by Orson Scott Card
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| List Price: | $25.95 |
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| Lowest New Price: | $4.92 |
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Product Description
Using the lore and the folk-magic of the men and women who settled North America, Orson Scott Card has created an alternate world where magic works, and where that magic has colored the entire history of the colonies. Charms and beseechings, hexes and potions, all have a place in the lives of the people of this world. Dowsers find water, the second sight warns of dangers to come, and a torch can read a person's future---or their heart.In this world where "knacks" abound, Alvin, the seventh son of a seventh son, is a very special man indeed. He's a Maker; he has the knack of understanding how things are put together, how to create them, repair them, keep them whole, or tear them down. He can heal hearts as well as bones, he build a house, he can calm the waters or blow up a storm. And he can teach his knack to others, to the measure of their own talent.Alvin has been trying to avert the terrible war that his wife, Peggy, a torch of extraordinary power, has seen down the life-lines of every American. Now she has sent him down the Mizzippy to the city of New Orleans, or Nueva Barcelona as they call it under Spanish occupation. Alvin doesn't know exactly why he's there, but when he and his brother-in-law, Arthur Stuart, find lodgings with a family of abolitionists who know Peggy, he suspects he'll find out soon. But Nueva Barcelona is about to experience a plague, and Alvin's efforts to protect his friends by keeping them healthy will create more danger than he could ever have suspected. And in saving the poor people of the city, Alvin will be put to the greatest test of his life---a test that will draw on all his power. For the time has come for him to turn to his old friend Tenskwa-Tawa, the Red Prophet who controls the lands to the west of the Mizzippy. Now Alvin must take the first steps on the road to the Crystal City that was shown to him in a vision so long ago.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Yes, It Can Get Worse, 2008-10-01
At the end of HEARTFIRE, the fifth book in the Alvin Maker series, I asked myself if the subsequent book(s) could possibly be worse. The answer is a definitive "YES".
This book follows Alvin as he leads a group of runaway slaves to freedom and Calvin and Arthur Stuart on a foray into Mexico. The narrative is ham-handed and preachy, and the introduction of potentially interesting characters, like Abe Lincoln, is handled very badly. The main characters are not developed any further, and subplots and arcs which may have turned interesting are abruptly dropped or fade away.
Alvin's brother Calvin was set up as the villain in the last couple of books, but this subplot is allowed to fizzle out and Calvin fades away into the background. A hero is only as good as the villain is bad, so this shows that Alvin is no hero at all. In fact, as in the last book, Alvin is downright annoying.
Don't even get me started on the golden plow.... "THAT'S IT??!!" is the nicest thing I can say. If there is a seventh book in the series, I will not waste my time.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Still waiting for that big payoff, 2008-06-24
Card's `Alvin Maker' series takes us down an alternate timeline to a pre-industrial America where folk magic competes with religion and science as the path to success. If you haven't read the first two volumes: `Seventh Son' and `Red Prophet' leave this page now and go check them out. Not only will further installments make little sense without that background, but they're nowhere near as good, and once again, this one is certainly no exception. The bottom line on the series is this - if you liked Volume 3, `Alvin Journeyman', where the drop in quality first began, you'll probably like the rest, too, although it seems to this reviewer as though each new addition is just a little weaker than the previous one.
In this volume, Alvin brings his people - the outcasts, the enslaved, and the downtrodden - across the great river to the site where he will build his long-awaited Crystal City. Hallelujah! At last something is happening in this series. Unfortunately, what's happening is not very exciting, and it's taken us yet another complete volume to get there. On the plus side, Card's prose is always easy reading, and fans of the series will probably get through this tome pretty quickly. But if Card plans to continue with this series (and it would be a serious mistake if he didn't since the end of this installment is pretty weak) he needs a payoff that makes all this buildup seem worthwhile.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 disappointed, 2008-04-15
I think Orson could have done more to finish such an excellent series, the ending felt flat. Sorry.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Losing its raison d'être, 2007-12-13
I thought Card was losing his way with "Heartfire," but it was such a good adventure saga I overlooked its weak points (e.g., an annoying Balzac; little development of overall plot). Not true with "The Crystal City," where all that happens is Alvin Smith getting himself one step closer to creating Nauvoo and to getting himself shot in a Carthage City jail. The characters are worth the effort to read, but so many things have been left behind. The love of Margaret and Alvin, so important in "Prentice Alvin" and "Heartfire," is practically non-existent. So too the Unmaker. Where is Cavil Planter? What happened to Verily and Purity?
However, I will continue to read the books in this series. I know Card's got at least one more, and I'm dying to figure out how he works polygamy and destruction of private property (e.g., printing presses) into his plot. I just wish he'd finish the same thing he started. If he has to kill Alvin off at the end, I accept that, just so long as he's true to the series doing it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
OK Ending, 2007-04-05
Loved all of the books in this series and all the way up to the end it was a great journey but it sort of felt unfinished. I wish that there was more to the ending.
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