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Tales of Alvin Maker #2
Red Prophet
Come here to the magical America that might have been
In this sequel to Seventh Son, Alvin Maker is awakening to many mysteries: his own strange powers, the magic of the land, and the special virtues of its chosen people, the Native Americans.
Alvin has discovered his own unique talent for making things whole again. Now he summons all his powers to prevent a tragic war between Native Americans and the white settlers of North America.
In this sequel to Seventh Son, Alvin Maker is awakening to many mysteries: his own strange powers, the magic of the land, and the special virtues of its chosen people, the Native Americans.
Alvin has discovered his own unique talent for making things whole again. Now he summons all his powers to prevent a tragic war between Native Americans and the white settlers of North America.
311 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 28, 1988
About the author
Orson Scott Card
835 books19.9k followersOrson Scott Card is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is (as of 2023) the only person to have won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for his novel Ender's Game (1985) and its sequel Speaker for the Dead (1986). A feature film adaptation of Ender's Game, which Card co-produced, was released in 2013. Card also wrote the Locus Fantasy Award-winning series The Tales of Alvin Maker (1987–2003).
Card's fiction often features characters with exceptional gifts who make difficult choices with high stakes. Card has also written political, religious, and social commentary in his columns and other writing; his opposition to homosexuality has provoked public criticism.
Card, who is a great-great-grandson of Brigham Young, was born in Richland, Washington, and grew up in Utah and California. While he was a student at Brigham Young University (BYU), his plays were performed on stage. He served in Brazil as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and headed a community theater for two summers. Card had 27 short stories published between 1978 and 1979, and he won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 1978. He earned a master's degree in English from the University of Utah in 1981 and wrote novels in science fiction, fantasy, non-fiction, and historical fiction genres starting in 1979. Card continued to write prolifically, and he has published over 50 novels and 45 short stories.
Card teaches English at Southern Virginia University; he has written two books on creative writing and serves as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest. He has taught many successful writers at his "literary boot camps". He remains a practicing member of the LDS Church and Mormon fiction writers Stephenie Meyer, Brandon Sanderson, and Dave Wolverton have cited his works as a major influence.
Card's fiction often features characters with exceptional gifts who make difficult choices with high stakes. Card has also written political, religious, and social commentary in his columns and other writing; his opposition to homosexuality has provoked public criticism.
Card, who is a great-great-grandson of Brigham Young, was born in Richland, Washington, and grew up in Utah and California. While he was a student at Brigham Young University (BYU), his plays were performed on stage. He served in Brazil as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and headed a community theater for two summers. Card had 27 short stories published between 1978 and 1979, and he won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 1978. He earned a master's degree in English from the University of Utah in 1981 and wrote novels in science fiction, fantasy, non-fiction, and historical fiction genres starting in 1979. Card continued to write prolifically, and he has published over 50 novels and 45 short stories.
Card teaches English at Southern Virginia University; he has written two books on creative writing and serves as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest. He has taught many successful writers at his "literary boot camps". He remains a practicing member of the LDS Church and Mormon fiction writers Stephenie Meyer, Brandon Sanderson, and Dave Wolverton have cited his works as a major influence.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 606 reviews
June 2, 2016
Red Prophet by Orson Scott Card is the sequel to Card’s 1987 novel Seventh Son.
Like Ender's Shadow, the changed perspective sequel to Card’s masterpiece Ender's Game, Card demonstrates his great ability to tell a story from more than one vantage and can even expand this re-telling into another book.
Red Prophet continues the alternate American history began in Seventh Son and this time largely from the viewpoint of Lalawasike, known to most readers of American history as The Prophet, brother to Tecumseh. William Henry Harrison, Andrew Jackson, Lafayette and even Napoleon also figure into the revisionist tale of the time before the battle of Tippecanoe.
As good a job as Card does at characterization, really very good in fact, building complexities into characters that at first seemed flat, the best part of this book, and likely the high water marks of the series, remains Card’s wonderfully imaginative alternate history of America. This vision provides a soapbox upon which Card shares with his readers what he thinks is best in the heart of America and how things could be better.
Just like in Seventh Son, like him or hate him, at the end of the day Card tells a good story and Red Prophet is fun to read.
Like Ender's Shadow, the changed perspective sequel to Card’s masterpiece Ender's Game, Card demonstrates his great ability to tell a story from more than one vantage and can even expand this re-telling into another book.
Red Prophet continues the alternate American history began in Seventh Son and this time largely from the viewpoint of Lalawasike, known to most readers of American history as The Prophet, brother to Tecumseh. William Henry Harrison, Andrew Jackson, Lafayette and even Napoleon also figure into the revisionist tale of the time before the battle of Tippecanoe.
As good a job as Card does at characterization, really very good in fact, building complexities into characters that at first seemed flat, the best part of this book, and likely the high water marks of the series, remains Card’s wonderfully imaginative alternate history of America. This vision provides a soapbox upon which Card shares with his readers what he thinks is best in the heart of America and how things could be better.
Just like in Seventh Son, like him or hate him, at the end of the day Card tells a good story and Red Prophet is fun to read.
July 7, 2020
I "read" this on audio, via hoopla.
OSC continues his magic-laden, alternate reality version of frontier America. In addition to those who left Europe fleeing religious persecution are those with a 'knack' of magical or mental powers. History also seems to have given Native American "Reds" a better understanding of their own strengths, including an attachment to the land.
A lot unfolds in this volume; a lot is stereotypical. I thought most of the stereotypes were used in a positive sense, although it's hard to describe so I may just be another privileged old white guy trying not to appear to be just another privileged old white guy while reading another privileged old white guy.
Anyway -- Alvin Miller, seventh son of a seventh son, encounters the one-eyed "whiskey Red" Tenskwatawa. The boy's powers rescue the man from his alcoholism, and the man's powers set the boy on a positive path.
Time passes, and we find this world's Benjamin Harrison scheming to win governorship of the territory by creating a fake provocation, and wiping out the Red settlement of Prophetstown -- which would end the efforts of Tenskwatawa and his brother Tecumseh to stop white advancement on the continent (among other things).
Alvin and his brother, on the way to the Hatrack River settle Alvin into his apprenticeship, are caught up in the plot. Alvin's abilities allow him to train in woodlore with Tecumseh, and he is able to soften the destruction of Prophetstown and help Tenskwatawa ensure justice against Harrison.
I was surprised -- I knew of Tecumseh, but was unaware that the existence of is brother, Prophetstown, and Harrison's battle of Tippecanoe were all part of historical record as well. Upping my satisfaction with this book to 4 stars. Mr. Card does get a bit heavy-handed at times, but this is a very good rewrite to the "way things might have been".
OSC continues his magic-laden, alternate reality version of frontier America. In addition to those who left Europe fleeing religious persecution are those with a 'knack' of magical or mental powers. History also seems to have given Native American "Reds" a better understanding of their own strengths, including an attachment to the land.
A lot unfolds in this volume; a lot is stereotypical. I thought most of the stereotypes were used in a positive sense, although it's hard to describe so I may just be another privileged old white guy trying not to appear to be just another privileged old white guy while reading another privileged old white guy.
Anyway -- Alvin Miller, seventh son of a seventh son, encounters the one-eyed "whiskey Red" Tenskwatawa. The boy's powers rescue the man from his alcoholism, and the man's powers set the boy on a positive path.
Time passes, and we find this world's Benjamin Harrison scheming to win governorship of the territory by creating a fake provocation, and wiping out the Red settlement of Prophetstown -- which would end the efforts of Tenskwatawa and his brother Tecumseh to stop white advancement on the continent (among other things).
Alvin and his brother, on the way to the Hatrack River settle Alvin into his apprenticeship, are caught up in the plot. Alvin's abilities allow him to train in woodlore with Tecumseh, and he is able to soften the destruction of Prophetstown and help Tenskwatawa ensure justice against Harrison.
I was surprised -- I knew of Tecumseh, but was unaware that the existence of is brother, Prophetstown, and Harrison's battle of Tippecanoe were all part of historical record as well. Upping my satisfaction with this book to 4 stars. Mr. Card does get a bit heavy-handed at times, but this is a very good rewrite to the "way things might have been".
September 11, 2007
It's a shame that there are so few good alternate history books that I have been able to find. This one, Red Prophet is a prime example. The second part in the popular Alvin Maker series, it explores an alternate early 19th century America in which Oliver Cromwell's Puritanical revolution succeeded in the long run and frontier folk magic works.
So far, so good. I really enjoy the historical details that went into this work, the stories that get slipped in about Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, etc. And in Red Prophet, we get to meet and see from the viewpoints of a large cast of historical characters: Lafayette, Napoleon, Tecumseh, his brother the Prophet, William Henry Harrison, Andrew Jackson, and Mike Fink all turn up.
This really should have been a good book. Unfortunately, it is a case study in how NOT to write about Native Americans. In this world Native Americans: have a connection to the earth that white people don't have, giving them almost magical powers of stealth, evasion, and tracking; cannot adopt any "white" customs (wearing their clothes, using their rifles, drinking their "likker", learning to read... farming...) without losing this connection; don't hunt, they just ask animals if it's a good time to die, and the animals that say "yes" get eaten; only seem to come up with names that require hyphens, z's, or k's (Ta-Kumsaw, Cre-Ek, Chok-Taw, Cherriky, Mizzipy, Mizogan, Tippy-Canoe); and can't share the land with white people without becoming "white" in the process, because white people kill the spirit of the land, just by being dumb white people who chop down trees and kill animals and quarry stones and build churches and roads and houses and bridges and...
Anything interesting about the story is overshadowed by this painful over-romanticization of the First Peoples. And really, there's little that is interesting, since about five years of alternate American history are squeezed into only about 300 pages.
So far, so good. I really enjoy the historical details that went into this work, the stories that get slipped in about Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, etc. And in Red Prophet, we get to meet and see from the viewpoints of a large cast of historical characters: Lafayette, Napoleon, Tecumseh, his brother the Prophet, William Henry Harrison, Andrew Jackson, and Mike Fink all turn up.
This really should have been a good book. Unfortunately, it is a case study in how NOT to write about Native Americans. In this world Native Americans: have a connection to the earth that white people don't have, giving them almost magical powers of stealth, evasion, and tracking; cannot adopt any "white" customs (wearing their clothes, using their rifles, drinking their "likker", learning to read... farming...) without losing this connection; don't hunt, they just ask animals if it's a good time to die, and the animals that say "yes" get eaten; only seem to come up with names that require hyphens, z's, or k's (Ta-Kumsaw, Cre-Ek, Chok-Taw, Cherriky, Mizzipy, Mizogan, Tippy-Canoe); and can't share the land with white people without becoming "white" in the process, because white people kill the spirit of the land, just by being dumb white people who chop down trees and kill animals and quarry stones and build churches and roads and houses and bridges and...
Anything interesting about the story is overshadowed by this painful over-romanticization of the First Peoples. And really, there's little that is interesting, since about five years of alternate American history are squeezed into only about 300 pages.
June 25, 2010
4.0 to 4.5 stars. A very unique, original fantasy (or alterniative history SF if you prefer) by one of the best writers around. Set in an alternative United States of the 19th century, this is a truly American fantasy tale. Wildly inventive and beautifully written. Highly Recommended.
Nominee: Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (1989)
Nominee: Nebula Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (1989)
Winner: Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel (1989)
Nominee: Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature (1989)
Nominee: Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (1989)
Nominee: Nebula Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (1989)
Winner: Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel (1989)
Nominee: Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature (1989)
June 23, 2019
Read this immediately as a follow-up on the first.
In-between it though, I did google Card and I am disturbed by suggestions of homophobic attitudes due to his Mormon faith.
These values, don't, however, intrude on the novel nor its quality - at least as far as I can perceive. And I am trying to take away the 'cult of the personality' of the author - an issue which is more challenging to do in the personality-driven internet world.
Once again, I loved the writing. But this novel really takes off. If anything it's better than the first. The journey here is impressive, and while the first in the series began to convey an alternative history, this one truly explores it. All the wonderful cultural and political machinations of this speculative history enable the novel a fascinating backdrop.
Recommended for both American history buffs and lovers of fantasy. A great writer, regardless of some odd attitudes due to his faith.
In-between it though, I did google Card and I am disturbed by suggestions of homophobic attitudes due to his Mormon faith.
These values, don't, however, intrude on the novel nor its quality - at least as far as I can perceive. And I am trying to take away the 'cult of the personality' of the author - an issue which is more challenging to do in the personality-driven internet world.
Once again, I loved the writing. But this novel really takes off. If anything it's better than the first. The journey here is impressive, and while the first in the series began to convey an alternative history, this one truly explores it. All the wonderful cultural and political machinations of this speculative history enable the novel a fascinating backdrop.
Recommended for both American history buffs and lovers of fantasy. A great writer, regardless of some odd attitudes due to his faith.
July 16, 2009
Card continues, in this second installment of his Alvin Maker series, to exhibit the same literary artistry that was evident in the first volume, Seventh Son (see my review of that title). There is no slackening of his excellent prose, credible characterization, and strong world- building. Where the first book revolved around Alvin and his family, however, this one finds him caught up in major events in his world.
In our world, the leaders of Native American resistance to White expansion in the Old Northwest were Tecumseh and his brother the Prophet, one the political/military leader, the other the spiritual leader. Both are in Card's world as well (the former spelled Ta-Kumsaw; here, Indian personal and place names are often transliterated differently, while still recognizable); but here the author posits a basic philosophical difference between the two that didn't exist in the real world: while his brother advocates armed military resistance to the whites, the Prophet counsels pacifism and a strategy based on Indian mysticism and magic. (Beginning in the first book, Alvin and the Prophet played pivotal roles in each other's lives; here, Card begins his narrative back when Alvin is six, in order to retell that episode from the Prophet's perspective.) His goal is a different outcome in the relations of Whites and Reds than the one we're familiar with; but that isn't a foregone conclusion, for despite the better relations between the two in Card's U.S. and the independent state of Apalachee, the frontier still harbors influential whites like Andrew Jackson who call for Indian removal --and those, like William Henry Harrison, plotting genocide and using whiskey as an instrument for it. And French authorities in Detroit still claim the Ohio valley and pay Indians for Anglo scalps. (Meanwhile, Canada's governor Lafayette plots with Robespierre for a French Revolution; and the French king's ablest general, Napoleon Bonaparte, dreams of military glory in his new assignment in North America.)
Unlike some Goodreads reviewers, I didn't find Card's Mormonism either obvious or intrusive in either book. The Prophet's spiritual message is centered in mystical communion with the land, without making any specific reference to Deity as such. In Card's alternate world, the bondedness of the Indians with the natural world is much more intense and real than it was in the actual world; and Card clearly sympathizes strongly with it, and with the Prophet's pacifism. Both of these are attitudes not characteristic of traditional Mormon thought, which didn't treat Indians very positively (the Book of Mormon regards their dark skin color as a curse imposed for spiritual shortcomings). Card, however, sees them as a virtual chosen race for stewardship of the New World, an attitude also evident in his story "America" in The Folk of the Fringe. If I have any criticism of this book, it would be that Card seems to dismiss any possibility that any way of life that deviates at all from that of traditional Indian culture (as he idealizes it) could ever hope to be compatible with responsible and sustainable care for the land and the natural world, and that whites are racially or culturally incapable of living in harmony with the earth. That isn't a viewpoint that encourages white readers to even try to incorporate a "green" ethic into their lifestyles! But even so, this is a really absorbing and rewarding novel, with a lot to say.
In our world, the leaders of Native American resistance to White expansion in the Old Northwest were Tecumseh and his brother the Prophet, one the political/military leader, the other the spiritual leader. Both are in Card's world as well (the former spelled Ta-Kumsaw; here, Indian personal and place names are often transliterated differently, while still recognizable); but here the author posits a basic philosophical difference between the two that didn't exist in the real world: while his brother advocates armed military resistance to the whites, the Prophet counsels pacifism and a strategy based on Indian mysticism and magic. (Beginning in the first book, Alvin and the Prophet played pivotal roles in each other's lives; here, Card begins his narrative back when Alvin is six, in order to retell that episode from the Prophet's perspective.) His goal is a different outcome in the relations of Whites and Reds than the one we're familiar with; but that isn't a foregone conclusion, for despite the better relations between the two in Card's U.S. and the independent state of Apalachee, the frontier still harbors influential whites like Andrew Jackson who call for Indian removal --and those, like William Henry Harrison, plotting genocide and using whiskey as an instrument for it. And French authorities in Detroit still claim the Ohio valley and pay Indians for Anglo scalps. (Meanwhile, Canada's governor Lafayette plots with Robespierre for a French Revolution; and the French king's ablest general, Napoleon Bonaparte, dreams of military glory in his new assignment in North America.)
Unlike some Goodreads reviewers, I didn't find Card's Mormonism either obvious or intrusive in either book. The Prophet's spiritual message is centered in mystical communion with the land, without making any specific reference to Deity as such. In Card's alternate world, the bondedness of the Indians with the natural world is much more intense and real than it was in the actual world; and Card clearly sympathizes strongly with it, and with the Prophet's pacifism. Both of these are attitudes not characteristic of traditional Mormon thought, which didn't treat Indians very positively (the Book of Mormon regards their dark skin color as a curse imposed for spiritual shortcomings). Card, however, sees them as a virtual chosen race for stewardship of the New World, an attitude also evident in his story "America" in The Folk of the Fringe. If I have any criticism of this book, it would be that Card seems to dismiss any possibility that any way of life that deviates at all from that of traditional Indian culture (as he idealizes it) could ever hope to be compatible with responsible and sustainable care for the land and the natural world, and that whites are racially or culturally incapable of living in harmony with the earth. That isn't a viewpoint that encourages white readers to even try to incorporate a "green" ethic into their lifestyles! But even so, this is a really absorbing and rewarding novel, with a lot to say.
April 15, 2019
Втората книга за Алвин Твореца също продължава ударно. Този път мащабите са по-големи, а и събитията са доста по-жестоки и кървави. Намесва се местната и международната политика, сред действащите лица се появяват Наполеон, Лафайет, Текумзе (който само се споменаваше в първия том) и цели двама американски президенти.
Акцентът в книгата обаче е върху взаимоотношенията бели-индианци. Алвин е отвлечен от червенокожите и трябва да усвои техния начин на живот, да почувства единството с природата и да се научи да слуша "зелената тишина". Среща се отново със своя Сияен човек, индианския пророк Тенсква-Тава, и получава видения за бъдещето. Надвисва обаче страховит конфликт между двата свята - конфликт, от който никой няма да се измъкне невредим.
Хареса ми как Кард вкарва сивота в образите на героите. Някои, които в първата книга бяха подчертано отрицателни, тук проявяват разум и човещина - и обратно, някои от положителните герои участват в зверства.
Все пак, за да не съм прекалено възторжен, имаше една-две дреболии, които не ми допаднаха. Първо, подразни ме, че на два пъти Кард обрисува дад��н герой като напълно безскрупулен, а после изведнъж се оказва, че има скрупули и даже нещо като чест. Първия път го приех, защото макар и леко неправдоподобно, се вписваше прилично в сюжета, но втория път вече ми дойде множко.
Второ, недоумявам защо трябваше да се показва някаква скрита "бяла страна" на Текумзе, която реално няма никакво отражение върху ставащото (още повече пък, че не се връзва с един друг по-ранен момент от книгата). Вероятно Кард го е направил, само за да вмъкне идеята за тъкачния стан, който тъче безкрайното платно на историята от нишките на човешките съдби. Идеята сама по себе си е готина, но цялата тази сцена ми стоеше като кръпка.
Както и да е, това са бели кахъри, които с нищо не ми развалиха удоволствието. Изгълтах книга��а кажи-речи наведнъж и веднага скачам на следващата, "Чиракът Алвин".
Зарибен съм! Ако в следващите книги качеството не спадне, това ще стане една от любимите ми фентъзи поредици! :)
Акцентът в книгата обаче е върху взаимоотношенията бели-индианци. Алвин е отвлечен от червенокожите и трябва да усвои техния начин на живот, да почувства единството с природата и да се научи да слуша "зелената тишина". Среща се отново със своя Сияен човек, индианския пророк Тенсква-Тава, и получава видения за бъдещето. Надвисва обаче страховит конфликт между двата свята - конфликт, от който никой няма да се измъкне невредим.
Хареса ми как Кард вкарва сивота в образите на героите. Някои, които в първата книга бяха подчертано отрицателни, тук проявяват разум и човещина - и обратно, някои от положителните герои участват в зверства.
Все пак, за да не съм прекалено възторжен, имаше една-две дреболии, които не ми допаднаха. Първо, подразни ме, че на два пъти Кард обрисува дад��н герой като напълно безскрупулен, а после изведнъж се оказва, че има скрупули и даже нещо като чест. Първия път го приех, защото макар и леко неправдоподобно, се вписваше прилично в сюжета, но втория път вече ми дойде множко.
Второ, недоумявам защо трябваше да се показва някаква скрита "бяла страна" на Текумзе, която реално няма никакво отражение върху ставащото (още повече пък, че не се връзва с един друг по-ранен момент от книгата). Вероятно Кард го е направил, само за да вмъкне идеята за тъкачния стан, който тъче безкрайното платно на историята от нишките на човешките съдби. Идеята сама по себе си е готина, но цялата тази сцена ми стоеше като кръпка.
Както и да е, това са бели кахъри, които с нищо не ми развалиха удоволствието. Изгълтах книга��а кажи-речи наведнъж и веднага скачам на следващата, "Чиракът Алвин".
Зарибен съм! Ако в следващите книги качеството не спадне, това ще стане една от любимите ми фентъзи поредици! :)
September 7, 2011
Awww...I was really excited to like this series since the 1st book was pretty great, but this book left me madder than hell. I think one star should reflect that I HATED IT.
One reviewer noted that The Alvin Maker series is a thinly veiled version of Joseph Smith's journey in America. I had heard that Card was a Mormon, but not knowing enough about Mormonism, I had never detected any sort of particular religious connotation in his writing. I was also surprised that a supposedly Christian sect (I know Mormons are kinda out there in terms of Christianity) would be so interested in folk magic--things I associate with paganism. I loved the Ender series from Card and I appreciated the idea about an alternate US history involving folk magic in the Alvin Maker series.
However, I was deeply put off by this 2nd book because it revealed itself to be a racist piece of crap which was poorly written at that. The romanticizing of Native Americans was atrocious throughout the story, but what really killed me was that at the end of the book ***SPOILER ALERT*** Takumsaw, the big warrior ends up being secretly married to a white lady! WTF??? And has a child by her!!! The character who throughout the book was adamant that white and red man can NEVER live together is in love with a white woman. Oh and get this, when he's around her, he puts on an English accent and they call him Isaac!!! Oh ok, Card, so this means that Native Americans are really cool and stuff, but you know, they never can be all that unless they whitefy themselves. Apparently this is the whole point of the book.
One reviewer noted that The Alvin Maker series is a thinly veiled version of Joseph Smith's journey in America. I had heard that Card was a Mormon, but not knowing enough about Mormonism, I had never detected any sort of particular religious connotation in his writing. I was also surprised that a supposedly Christian sect (I know Mormons are kinda out there in terms of Christianity) would be so interested in folk magic--things I associate with paganism. I loved the Ender series from Card and I appreciated the idea about an alternate US history involving folk magic in the Alvin Maker series.
However, I was deeply put off by this 2nd book because it revealed itself to be a racist piece of crap which was poorly written at that. The romanticizing of Native Americans was atrocious throughout the story, but what really killed me was that at the end of the book ***SPOILER ALERT*** Takumsaw, the big warrior ends up being secretly married to a white lady! WTF??? And has a child by her!!! The character who throughout the book was adamant that white and red man can NEVER live together is in love with a white woman. Oh and get this, when he's around her, he puts on an English accent and they call him Isaac!!! Oh ok, Card, so this means that Native Americans are really cool and stuff, but you know, they never can be all that unless they whitefy themselves. Apparently this is the whole point of the book.
February 17, 2009
In a lot of ways, this feels like the second half of a longer novel that should have been paired with "Seventh Son."
"Seventh Son" establishes the character of Alvin Miller, Jr. and the fact that he's the seventh son of a seventh son. "Red Prophet" expands the alternative history of the universe Card is creating, including a lot of time spent on the politics of the universe. Card also spends some time setting up the rules by which his fantasy will play during the rest of the series (or so I presume).
This feels like the second half of what should have been one longer starting novel for the series. Alvin does feature but he's kept off stage for the first third of the book before finally coming into the story. The first third establishes the political situation, examines the powers used by the Native Americans in the novel and shows the rise of Lolla-Wosiky to becoming a prophet for his people.
If it weren't so interesting, it could be terribly frustrating. And Card does find ways to intersect the events of "Seventh Son," expanding that book a great deal. And it helps remind readers of what's gone before.
The book builds to a central scene, depicted on the cover when Alvin and the title character cross paths and share a vision together. Alvin sees the future he can build and where all things can lead, sewing seeds that I hope will pay off in future stories.
"Seventh Son" establishes the character of Alvin Miller, Jr. and the fact that he's the seventh son of a seventh son. "Red Prophet" expands the alternative history of the universe Card is creating, including a lot of time spent on the politics of the universe. Card also spends some time setting up the rules by which his fantasy will play during the rest of the series (or so I presume).
This feels like the second half of what should have been one longer starting novel for the series. Alvin does feature but he's kept off stage for the first third of the book before finally coming into the story. The first third establishes the political situation, examines the powers used by the Native Americans in the novel and shows the rise of Lolla-Wosiky to becoming a prophet for his people.
If it weren't so interesting, it could be terribly frustrating. And Card does find ways to intersect the events of "Seventh Son," expanding that book a great deal. And it helps remind readers of what's gone before.
The book builds to a central scene, depicted on the cover when Alvin and the title character cross paths and share a vision together. Alvin sees the future he can build and where all things can lead, sewing seeds that I hope will pay off in future stories.
October 23, 2015
It's a strange thing, but I've owned a copy of this book since my university days, and I'd obviously assumed that I'd read the book having previously rated it. However, once I came to read it again I realised that I'd not read it before at all. Quite why I'd managed to own an entire trilogy for nearly twenty years without reading beyond the first one is a mystery.
Red Prophet is the second in the original Alvin Maker trilogy – like Piers Anthony it seems that Card struggles to put a lid on a good series once he starts one. This story acts as a counterpoint to the first novel. While Seventh Son tells the tale of Alvin's birth and early life – including the vision of the Shining Man. This sequel covers much of the same time period, but following the tales of the 'Reds': the one-eyed drunk Lolla-Wossiky and the moody and silent Ta-Kumsaw. About half-way through, we catch up with the end of Seventh Son and Alvin meets up with our two Reds.
As other reviewers have noted this is fictional history rather than historical fiction. Heavy on the fiction, very light on the history. Card continues, though, to build his world; it just happens to overlay, very loosely, on the east side of the US. As we learnt about the 'knacks' and hexes of the white folk in the first book, this time we learn about the 'land sense' of the red man. This is where the book starts to stray into an awkward sort of racism in its style: the red man is the noble savage: a mystical, pagan, form of magic in touch with the land but a slave to his anger and vengeance; the white man is both the civilised creator of order and structure, and the selfish, greedy, destructor of the red man's land sense. The red man must separate from the white man in order to maintain his connection to the land.
Red Prophet is the second in the original Alvin Maker trilogy – like Piers Anthony it seems that Card struggles to put a lid on a good series once he starts one. This story acts as a counterpoint to the first novel. While Seventh Son tells the tale of Alvin's birth and early life – including the vision of the Shining Man. This sequel covers much of the same time period, but following the tales of the 'Reds': the one-eyed drunk Lolla-Wossiky and the moody and silent Ta-Kumsaw. About half-way through, we catch up with the end of Seventh Son and Alvin meets up with our two Reds.
As other reviewers have noted this is fictional history rather than historical fiction. Heavy on the fiction, very light on the history. Card continues, though, to build his world; it just happens to overlay, very loosely, on the east side of the US. As we learnt about the 'knacks' and hexes of the white folk in the first book, this time we learn about the 'land sense' of the red man. This is where the book starts to stray into an awkward sort of racism in its style: the red man is the noble savage: a mystical, pagan, form of magic in touch with the land but a slave to his anger and vengeance; the white man is both the civilised creator of order and structure, and the selfish, greedy, destructor of the red man's land sense. The red man must separate from the white man in order to maintain his connection to the land.
July 6, 2023
This is the second of Orson Scott Card's Tales of Alvin Maker series and was published in 1988. I think Card has become most famous for "Ender's Game," which was made into a film. This one would make a good film. Card's hero is Alvin Maker, a boy growing up on the frontier, that is, the frontier of the early 1800s, to the west of the Appalachians. But his world is an alternate history America. It seems there was a Revolution and there is a United States, but the Carolinas and Georgia remain as English colonies. The French never lost Canada and still control it along with an outpost at Fort Detroit. Very interestingly, there is a separate "Appalachee," an independent state in the Appalachians. Names are a little different--and I like these names. The Ohio River is simply called the "Hio" and the Mississippi is the "Mizzippi." But the big difference is that it is a world where magic works. Alvin has a "knack"--he has a power to make things using his hands without any tools and to heal people. In this, the second story, he gets involved in the effort of Ta-Kumsaw (Tecumseh) to unite the Native tribes to drive the Americans back to the East Coast. The "Red Prophet" of the title is based on Tecumseh's brother, who became a shaman. In this America, he has magical powers...The villain is the self-styled General, William Harrison. In Alvin's world, will Harrison still win the Battle of Tippecanoe and defeat the Native Americans? In our history, his victory propelled him to the presidency ("Tippecanoe and Tyler, too")....
August 8, 2009
Read RED PROPHET for Alvin, his growing up, his kindness, and his family. Don't read it for the division between Reds and Whites. In Card's fantasy America, Reds are connected with the land as part of one body. They feel it and it supports them. Whites poison the land wherever they spread. Alvin accompanies Red general Ta-Kumsaw in a war against the Whites, a war which the Red Prophet understands will lead to the best solution possible for all the people living in North America.
Two good elements of this book stick in my head. The sensation of Reds running through the forest to the sound of green music. The politics of particular Frenchmen in America, with La Fayette having to make a different kind of contribution to America's freedom when Napoleon is exiled to this faraway wilderness. One bad element sticks in my mind. In the Tales of Alvin Maker, this version of Card's often-changing viewpoint, Reds are collectively ideal and Whites are collectively toxic. The people he writes about reflect the normal range of character in all races, but his generalization is completely laudatory or completely condemning.
Two good elements of this book stick in my head. The sensation of Reds running through the forest to the sound of green music. The politics of particular Frenchmen in America, with La Fayette having to make a different kind of contribution to America's freedom when Napoleon is exiled to this faraway wilderness. One bad element sticks in my mind. In the Tales of Alvin Maker, this version of Card's often-changing viewpoint, Reds are collectively ideal and Whites are collectively toxic. The people he writes about reflect the normal range of character in all races, but his generalization is completely laudatory or completely condemning.
October 29, 2012
Originally posted at FanLit:
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
Red Prophet is the second book in Orson Scott Card’s THE TALES OF ALVIN MAKER, an alternate history set in a frontier America in which folk magic is real. In the first book, Seventh Son, we were introduced to the main protagonist of the series, Alvin Miller who, because he’s the seventh son of a seventh son, is a gifted healer. We meet Alvin as a baby and follow him into boyhood. At the end of the story he has a vision of a shining man who gives him moral guidance.
In Red Prophet we learn that the shining man is Lolla-Wossiky, an alternate version of Tenskwatawa, spiritual leader of the Native American Shawnee tribe. His brother Tecumseh is their chief. While Card focused on the religious implications of a magical American frontier in the first book, the focus here is on the interaction between the “Whites” and the “Reds” and culminates with The Battle of Tippecanoe.
At the beginning of the story, William Henry Harrison, governor of Carthage City, is dealing with the Native Americans his own way — with poison. He purchases huge quantities of whiskey and sells it to the “Whiskey Reds.” Because they have a low tolerance for alcohol (it’s genetic), they become alcoholics and many die. Andrew Jackson is disgusted with Harrison’s sneaky tactics; he wants to do the more honorable thing and just shoot them all.
Tecumseh, who realizes that alcohol is killing his people and knows of Jackson’s plans, decides to lead his people against the Whites. He allies with the French in Canada, led by the effete Marquis de Lafayette and Napoleon Bonaparte (yes, Napoleon’s in America). Lafayette, however, has his own agenda. He secretly loves the idea of democracy and he admires the American spirit. He wants to use Bonaparte to bring democracy to France. (This storyline is amusing, especially when read by the narrators I listened to in Blackstone Audio’s version.)
Alvin Maker, who is on his way to his apprenticeship, meets Tecumseh and becomes involved with the war. Not only is he instrumental in affecting the outcome of The Battle of Tippecanoe but, with the help of Lolla-Wossiky, the Red Prophet, he sees visions of possible futures and learns more about his powers.
Orson Scott Card is a great storyteller and he’s got a big imagination. This alternate history is exciting, entertaining, thoughtful, and occasionally humorous. I thought Card’s depiction of the Native Americans’ magical connection with the land was beautiful and makes for a lovely American mythology. Many “Whites” who read Red Prophet will feel ashamed at how the Native Americans were treated by our ancestors. Some readers have accused Card of being racist (anti-European), but I didn’t feel this way and I noted that Card gives us many Caucasians to admire and shows us that not all “Red-White” interactions where destructive.
Orson Scott Card is particularly good at voice, dialogue, and character nuance. His heroes are capable of doing evil and his villains can have good motives. Characters don’t always do what we expect them to and there are times when we might even change our minds about how we feel about them. I look forward to seeing these characters grow throughout the series.
I’m listening to Blackstone Audio’s productions of THE TALES OF ALVIN MAKER which is performed, in alternating chapters, by Stefan Rudnicki, Scott Brick, and Stephen Hoye. All three of them are excellent readers. I’ve already purchased book three, Prentice Alvin, and book four, Alvin Journeyman, on audio.
Red Prophet, first published in 1988, was nominated for a Nebula and Hugo award. It won the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel.
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
Red Prophet is the second book in Orson Scott Card’s THE TALES OF ALVIN MAKER, an alternate history set in a frontier America in which folk magic is real. In the first book, Seventh Son, we were introduced to the main protagonist of the series, Alvin Miller who, because he’s the seventh son of a seventh son, is a gifted healer. We meet Alvin as a baby and follow him into boyhood. At the end of the story he has a vision of a shining man who gives him moral guidance.
In Red Prophet we learn that the shining man is Lolla-Wossiky, an alternate version of Tenskwatawa, spiritual leader of the Native American Shawnee tribe. His brother Tecumseh is their chief. While Card focused on the religious implications of a magical American frontier in the first book, the focus here is on the interaction between the “Whites” and the “Reds” and culminates with The Battle of Tippecanoe.
At the beginning of the story, William Henry Harrison, governor of Carthage City, is dealing with the Native Americans his own way — with poison. He purchases huge quantities of whiskey and sells it to the “Whiskey Reds.” Because they have a low tolerance for alcohol (it’s genetic), they become alcoholics and many die. Andrew Jackson is disgusted with Harrison’s sneaky tactics; he wants to do the more honorable thing and just shoot them all.
Tecumseh, who realizes that alcohol is killing his people and knows of Jackson’s plans, decides to lead his people against the Whites. He allies with the French in Canada, led by the effete Marquis de Lafayette and Napoleon Bonaparte (yes, Napoleon’s in America). Lafayette, however, has his own agenda. He secretly loves the idea of democracy and he admires the American spirit. He wants to use Bonaparte to bring democracy to France. (This storyline is amusing, especially when read by the narrators I listened to in Blackstone Audio’s version.)
Alvin Maker, who is on his way to his apprenticeship, meets Tecumseh and becomes involved with the war. Not only is he instrumental in affecting the outcome of The Battle of Tippecanoe but, with the help of Lolla-Wossiky, the Red Prophet, he sees visions of possible futures and learns more about his powers.
Orson Scott Card is a great storyteller and he’s got a big imagination. This alternate history is exciting, entertaining, thoughtful, and occasionally humorous. I thought Card’s depiction of the Native Americans’ magical connection with the land was beautiful and makes for a lovely American mythology. Many “Whites” who read Red Prophet will feel ashamed at how the Native Americans were treated by our ancestors. Some readers have accused Card of being racist (anti-European), but I didn’t feel this way and I noted that Card gives us many Caucasians to admire and shows us that not all “Red-White” interactions where destructive.
Orson Scott Card is particularly good at voice, dialogue, and character nuance. His heroes are capable of doing evil and his villains can have good motives. Characters don’t always do what we expect them to and there are times when we might even change our minds about how we feel about them. I look forward to seeing these characters grow throughout the series.
I’m listening to Blackstone Audio’s productions of THE TALES OF ALVIN MAKER which is performed, in alternating chapters, by Stefan Rudnicki, Scott Brick, and Stephen Hoye. All three of them are excellent readers. I’ve already purchased book three, Prentice Alvin, and book four, Alvin Journeyman, on audio.
Red Prophet, first published in 1988, was nominated for a Nebula and Hugo award. It won the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel.
June 9, 2010
The second in the Alvin Maker series.
Similar to what Card did in the 'Ender' series, this book starts off covering a lot of the same time period and events as the previous book, but taken from a different character's perspective. It also ventures further into 'alternate history' territory (and boy is it alternate!)
It's about the well-known Native American leader Tecumseh, and his brother Tenskwatawa, who was known as a prophet. (all true).
I have to say that I think the book would have worked better as a pure fantasy story rather than alternate history. As it stands, it doesn't just venture into; it is ALL ABOUT the stereotypes of Native American culture. It's a very allegorical story, but if you want to have a culture be part of an allegory, it works better if it's a made-up culture, not peoples' real lives and history.
For example, an critical point in the story is the famous battle at Tippecanoe. In reality, this was a bloody but equally joined battle between Tecumseh's forces and those of to-be-President Harrison (who, in the book is more-evil-than-evil). In reality, Harrison did win, but there were an about-even number of casualties (less than 100) on each side.
In the book, "Tippy-Canoe" is a massacre: In revenge for the supposed killing of two white boys, white gunmen slaughter NINE THOUSAND Natives who, sworn to peace and non-violence, peacefully line up, unarmed, to be slaughtered.
Now, if Card wants to make a point about martyrdom, that's all well and good, but I have issues with completely rewriting reality like that. And I know I'm not the only one who gets tired of seeing Native Americans portrayed as mystically close to nature, blah, blah, blah.
Similar to what Card did in the 'Ender' series, this book starts off covering a lot of the same time period and events as the previous book, but taken from a different character's perspective. It also ventures further into 'alternate history' territory (and boy is it alternate!)
It's about the well-known Native American leader Tecumseh, and his brother Tenskwatawa, who was known as a prophet. (all true).
I have to say that I think the book would have worked better as a pure fantasy story rather than alternate history. As it stands, it doesn't just venture into; it is ALL ABOUT the stereotypes of Native American culture. It's a very allegorical story, but if you want to have a culture be part of an allegory, it works better if it's a made-up culture, not peoples' real lives and history.
For example, an critical point in the story is the famous battle at Tippecanoe. In reality, this was a bloody but equally joined battle between Tecumseh's forces and those of to-be-President Harrison (who, in the book is more-evil-than-evil). In reality, Harrison did win, but there were an about-even number of casualties (less than 100) on each side.
In the book, "Tippy-Canoe" is a massacre: In revenge for the supposed killing of two white boys, white gunmen slaughter NINE THOUSAND Natives who, sworn to peace and non-violence, peacefully line up, unarmed, to be slaughtered.
Now, if Card wants to make a point about martyrdom, that's all well and good, but I have issues with completely rewriting reality like that. And I know I'm not the only one who gets tired of seeing Native Americans portrayed as mystically close to nature, blah, blah, blah.
December 31, 2010
I adored Seventh Son, but so far, Red Prophet has yet to catch my attention. It's likely that the horrific stereotyping and bigotry oozing from every page has something to do with it.
January 20, 2010
This book is so terrible that I cannot fathom how anyone not only finishes it but gives it anything more than 1 star. I love OSC's Ender and Bean series, but this book is poorly written, poorly researched, and poorly edited. Card has admitted that he can't be bothered to keep track of his plots and characters, and so his other series are always overrun with errors and inconsistencies, and his lack of interest in research is apparent in this silly work of "historical"fiction. What historical fiction really means here is that Card inserts famous historical figures (such as Andrew Jackson) willy-nilly into a book of magical fiction about pioneer America.
The book's greatest crime, though, is that it is racist while trying not to be. Card hits the reader over the head with black-and-white characters who perform racism with so much naivete that it is painful to even listen to the book. This befuddles me, as Card so elegantly treats the gray dimension of the saga between good and evil in his other books. This is noble savage vs. evil white man vs. benevolent, wise, and chosen magical Miller family.
The book's greatest crime, though, is that it is racist while trying not to be. Card hits the reader over the head with black-and-white characters who perform racism with so much naivete that it is painful to even listen to the book. This befuddles me, as Card so elegantly treats the gray dimension of the saga between good and evil in his other books. This is noble savage vs. evil white man vs. benevolent, wise, and chosen magical Miller family.
November 18, 2015
Held my attention throughout the story. It lost a star because Card made Lolla-Wosiky an obvious picture of Jesus. I didn't like that part at all. In fact, I thought about just putting it down because of this and the bigotry and racism that Card endorses in this novel, but I finished it and even somewhat enjoyed it.
July 19, 2009
Three and a half. More action and a native American perspective is added, but Alvin's character becomes a foil for the alternative history lesson. And sometimes it seemed like a history lesson.
March 9, 2024
Second read – 25 February 2011 – ***. I re-read Red Prophet in the form of a pair of hardcover graphic-novel books. My reviews of that re-read are at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... and https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
First read - 4 January 1989 – ****. Fantasy is not my usual comfort zone. But this is genre combination of fantasy and alternate history. It is an intriguing saga of an alternate late 18th century America where magical knacks are real. This is Volume 2, and goes into more depth on the magics of the Native American population.
First read - 4 January 1989 – ****. Fantasy is not my usual comfort zone. But this is genre combination of fantasy and alternate history. It is an intriguing saga of an alternate late 18th century America where magical knacks are real. This is Volume 2, and goes into more depth on the magics of the Native American population.
September 14, 2024
I really thought the continuing saga of Alvin Maker in the alternate history of North America would be good. Alas, this book felt completely forced and convoluted. Plus, the basic thread plot of book #1 (Seventh Son) was either lost or ignored (maybe for book #3). What happened to the fantasy aspect? Where did the Unmaker go? The historical stereotypes were out of control with too many sidelines. I'm not going to continue this series - it was a real struggle to finish.
April 24, 2022
[3.6 stars, I really liked it, yet likely won't read again]
Orson Scott Card does a fantastic job of weaving historical characters into an alternate universe where magic is real, taking their basic character and mapping their alternate well. The twisty plot and well written storyline are satisfying. Yet while doing this, he resurrects the nobel savage trope (I suppose I'm more Hobbesian in inclination), and posits the idea that magic is mostly good and technology is always bad, and that white man is always a destroyer. It almost seems as if the Traveling People (from Wheel of Time) shaped the world like one can in a dream.
Orson Scott Card does a fantastic job of weaving historical characters into an alternate universe where magic is real, taking their basic character and mapping their alternate well. The twisty plot and well written storyline are satisfying. Yet while doing this, he resurrects the nobel savage trope (I suppose I'm more Hobbesian in inclination), and posits the idea that magic is mostly good and technology is always bad, and that white man is always a destroyer. It almost seems as if the Traveling People (from Wheel of Time) shaped the world like one can in a dream.
January 31, 2024
Sequel to seventh son a modern fairytale of the early days of America . I really enjoyed this book in the way I enjoyed the Ender books. OSC has a gift for complex and dynamic characters who face issues that are less black and white but gray.
June 26, 2017
The complexity and depth of the story was taken to a deeper level in book 2 and now I feel more interest in learning about the real history of what happened at Tippecanoe. I love the world Card has created and how it helps me think about history, religion, and "the other" in a new ways. Excited for the next book!
June 2, 2019
This story took a long time to get into, but after they got back to the main story the last 100 pages were easy to fly through. I feel bad for the curse on the town, but it is deserved.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 4, 2021
I enjoyed the mixing of history and fantasy.
April 17, 2022
Recommendation: Well-crafted with a lot of supernatural world-building that is almost not connected to the first book, Red Prophet will appeal to fans of the supernatural or alternative history in general or Stephen King fans in particular.
Critique: One of the more interesting and also frustrating things about this book is how little it continues the themes of the first book. While Alvin Maker appears in this book and plays a pivotal role, the book is not ABOUT him, nor is it about the primary tension established in Seventh Son: the conflict between creation and destruction, the Maker and the Unmaker. Instead, it is a chronicle of the struggle of Native Americans and the land itself against the foreign (mostly white) invaders, who have no connection to the land and who deaden the land by their very presence. This is interesting in that it is a bold move by the author to effectively abandon the primary conflict and make us care about another, separate supernatural struggle, but of course it's irritating if you as a reader were invested in that first conflict. It's really a strange choice.
It's engagingly written, and by the end I certainly cared about the characters and exulted at the comeuppance of the villainous William Harrison character. It has some cool ideas regarding magic - that there is power in blood that connects natives to the land, and that settlers who have no connection to the land perforce cannot help but destroy the land by their very presence - and it's cool to see more of the alternative version of our world presented. We find out more about the colonies and free lands, and a bunch of alternative French historical figures also appear: Napoleon and Lafayette among them. Card's concern that we might get offended at portraying Harrison as a villain - the book begins with an "Author's Note" to explicitly make clear to us that the real-world William Harrison was not the blackguard he is in this novel - is a little weird, given that we're reading a book so clearly not actual history. Maybe some descendant of the real-world analog of one of Card's fictional characters got very publicly offended in the past, so he felt the need to explicitly state that "Hey, this is NOT your great-great-great-great-great-great grandpa," perhaps? It only occurs to me now that he doesn't provide such a disclaimer about Andrew Jackson. I wonder why that is...?
The book is a celebration of Native Americans as well as early US history, and presents the indigenous people as completely sympathetic, in opposition to various groups of foreign settlers with varying degrees of villainy. But it also presents Tenskwa-Tawa, the Red Prophet of the title, foretelling the major events of the book. Prophecy is always difficult in fiction, particularly when it is presented so clearly and explicitly as it is here. We know what is going to happen because Tenskwa-Tawa foretells it. So a lot of the tension is removed for us as the reader: we never feel like "Oh, how is it going to turn out in the end?" Instead, it is like a Shakespearean or Sophoclean play that tells us what is going to happen in the very beginning, and our tension as viewers is watching the characters tragically play out what we know will occur, despite all their efforts to change or avert their fate.
I really liked the sympathy for the natives in this book and the ultimate resolution was satisfyingly cathartic despite the horror, but I didn't care for how it abandoned the conflict of the first book. I was really engaged with the characters of Tenskwa-Tawa and his brother Ta-Kumsaw, and so for most of the book I wasn't bothered by this divesting of the first book's conflict, but Card is not content to just have Alvin present as an observer (I expect - and hope! - that what Alvin witnesses in this book will show up later as a foundational aspect of his character), but jars us with an occasional reference to the previous conflict, without developing it at all. He's almost rubbing our noses in the fact that he's not doing anything with the first conflict. The way he mentions the Unmaker without it having any effect or role to play in the entire novel is thus more irritating than satisfying. It would've been far more preferable for Card to omit any mention of the first book's supernatural antagonist than to name-drop off-hand references like he did. It's one of the few sour notes in the novel for me.
La Fayette is an amazing character with a fascinatingly cunning mind and an inspiringly tragic sacrifice. His is a really compelling side-plot, which reminded me of most of the plots from A Song of Ice and Fire, where the reader is horrified and enthralled at the struggles of the characters in schemes and machinations that ultimately don't matter because they ignore the giant problem that somehow they've overlooked. With his intentional sacrifice for his higher goal, I expect that we will not see La Fayette again, though we *might* see Napoleon again.
A final note: the massacre at Tippi-Canoe feels like the climactic event of the main plot to me. In writing the review summarizing the events, I initially got the order wrong, because it felt right to have the massacres at Tippi-Canoe and the battle for Detroit happening at roughly the same time. The massacre and the curse at the Mizzipy feels like the emotional peak of the story, so I was surprised to realize I was remembering it wrong: the massacre and the curse happens months before the other battle. I think a big part of that is that Harrison is built up throughout the novel as a traditional, almost melodramatic, villain in direct opposition to the main characters. So his defeat feels like the climax; the other conflicts, though they are important and engaging, don't have the same emotional weight for me.
Review: There's a lot here. Don't click if you don't want to read the book's plot.
Critique: One of the more interesting and also frustrating things about this book is how little it continues the themes of the first book. While Alvin Maker appears in this book and plays a pivotal role, the book is not ABOUT him, nor is it about the primary tension established in Seventh Son: the conflict between creation and destruction, the Maker and the Unmaker. Instead, it is a chronicle of the struggle of Native Americans and the land itself against the foreign (mostly white) invaders, who have no connection to the land and who deaden the land by their very presence. This is interesting in that it is a bold move by the author to effectively abandon the primary conflict and make us care about another, separate supernatural struggle, but of course it's irritating if you as a reader were invested in that first conflict. It's really a strange choice.
It's engagingly written, and by the end I certainly cared about the characters and exulted at the comeuppance of the villainous William Harrison character. It has some cool ideas regarding magic - that there is power in blood that connects natives to the land, and that settlers who have no connection to the land perforce cannot help but destroy the land by their very presence - and it's cool to see more of the alternative version of our world presented. We find out more about the colonies and free lands, and a bunch of alternative French historical figures also appear: Napoleon and Lafayette among them. Card's concern that we might get offended at portraying Harrison as a villain - the book begins with an "Author's Note" to explicitly make clear to us that the real-world William Harrison was not the blackguard he is in this novel - is a little weird, given that we're reading a book so clearly not actual history. Maybe some descendant of the real-world analog of one of Card's fictional characters got very publicly offended in the past, so he felt the need to explicitly state that "Hey, this is NOT your great-great-great-great-great-great grandpa," perhaps? It only occurs to me now that he doesn't provide such a disclaimer about Andrew Jackson. I wonder why that is...?
The book is a celebration of Native Americans as well as early US history, and presents the indigenous people as completely sympathetic, in opposition to various groups of foreign settlers with varying degrees of villainy. But it also presents Tenskwa-Tawa, the Red Prophet of the title, foretelling the major events of the book. Prophecy is always difficult in fiction, particularly when it is presented so clearly and explicitly as it is here. We know what is going to happen because Tenskwa-Tawa foretells it. So a lot of the tension is removed for us as the reader: we never feel like "Oh, how is it going to turn out in the end?" Instead, it is like a Shakespearean or Sophoclean play that tells us what is going to happen in the very beginning, and our tension as viewers is watching the characters tragically play out what we know will occur, despite all their efforts to change or avert their fate.
I really liked the sympathy for the natives in this book and the ultimate resolution was satisfyingly cathartic despite the horror, but I didn't care for how it abandoned the conflict of the first book. I was really engaged with the characters of Tenskwa-Tawa and his brother Ta-Kumsaw, and so for most of the book I wasn't bothered by this divesting of the first book's conflict, but Card is not content to just have Alvin present as an observer (I expect - and hope! - that what Alvin witnesses in this book will show up later as a foundational aspect of his character), but jars us with an occasional reference to the previous conflict, without developing it at all. He's almost rubbing our noses in the fact that he's not doing anything with the first conflict. The way he mentions the Unmaker without it having any effect or role to play in the entire novel is thus more irritating than satisfying. It would've been far more preferable for Card to omit any mention of the first book's supernatural antagonist than to name-drop off-hand references like he did. It's one of the few sour notes in the novel for me.
La Fayette is an amazing character with a fascinatingly cunning mind and an inspiringly tragic sacrifice. His is a really compelling side-plot, which reminded me of most of the plots from A Song of Ice and Fire, where the reader is horrified and enthralled at the struggles of the characters in schemes and machinations that ultimately don't matter because they ignore the giant problem that somehow they've overlooked. With his intentional sacrifice for his higher goal, I expect that we will not see La Fayette again, though we *might* see Napoleon again.
A final note: the massacre at Tippi-Canoe feels like the climactic event of the main plot to me. In writing the review summarizing the events, I initially got the order wrong, because it felt right to have the massacres at Tippi-Canoe and the battle for Detroit happening at roughly the same time. The massacre and the curse at the Mizzipy feels like the emotional peak of the story, so I was surprised to realize I was remembering it wrong: the massacre and the curse happens months before the other battle. I think a big part of that is that Harrison is built up throughout the novel as a traditional, almost melodramatic, villain in direct opposition to the main characters. So his defeat feels like the climax; the other conflicts, though they are important and engaging, don't have the same emotional weight for me.
Review: There's a lot here. Don't click if you don't want to read the book's plot.
November 17, 2017
~This was the first book that I read by the author & I was totally blown away about the story,so many unbelievable happenings all the way through it right up to the end~ ") Looking forward to completing the other books that follow. ")
November 21, 2021
This book has lots of people in it. There’s Mike Fink, the riverman. He worked on a barge that delivered whiskey to the fort where William Henry Harrison rules. WHH wants to be governor of Wobbish when it eventually becomes a state. He is vile, horrible, orders people murdered and such. His wife and son die in a fire that is set by a spark named Hooch, who he has Mike Fink murder. He also presides over the Tippy-Canoe massacre. Old Hickory, Andrew Jackson, is in this one, too. The Red Prophet is Alvin’s Shining Man, Lolla-Wossiky, who now goes by the name Tenska Tawa. He has built a city of Indians. He is Tecumpseh’s brother. He can walk on water and even takes Alvin up in a tornado, but that happens after Alvin and Measure get kidnapped. WHH hired some Chock Taws to kidnap the boys and kill them. They kidnapped the boys when they were on their way back to the Hatrack so that Alvin can be apprentice to the blacksmith there. The kidnappers made it appear that Tenska Tawa and Tecumpseh did it. Tecumpseh shows up and rescues them. Tenska Tawa has told him he must save them. He does and then he sends Measure home, but not before Harrison’s cannons and all the townsmen of Vigor’s Church (except Armor-of-God), massacre the people of Prophetstown. The Prophet leaves with the survivors to go west of the Mizzippy. He puts a curse on the men of Vigor’s Church. They must tell of their part in the massacre to every stranger they meet or their hands will turn bloody. Alvin travels with Tecumpseh for a year and learns to live like a Red. Tecumpseh travels around, telling about Tippy-Canoe and gathering up a Red Army to meet in Detroit to join with the French against the Whites. La Fayette stabs Napoleon in the back (for the cause of liberty for France) and so Napoleon is relieved of his command at Detroit and shipped back to France. The Reds and French lose to Andrew Jackson. Alvin and Tecumpseh part ways. Tecumpseh goes and finds his brother. Alvin goes home. Tecumpseh lived a double life. He spoke English like an Englishman and had the name Issac and was married to a weaver named Becca. Very interesting alternative history.
March 12, 2013
A book review of "Red Prophet" - by Orson Scott Card
Being the generational bi-product of the white and the red peoples (my great great (maybe one more great) grandmother walked the trail of tears- a full blooded Cherokee), this book was particularly startling/heart breaking to me. To see, even if contrived, Cards artists impression as seen through the eyes of the first and birthright citizens of the Americas: "The Red Man", I feel as though I finally understand some of the most hidden longings/propensities of my soul. To be outside, away from civilization - to be one with the land. Often I find myself feeling apart from the very land itself. To use Cards imagery, the inheritor of the "corpse of the land" instead of the of the living land, free of the unstoppable hands of man-made industry. There are so few corners of the world that still produce the "green music" (the undisturbed innocence of the land). And I long for those places. I think we all do.
Card has a particularly Interesting way of inspiring the most insatiable curiosity about whatever he is writing about. I've been Inspired to start reading more history, determined to find more of myself in my ancestors past. Because we are only a recent product of all those decisions of our ancestors. Although we are saturated with modern technology and information, we are all a product of our genealogy and our past.
This novel is all the more relevant because it makes us come face to face with the evil that (perhaps) our ancestors participated in, and prays us answer the question: now that you see how the threads of time have unfurled, would you have been one of the ones stirring up dissension and war and hate not so many years ago? We all deserve to subject ourselves to these questions. Because we have no hope of weaving the future any different if we do not see how we first wove the past.
-sincerely
-Daniel Fox Johnston
Being the generational bi-product of the white and the red peoples (my great great (maybe one more great) grandmother walked the trail of tears- a full blooded Cherokee), this book was particularly startling/heart breaking to me. To see, even if contrived, Cards artists impression as seen through the eyes of the first and birthright citizens of the Americas: "The Red Man", I feel as though I finally understand some of the most hidden longings/propensities of my soul. To be outside, away from civilization - to be one with the land. Often I find myself feeling apart from the very land itself. To use Cards imagery, the inheritor of the "corpse of the land" instead of the of the living land, free of the unstoppable hands of man-made industry. There are so few corners of the world that still produce the "green music" (the undisturbed innocence of the land). And I long for those places. I think we all do.
Card has a particularly Interesting way of inspiring the most insatiable curiosity about whatever he is writing about. I've been Inspired to start reading more history, determined to find more of myself in my ancestors past. Because we are only a recent product of all those decisions of our ancestors. Although we are saturated with modern technology and information, we are all a product of our genealogy and our past.
This novel is all the more relevant because it makes us come face to face with the evil that (perhaps) our ancestors participated in, and prays us answer the question: now that you see how the threads of time have unfurled, would you have been one of the ones stirring up dissension and war and hate not so many years ago? We all deserve to subject ourselves to these questions. Because we have no hope of weaving the future any different if we do not see how we first wove the past.
-sincerely
-Daniel Fox Johnston
August 9, 2016
Storyline: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Writing Style: 4/5
World: 4/5
I admit it; I was spellbound through the first in this series and for half of this second. The writing is lyrical, the magic enchanting, the characters ever-so-human. It's not an America I ever knew, yet it is an America I can recognize and relate to. The story itself is powerful and full of meaning.
The spell was never fully broken, but it surely ebbed when the placing of Mormon allegories superseded the telling of this folktale, the building of this American mythology. At times they were so heavy-handed and blunt that I felt condescended to. At other times they were just outright bizarre and ill-placed.
Also, despite this being longer than the first, it still felt rushed. In the first magic was something familiar but seldom spoken of, those with the "knack" were given special deference though not status, and miracles were still treated as miraculous. In the second there are far too many characters with supernatural abilities and the reaction from normal folk no longer carries with it the reverence and superstition it did earlier. Rather than seven 350-page novels, I would much rather have taken on a trilogy of a thousand pages per volume. Then this series might have stood a chance at being the great American fantasy. These relatively short installments are not only too packed, but they're a little too orderly. Card needed a little space to let chapters grow out of control and unevenly spaced. Something a little less formulaic and less tidy would have been appropriate for an American tale.
Characters: 4/5
Writing Style: 4/5
World: 4/5
I admit it; I was spellbound through the first in this series and for half of this second. The writing is lyrical, the magic enchanting, the characters ever-so-human. It's not an America I ever knew, yet it is an America I can recognize and relate to. The story itself is powerful and full of meaning.
The spell was never fully broken, but it surely ebbed when the placing of Mormon allegories superseded the telling of this folktale, the building of this American mythology. At times they were so heavy-handed and blunt that I felt condescended to. At other times they were just outright bizarre and ill-placed.
Also, despite this being longer than the first, it still felt rushed. In the first magic was something familiar but seldom spoken of, those with the "knack" were given special deference though not status, and miracles were still treated as miraculous. In the second there are far too many characters with supernatural abilities and the reaction from normal folk no longer carries with it the reverence and superstition it did earlier. Rather than seven 350-page novels, I would much rather have taken on a trilogy of a thousand pages per volume. Then this series might have stood a chance at being the great American fantasy. These relatively short installments are not only too packed, but they're a little too orderly. Card needed a little space to let chapters grow out of control and unevenly spaced. Something a little less formulaic and less tidy would have been appropriate for an American tale.
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