Heartfire
Alvin Maker #5
Orson Card
fantasy
3 stars
336 pages

A good ending, imo, to the Alvin Maker series. Alvin has gathered a group of people with knacks who believe in the Crystal City like he does. But the book ends as they are setting out. Card does not make the mistake of actually showing the Making of the City, for that will be Heaven on Earth, and no man knows how to accurately write that out.

Prentice Alvin
Alvin Maker #3
Orson Card
fantasy
3 stars
342 pages

Alvin’s apprenticeship as a blacksmith, but it is also his apprenticeship as a Maker. Very good story, but a little to graphic right at the beginning.

Red Prophet
Alvin Maker #2
Orson Card
Fantasy
2 stars
311 pages

This takes the viewpoint of the Indian who becomes The Prophet mentioned in 7th Son. A bit too much of “redman is just SO in touch with the land and practically perfect and the whiteman is nothing but evil”. Other than that, it was a good story.

Seventh Son
Alvin Maker #1
Orson Card
fantasy
3 stars
241 pages

an alternate history of the USA. Frontiers time, about a boy who is the 7th son of a 7th son. He can do things, and it becomes apparent that he is to walk a greater path than most. This book ends when he is 10. There are several more in this series, I look forward to reading them.