Product Description

Peggy is a Torch, able to see the fire burning in each person's heart. She can follow the paths of each person's future, and know each person's most intimate secrets. From the moment of Alvin Maker's birth, when the Unmaker first strove to kill him, she has protected him.Now they are married, and Peggy is a part of Alvin's heart as well as his life.But Alvin's destiny has taken them on separate journeys. Alvin has gone north into New England, where knacks are considered witchcraft, and their use is punished by death. Peggy has been drawn south, to the British Crown Colonies and the court of King Arthur Stuart in exile. For she has seen a terrible future bloom in the heartfires of every person in America, a future of war and destruction. One slender path exists that leads through the bloodshed, and it is Peggy's quest to set the world on that path to peace. Look out for more information on this and other Orbit titles on the Orbit website at www.orbitbooks.co.uk

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #218599 in Books
• Published on: 2001-04-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Review
'The most important work of American fantasy since Stephen Donaldson's original Thomas Covenant trilogy.' CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 'History, legend, magic, dreams: Card stirs them into a rich brew with a remarkably authentic flavour' LOCUS

LOCUS
'History, legend, magic, dreams: Card stirs them into a rich brew with a remarkably authentic flavour'

From the Publisher
The fifth book in the acclaimed Tales of Alvin Maker series, by one of the world's best-loved science fiction and fantasy authors.

Praise for The Tales of Alvin Maker

‘Card’s luminous history continues to chill as it soothes … and suddenly the saga of Alvin Maker begins to thrill’ THE WASHINGTON POST

‘Card has exceeded his own high standards … The man's versatility makes him unique’ ANNE McCAFFREY

‘From beginning to end this novel is full of riches’ BOOKLIST

By Orson Scott Card

Ender

Customer Reviews

Card has written a poor journeyman work.
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.

Is there an end?
Orson Scott Card to my mind is one of the most visionary writers of present time . His Alvin Maker/Smith series started off being further acknowledegement of this genius .However after the first three there is a little doubt cast over how visionary this series is becoming . The characters are vividly written with Alvin in particular being quite brilliant but this book meanders down the same clueless path the fourth installment took. Leaving us uncertain how his relationship with his brother Calvin will end nor how the crystal city will ever come to be . Card's work is excellent without doubt , perhaps he could give a bit more direction to his next book however , if there is one of course .

'Card blows it again'
Well, he's done it again. Orson Scott Card blows off yet another series. As he's previously done to the Ender series and the 'Earth' novels, he turns in an utterly horrible novel in the middle of his series.

'Heartfire' has none of the charm of the first books in the series. The main plot lines consist of slaves voluntarily trapping their 'spirits' (for lack of a better term), and Alvin's quest to help a girl with special powers.

As if that's not enough Card does nothing to advance his 'Crystal City' storyline. He saddles the reader with incredibly annoying characters..Mike Fink (I believe his name is) who swears and serves no purpose I can fathom..the frenchman-philosopher (whose name I can't recall)..ditto Fink..and Arthur Stuart, who becomes more and more annoying with each passing page. If I were Alvin I'd leave the annoying child behind.

If Card weren't so good at creating interesting fiction I'd stop reading him in a heartbeat. I don't know whether he gets bored with his series, or there are no new stories to tell, but just as with books 3&4 in the Ender series (awful), and books 4&5 (especially 5) in the Earthfall series, Card apparently quits on another series.