Books - Alvin Maker

Now, some of you, hopefully most of you, have at some point read Orson Scott Card's seminal novel, Ender's Game. This is basically a book that follow's young Ender Wiggen through his adventures in a futuristic Battle School where children are trained to fight in the next war against belligerent aliens known as Buggers. This is a sci-fi classic and should be read by anyone who enjoys a good story. There have been seven books in the Ender series, and they are all pretty great.

But...that's not what I am going to write about today. Instead I want to let you in on a secret. The Ender series is not my favorite Orson Scott Card series (and this is saying a lot considering that at this point I would consider Card my favorite author). It is truly enjoyable, but in my mind, it does not nearly have the heart and the magic of the Alvin Maker series.

Alvin Maker is, in many of ways, a lot like Ender, in that the series starts with a young boy learning his place in his world and finding out that he is special and a leader. The Alvin Maker series is an alternate history and fantasy, set in a pre-Civil War America where folk magic is a part of life. I like this series better than the Ender series because I feel closer to the characters and the world than I did with the Ender series (and granted, I haven't read Ender in over eight years, so it may just be a matter of what I have read most recently).

This series, which is six books long, follows the life of Alvin and his friends and family. For anyone who has read other of Card's novels, much of the story telling techniques will be familiar and comfortable. However, many of the twists that the story takes are new and unique, and true to each of the characters. The magic elements are never heavy handed, and serve the story, the story does not serve merely to show of these neat elements. Ultimately, what makes this series great is the exploration of an early America with great characters and a neat magical twist.

What makes this series, and most of Card's storytelling great is the values that he instills in his characters and his books. Card creates characters who I can identify with. They are not perfect, but they always try to do what is right and have a strong sense of morals and values. Many authors these days seem to creat characters who are "gritty" or "flawed" and this can get rather old. I really appreciate Card's values and his insistance on instilling them in his characters in spite of current trends.

If you have enjoyed any of Card's previous novels, pick up the first book, Seventh Son, it is a lot of fun!