REVIEW: Orson Scott Card's Red Prophet

Orson Scott Card’s Red Prophet (1988) continues the story of young Alvin Miller, the seventh son of a seventh son, as he leaves home and takes his first steps toward manhood. But this second installment in the series, The Tales of Alvin Maker, is a step backward in time, as Card explains the significance of a seemingly peripheral character in Seventh Son (1987): Lolla-Wossiky, a whisky-Red turned prophet.

But whereas Seventh Son was slow, Red Prophet speeds through the telling of Lolla-Wossiky’s history, beginning when the young and gifted Red witnesses his father’s murder at the hands of Gov. Bill Harrison and ending when Lolla-Wossiky visits his dream beast — Alvin Junior — bedside in the form of the Shining Man and is healed of the unbearable pain he suffered since his father’s death. No longer driven to the bottle, Lolla-Wossiky takes a new name, Tenskwa-Tawa, and begins to gather a following of Reds who believe in finding a peaceful coexistence with the White man. But from there forward, Card reintroduces young Alvin as the central character and describes the tensions and evil that can never allow such a peace to last.

Like in Seventh Son, the story of Red Prophet is told from multiple perspectives, giving the reader knowledge of events even before they occur. While many of these characters — such as Lolla-Wossiky, Alvin Junior and Alvin’s brother Measure — remain fundamental throughout the book, others — like Mike Fink, the river rat whom Harrison hires as an assassin — are introduced in detail then discarded once their purposes are fulfilled. Card’s willy-nilly use of disposable characters may serve to advance the plot but also becomes a distraction that could have been avoided.

Still, it would not be unprecedented for one of Card’s apparent blunders to later reveal itself as an undeniable strength. While at the time it felt as though Card was struggling to find a direction in Seventh Son, with Red Prophet, is has become clear Card’s first work in this series provided valuable character and plot development that allowed Prophet — and likely all subsequent books — to flow much more quickly and smoothly. With the groundwork already laid, an unhindered Card could look ahead in the series and give readers their first taste of what’s to come in Alvin Junior’s journey: the Crystal City, a peaceful place of “light without dark, clean without dirty, … life without death” (165). With that knowledge, the action- and intrigue-filled Red Prophet will leave readers salivating for more of The Tales of Alvin Maker.

BOOK RELEASE: Laura E. Reeve's Pathfinder

 Author Laura E. Reeve's galactic heroine returns in Pathfinder: A Major Ariane Kedros Novel, released July 6.

Synopsis:

"Reserve Major Ariane Kedros needs a shot at redemption-and the mysterious aliens known as the Minoans need an extraordinary human pilot with a rejuv-stimulated metabolism like Ariane for a dangerous expedition to a distant solar system. But there's a catch. The Minoans have to implant their technology in Ariane's body, and it might not be removable. Ariane is willing, but as she begins the perilous journey, there is an old enemy hiding within the exploration team who is determined to see them fail. ... "
—Amazon.com Product Description

REVIEW: Orson Scott Card's Seventh Son

From science-fiction guru Orson Scott Card comes The Tales of Alvin Maker, a six-book fantasy series about folk magic in a twisted version of early America. The story opens with Seventh Son (1987) — a book aptly named, as it follows the early life of Alvin Junior, the seventh son of a seventh son and a child whom the superstitious believe was granted extraordinary powers by virtue of his birth.

Card introduces the first of the tale’s villains — water — before Alvin is even born when his pregnant mother is almost washed away by a raging river. As an element that continuously erodes the land, water is a tool of the Unmaker, or the destroyer of living and nonliving things. And Alvin, who possesses the gift of Making, is marked by the Unmaker as its enemy. From that moment on, the dozen or more seemingly coincidental accidents that continually threaten Alvin Junior’s life are attributed to the presence of water.

Diverging from other of Card’s books — like Lost Boys (1992), which prominently features and promotes Mormonism — Seventh Son appears to have anti-religious undertones, as it sets up Vigor Township’s religious leader, the Reverend Philadelphia Thrower, as another of the book’s antagonists. An entity appears to Thrower, instructing him about the evils of young Alvin and encouraging him to take action against the boy. While Thrower describes his apparition as an angel, the entity never uses the term to describe himself; in fact, he chastises Thrower for making such assumptions. So while folk magic is condemned by the church in Seventh Son, Card never makes it clear whether God stands against Alvin Junior or Thrower’s disapproval is misguided by a vision more devilish than it appears.

Regardless, all the while Alvin Junior fends off his enemies, Card seems to struggle with his own adversity: slow pacing. Seventh Son, while a short read, is never a page-turner. Just a weak and sheltered child, Alvin Junior cannot yet present himself as a truly compelling character of the same caliber as Card’s more well-known child hero in Ender’s Game (1985). It will be interesting to see whether Card can shape this hitherto lagging story into the sort of epic saga he crafted just two years earlier. But as it stands, it may be due only to a knowledge of Card’s other great works that a reader perseveres with The Tales of Alvin Maker.