[book_talk] book review--Orson Scott Card

From: "Bonnie L. Sherrell" <blslarner@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Science Fiction list" <blind-sf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Blind Chit Chat" <Blind-Chit-Chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Books for the Blind" <Books4theblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Blind Book Lovers Cafe" <bblc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Book Talk" <book_talk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 05 Apr 2013 01:43:40 -0800

_Alvin Journeyman_ by Orson Scott Card

A few weeks ago I reviewed _Heartfire_, which I'd gotten as an audiobook from
Audible.  That was book five of the Alvin Maker series, and in reading it I
found I could not remember just how Alvin's younger brother Calvin ended up
associated with Honore de Belzac, so I dug out my print copy of _Alvin
Wandering_, which has both books four and five, to reread _Alvin Journeyman_ to
refresh my memory.

Alvin has returned to the town where he grew up, and he's been trying to teach
the people there to use their knacks so as to become Makers, too.  His younger
brother Calvin, however, is not happy with the situation.  While Alvin was in
Hatrack River apprenticed to the smith there, Calvin had been the possessor of
the most powerful knack here at home, but now that Alvin is back it seems no one
is paying any attention to him.  Resentful of playing second fiddle as he sees
it to Alvin and too impatient to learn what his brother has to teach, Calvin
decides it's time to go in search of someone else to teach him the secrets not
of making but of power itself, so he decides to head for New York and then
London and France.  Who better to teach him power than the most powerful man in
Europe, Napoleon Bonaparte?  Surely as intelligent and wily as Calvin is he
should be able to bring himself to Napoleon's attention.

Alvin, meanwhile, finds things are suddenly going sour when one of the girls in
town falls in love with him and begins telling her erotic dreams of him to her
friend as if they were true.  When Daniel Webster comes in search of potentially
damaging rumors regarding Alvin things become increasingly difficult, and Alvin
makes the fatal mistake of thinking he might be better off in Hatrack River for
a time.  But back in Hatrack River the smith is claiming Alvin stole from him
the gold of which Alvin's living plow is made, and insists that Alvin must be
tried.  Newcomers to Hatrack River since Alvin was last there include two women
with powerful knacks of their own, one who seems to know just what others need,
and the other who tends to read the weaknesses of others all too well and who
seems to surround herself with powerful hexes to make herself appear far younger
and prettier than she is.  With the Unmaker intent on seeing Alvin imprisoned
and perhaps lynched or otherwise assassinated, just how Alvin is going to find
out just why he was moved to forge a plow and turn it to gold and give it a will
of its own, much less how he'll found or build the Crystal City he's seen
envisioned in a whirlwind is anyone's guess.  It appears that Hatrack River is
drawing people with powerful knacks, including Daniel Webster and a British
barrister named Verily Cooper.  Can Cooper's knack for seeing how things fit
together successfully counter Webster's knack for making powerful arguments that
sway public opinion, whether or not they are true?  

I, too, wish that Card would return to this series, for I'd love to see if this
alternate North America does end slavery and if Alvin ever builds the Crystal
City.

How is Alvin to 
Bonnie L. Sherrell
Teacher at Large

"Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very 
wise cannot see all ends." LOTR

"Don't go where I can't follow."

[book_talk] book review--Orson Scott Card

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