:
Summary: Maybe 3.75?
Review: First off, this isn't my favorite Orson Scott Card book. That honor falls to "Ender's Game," and to a lesser extent the novels that follow it. However, many people consider his "Alvin Maker" series to be just as good, and so I've begun working my way through them. Like "Ender," Alvin is a gifted child who is destined to play a major role in the events of his world (in this case a magical alternate 19th century America). Alvin's enemy, the Unmaker, is a bit more mystical than Ender's alien enemy, and certainly more evil. On the basis of the first two books of the series, it looks like there may be a few other parallels as well, but not having read the other books, I can't be sure how--or if--these will work themselves out. "Seventh Son," the first volume of the series, dealt with Alvin's early years and first struggles with the Unmaker. Much of its focus was on tangled family relationships, especially that between father and son. "Red Prophet," however, is darker and more disturbing. It picks up when Alvin is on his way to become an apprentice blacksmith and paints a broader picture of the history of Indian-White relations in Card's alternate America. Many historical figures, including Napoleon, Mike Fink, and William Henry Harrison, make appearances, although they bear little resemblance to their real life models. Because of a plot intended to upset the fragile peace between Reds and Whites, Alvin spends much of his time as a sort of hostage to Ta-Kumsaw (Tecumseh) and his brother, the Prophet. During this time, he learns more about his own magic, which is as much Red as it is White, and has his first visions of the Crystal City, which it is his destiny to build. There are many effective scenes in this novel--Alvin entering the mound and Becca's loom, for instance. However, I found that the emphasis on the political machinations of the Whites and the Reds made the book drag. When it was good, it was very very good, When it wasn't--well, I got through it. Eventually I'll get around to reading the next volumes too.
Rating:
Summary: Maybe 3.75?
Review: First off, this isn't my favorite Orson Scott Card book. That honor falls to "Ender's Game," and to a lesser extent the novels that follow it. However, many people consider his "Alvin Maker" series to be just as good, and so I've begun working my way through them. Like "Ender," Alvin is a gifted child who is destined to play a major role in the events of his world (in this case a magical alternate 19th century America). Alvin's enemy, the Unmaker, is a bit more mystical than Ender's alien enemy, and certainly more evil. On the basis of the first two books of the series, it looks like there may be a few other parallels as well, but not having read the other books, I can't be sure how--or if--these will work themselves out. "Seventh Son," the first volume of the series, dealt with Alvin's early years and first struggles with the Unmaker. Much of its focus was on tangled family relationships, especially that between father and son. "Red Prophet," however, is darker and more disturbing. It picks up when Alvin is on his way to become an apprentice blacksmith and paints a broader picture of the history of Indian-White relations in Card's alternate America. Many historical figures, including Napoleon, Mike Fink, and William Henry Harrison, make appearances, although they bear little resemblance to their real life models. Because of a plot intended to upset the fragile peace between Reds and Whites, Alvin spends much of his time as a sort of hostage to Ta-Kumsaw (Tecumseh) and his brother, the Prophet. During this time, he learns more about his own magic, which is as much Red as it is White, and has his first visions of the Crystal City, which it is his destiny to build. There are many effective scenes in this novel--Alvin entering the mound and Becca's loom, for instance. However, I found that the emphasis on the political machinations of the Whites and the Reds made the book drag. When it was good, it was very very good, When it wasn't--well, I got through it. Eventually I'll get around to reading the next volumes too.
Rating:
Summary: An incredible book!
Review: I have never enjoyed a book so much in my life (and I have read and loved a lot of books!). The world that the author creates is so deliciously parallel to the history we know, and yet so fascinatingly tangental. I was so moved by the characters and the events. I continue to be enraptured by Alvin's growth. I say skip Huckleberry Finn and make this required reading in high school English classes.
Rating:
Summary: Captivating and exciting
Review: I just finished Red Prophet and I must say that it's one of the best books I've ever read. The story of Alvin is simply great. It has everything that a good book needs. It's exiting and vividly written. I couldn't let the book out of my hands until I had read it. I sincerely recommend the whole story of Alvin.
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