The Lost Gate (edition 2011)

I'd had this on my TBR for a while. I'm a little nervous about Card because I'll be reading along, sucked in because he is a really excellent writer, and all of a sudden something will come out of right field that ruins the book.

This was fine, although I felt there was a little more setup for future books than was ideal and the disjunct between the two story lines was a little ragged sometimes. (This is what lost it the star.)

The premise of moving between alternate worlds being the source of power for those who have been regarded as gods was competently laid out. ( )

This book starts with an interesting premise but then never really delivers. I think Card meant this to be a coming of age story for Danny North but it isn't well written. Danny is a very uneven and obnoxious character with very powerful magic that allows him to create gates to anywhere that he wants to go. Over the course of the book, he learns more about his magic and becomes more obnoxious. At the same time, we learn about another world, the world that the gods that Danny descend from originally lived, and another character (Wad) who is much more interesting. I found the ending to be very abrupt and disappointing. I am curious enough to probably pick up the second book but I cannot agree with the large amount of five star ratings that this book has on Goodreads. I found it average at best--definitely not up to Ender's Game quality.

I think this will be my last foray into the world of Orson Scott Card. I loved Ender's Game when I read it in university but since then, have not found another book of his that I enjoyed. The author spends far too much time telling rather than showing. The book includes long sections in which Danny finds out how his powers work but never seems to actually DO anything with them. I found these sections confusing and extremely boring. It is as if Orson Scott Card is trying to explain advanced physics to my grade 7 students.
( )

So, I was getting ready to write a big long review, trying to decide what to say, but I'll leave you to read someone else's review that's pretty much spot on.

I tend to shy away from Card, for multiple reasons, but Stefan Rudnicki, who I love, read/produced this book, and I picked it up cheap. But I will swear that even the readers sounded bored with this book.

Danny, the main character, is just balls out unlikeable. He started out sympathetic, and that crashes. The story behind the gods (beings from another word who have super powers here on earth) has been done. Card does his usual "telling, not showing" routine, and the "special boy comes into his special power" has been done by Card plenty of times before (and better). The sexual content is absurd (it's not offensive, it's just terrible), and after seeing this in multiple Card books, I'm convinced that what he really needs is a good therapist.

What I will give Card is that the magic system in these MitherMage novels is good and interesting. People have a natural affinity for affecting certain things (usually natural - like stone, water, fire, animals, etc.) and it tends to run in families. Along with this specificity, there are strength rankings within those kinds of magic. I like it, unfortunately, unless someone else is writing the same kind of magic system, I won't be reading about it again. ( )

So, I was getting ready to write a big long review, trying to decide what to say, but I'll leave you to read someone else's review that's pretty much spot on.

I tend to shy away from Card, for multiple reasons, but Stefan Rudnicki, who I love, read/produced this book, and I picked it up cheap. But I will swear that even the readers sounded bored with this book.

Danny, the main character, is just balls out unlikeable. He started out sympathetic, and that crashes. The story behind the gods (beings from another word who have super powers here on earth) has been done. Card does his usual "telling, not showing" routine, and the "special boy comes into his special power" has been done by Card plenty of times before (and better). The sexual content is absurd (it's not offensive, it's just terrible), and after seeing this in multiple Card books, I'm convinced that what he really needs is a good therapist.

What I will give Card is that the magic system in these MitherMage novels is good and interesting. People have a natural affinity for affecting certain things (usually natural - like stone, water, fire, animals, etc.) and it tends to run in families. Along with this specificity, there are strength rankings within those kinds of magic. I like it, unfortunately, unless someone else is writing the same kind of magic system, I won't be reading about it again. ( )