Lyn's Reviews > Red Prophet

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.