Friday, March 7, 2008

A Seventh Son's Saga

Orson Scott Card is an excellent author, as I said in a previous blog (see "Ender Scores"). He has written many books, most renowned of which are the Ender Saga books (Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind). Card has proved his skills again in Seventh Son, the first book in The Tales of Alvin Maker.

The story begins with Alvin Miller's family crossing the Hatrack River. It is a raging current, and the mother is about to go into labor. It is very important that they get to safe ground. If the child is born, he will be seventh son of a seventh son, said to have certain qualities, or hidden powers, that separate them from everyone else.

Years later, Alvin Junior is a young kid, growing up with his parents, brothers and sisters, and a new church being built that Alvin Senior and his wife disagree on. The father is not much of a Christian, but the mother would rather die than be a heretic. There are many characters that have different sides in the church, and others with no sides at all.

The story is very interesting and intriguing, and has many thought-provoking lines. The characters are very interesting, and if the story has a fault, it is that it ends all too quickly. With only 200-odd pages, I feel I could go on for another several-hundred more. But I guess that's what the six sequels are for, including the one that has yet to be released.

I hope to get my hands on the second in the saga of a seventh son of a seventh son soon, for Orson Scott Card has proved again just how good of a writer he is.

http://www.amazon.com/Seventh-Son-Tales-Alvin-Maker/dp/076534775X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204931910&sr=1-1

Grade: 8.5

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