The Tales of
Alvin Maker
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The Tales of
Alvin Maker
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Seventh Son
by
Orson Scott Card
Seventh Son is set in the early 1800s--a tale of "a magical America that might have been." In this world, hexes and spells work. Alvin Miller Jr. is the seventh son of a seventh son, a very magical birth indeed. Alvin is no ordinary child--all his life, he has had a "knack" for making things (hence the name of the series, Alvin Maker). When a Presbyterian preacher from Scotland builds a church near the Miller homestead, things turn worse for young Alvin. The preacher alienates Alvin Sr. immediately, preaching that hexes and the like don't work and are just foolishness. The preacher, Philadelphia Thrower, is told by a Visitor that he must turn Alvin to God's way before he is fourteen years old. Thrower seems to hate Alvin, constantly trying to 'reform' the mischievous boy, making Sundays a nightmare. Then a wanderer named Taleswapper comes to town... |
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Red Prophet
by
Orson Scott Card
This was a wonderful book that deserves wider attention. It is set in an alternate early America, during the time of the Tecumseh and the Indian Wars. As much a frontier western as it is a fantasy, this novel will delight fans of both genres. Card is an excellent writer who weaves his story with moral and religious overtones. He exposes the best and worst of the frontier Americans, as well as objectively showing the impossible and inevitable conflict with the Native Americans. Card doesn't ignore his characters. Alvin, Tecumseh (renamed Ta-Kumsaw) and his brother, the Prophet, are all deep and vividly portrayed characters. And William Henry Harrison, notorious in history for being the president with the shortest term, is portrayed here as the darkest of men. If you want to read this book, you will have to read the first in the series, The Seventh Son, also a very good novel, but as you read it keep in mind that you have this one to look forward to. The Red Prophet is a well-written, highly entertaining and original story that ranks among the best fantasy fiction available. |
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Prentice Alvin
by
Orson Scott Card
These books are some of Card's best work. In my opinion they are better books than his more famous Ender series. They do for North America what The Lord of the Rings did for England - they create a new mythology for a geographical area (although in this case the mythology is also an alternate history). Card weaves an invented fantasy universe with American folklore of all kinds, from native tribal religion to European and American folk superstition and sorcery. Alvin, a young immigrant, is born under a host of omens and signs. He is the seventh son of a seventh son, and becomes intertwined with the destiny of the American frontier. He finds that he is the most important figure in the battle against that which he calls the Unmaker. Throughout the course of the book he attempts to quell the tide of entropy by "making" things. He unites people of many races, and tries to bind humanity together as he becomes increasingly aware of the spirit around him that ties everything - the land, the people, and the unfolding of history - together |
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Alvin Journeyman
by
Orson Scott Card
Alvin returns to his family in the town of Vigor Church to share in their isolation, work as a blacksmith, and teach anyone who wishes to learn the secrets of being a maker. |
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Heartfire
by
Orson Scott Card
This is the fifth novel in Orson Scott Card's popular Alvin the Maker series, based on an alternate America where some people are born with knacks, which resemble magical abilities. The protagonist of the series, Alvin, is a maker who not only can fix things (such as restoring a wounded bird to health with his doodlebug) but is also something of a natural leader. Alvin and his small band of followers are on a quest to build the Crystal City, a place where those who have knacks can live in safety from the people who sometimes burn them as witches. While Alvin visits the nearly holy province of New England to find out just how cities work, his wife Margaret, traveling under the name Peggy, journeys to the kingdom of Camelot, which was formerly known as Charleston, South Carolina. There she hopes to persuade the exiled King Arthur to help her abolish the practice of slavery. |
