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.
Regarding Thrower's Visitor: although he did not directly call himself an angel, he did at one point make a generic statement ("angels are always right" or something like that) which was intended to suggest that he was an angel. I have interpreted the Visitor as an apparition of the devil; his maliciousness aside, if we consider God as the creator or the ultimate maker, so to speak, it is pretty clear that He would probably be on Alvin's side.
ReplyDeleteI must disagree with your analysis of the pacing. While this work is not the most fast-paced story, I never felt that it dragged and I could scarcely stand to put it down. Although Alvin himself is barely developed in this first installment, the other headlining characters are more than fascinating; I particularly enjoyed Faith Miller and Talespinner. Then again, I am quite the history buff, so I had an equally enjoyably time learning about Card's alternate America. Perhaps if one is not so interested in history or does not have a well-developed knowledge of the American past then this story would be much slower.
Interestingly, I believe it was Mr. Card who said "if you want to write good fantasy/sci fi, study history". Don't quote me on that.