- Hardcover: 397 pages
- Publisher: Del Rey Books; 1st, First Edition, First Printing edition (28 Jun 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0345416899
- ISBN-13: 978-0345416896
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.5 x 3.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,657,136 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Orson Scott Card has the distinction of having swept both the Hugo and Nebula awards in two consecutive years with his amazing novels Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead. For a body of work that ranges from science fiction to nonfiction to plays, Card has been recognized as an author who provides vivid, colorful glimpses between the world we know and worlds we can only imagine.
In a peaceful, prosperous African American neighborhood in Los Angeles, Mack Street is a mystery child who has somehow found a home. Discovered abandoned in an overgrown park, raised by a blunt-speaking single woman, Mack comes and goes from family to family–a boy who is at once surrounded by boisterous characters and deeply alone. But while Mack senses that he is different from most, and knows that he has strange powers, he cannot possibly understand how unusual he is until the day he sees, in a thin slice of space, a narrow house. Beyond it is a backyard–and an entryway into an extraordinary world stretching off into an exotic distance of geography, history, and magic.
Passing through the skinny house that no one else can see, Mack is plunged into a realm where time and reality are skewed, a place where what Mack does and sees seem to have strange affects in the “real world” of concrete, cars, commerce, and conflict. Growing into a tall, powerful young man, pursuing a forbidden relationship, and using Shakespeare’s Midsummer’s Night Dream as a guide into the vast, timeless fantasy world, Mack becomes a player in an epic drama. Understanding this drama is Mack’s challenge. His reward, if he can survive the trip, is discovering not only who he really is . . . but why he exists.
Both a novel of constantly surprising entertainment and a tale of breathtaking literary power, Magic Street is a masterwork from a supremely gifted, utterly original American writer–a novel that uses realism and fantasy to delight, challenge, and satisfy on the most profound levels.
In a peaceful, prosperous African American neighborhood in Los Angeles, Mack Street is a mystery child who has somehow found a home. Discovered abandoned in an overgrown park, raised by a blunt-speaking single woman, Mack comes and goes from family to family–a boy who is at once surrounded by boisterous characters and deeply alone. But while Mack senses that he is different from most, and knows that he has strange powers, he cannot possibly understand how unusual he is until the day he sees, in a thin slice of space, a narrow house. Beyond it is a backyard–and an entryway into an extraordinary world stretching off into an exotic distance of geography, history, and magic.
Passing through the skinny house that no one else can see, Mack is plunged into a realm where time and reality are skewed, a place where what Mack does and sees seem to have strange affects in the “real world” of concrete, cars, commerce, and conflict. Growing into a tall, powerful young man, pursuing a forbidden relationship, and using Shakespeare’s Midsummer’s Night Dream as a guide into the vast, timeless fantasy world, Mack becomes a player in an epic drama. Understanding this drama is Mack’s challenge. His reward, if he can survive the trip, is discovering not only who he really is . . . but why he exists.
Both a novel of constantly surprising entertainment and a tale of breathtaking literary power, Magic Street is a masterwork from a supremely gifted, utterly original American writer–a novel that uses realism and fantasy to delight, challenge, and satisfy on the most profound levels.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Orson Scott Card shows his versatility as a writer here with a most unusual tale. Think "A Midsummer Night's Dream" transported to the twenty-first century and set with an all Black cast in some African American neighbourhood in California. This is a story with all of Card's trademark strong characters, including children with special abilities.
the book has a very strange start. A drifter is brought home by an academic. The drifter helps deliver a baby boy to the academic's wife who, an hour or so ago, wasn't pregnant, and then takes the baby away in a grocery bag! Weird, but no weirder than the start of the Worthing Saga by the same author - and all that worked out well.
The baby is named Mack Street, and he has a special power to dream people's wishes, and one day when wandering his neighbourhood he discovers a house no one else can see. In the house lives Puck. Yes, that Puck - although not as you ever imagined him. After that he is off to fairyland and an adventure that is sometimes darker then that synopsis will make it sound.
Card's characterisations are always a joy to read, and his narrative and description demonstrate why he is such a durable writer, enjoyed by so many people. This was not my favourite book by this author, but it never disappointed. Card admits the book was experimental, and I don't think he failed at it.
the book has a very strange start. A drifter is brought home by an academic. The drifter helps deliver a baby boy to the academic's wife who, an hour or so ago, wasn't pregnant, and then takes the baby away in a grocery bag! Weird, but no weirder than the start of the Worthing Saga by the same author - and all that worked out well.
The baby is named Mack Street, and he has a special power to dream people's wishes, and one day when wandering his neighbourhood he discovers a house no one else can see. In the house lives Puck. Yes, that Puck - although not as you ever imagined him. After that he is off to fairyland and an adventure that is sometimes darker then that synopsis will make it sound.
Card's characterisations are always a joy to read, and his narrative and description demonstrate why he is such a durable writer, enjoyed by so many people. This was not my favourite book by this author, but it never disappointed. Card admits the book was experimental, and I don't think he failed at it.
2 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have read and loved most of Card's excellent work (Ender Saga, Shadow Saga and Enchantment) and when I got this, I was really surprised.
I liked the idea of the story, but nomatter how much I love Card's other works, this one lacks realism (which is probably why it reminds me of Stephen King) and seems uncoordinated somehow. The characters and environment aren't believable and you don't really get a relationship with them as reader, which I feel has always been Card's strength.
I liked the idea of the story, but nomatter how much I love Card's other works, this one lacks realism (which is probably why it reminds me of Stephen King) and seems uncoordinated somehow. The characters and environment aren't believable and you don't really get a relationship with them as reader, which I feel has always been Card's strength.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
61 reviews
81 of 87 people found the following review helpful
Hmm...
8 July 2005
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
As a Card fan for over 20 years, I always get his newest work as soon as the ink is dry. While I must say it's refreshing that he finally wrote a book that's not part of a series (at least I hope it's not), this novel struck me as a good idea that he labored at too long and tried too hard to button up. At times the dialogue is cheesy indeed, and I think he overdoes the attempts to make the sentences sound African-American, until it seems forced, as if he never wants the reader to forget that the characters are black.
Still, this is Card, and he keeps the story interesting enough to carry you through to the end--but I found myself hoping it would end sooner than it did. The character development was good as it usually is with Card, but the story was a bit slow getting started and overall it wasn't the usual "I can't put it down" kind of read I've come to expect from this author.
After turning the final page and closing the book, it all seemed just a bit offputting--like something was missing but I couldn't figure out what it was. Since I bought the book I'll leave it in my library, but I'm certainly in no rush to read it again soon.
Still, this is Card, and he keeps the story interesting enough to carry you through to the end--but I found myself hoping it would end sooner than it did. The character development was good as it usually is with Card, but the story was a bit slow getting started and overall it wasn't the usual "I can't put it down" kind of read I've come to expect from this author.
After turning the final page and closing the book, it all seemed just a bit offputting--like something was missing but I couldn't figure out what it was. Since I bought the book I'll leave it in my library, but I'm certainly in no rush to read it again soon.
39 of 41 people found the following review helpful
Ugh.
8 Nov 2005
Format:Hardcover
I usually give Card a great deal of leeway that I don't give to other authors, because when he's good he's amazing. But when he's bad he's abysmal, and unfortunately Magic Street is a little too close to the "bad" end of the spectrum. I literally couldn't finish the book -- stopped about 2/3 of the way in, because I simply didn't care what happened to the main character anymore.
That was probably my biggest problem with the book. Mack Street is simply uninteresting. He's friendly but friendless, tough but ultimately apathetic, likable but somehow bland in personality. I think Card does a good job of depicting an intelligent young man with an imaginative, clever nature, who's dealing with some seriously weird stuff. But I think the problem is that Mack has no drive. There's not enough conflict in the story to bring out the full rich potential of his character. Mack is no Ender, driven to excel under impossible pressure, or Ansset, who overcomes soul-destroying hardships. Mack finds Fairyland and basically goes, "Huh. Guess I'll explore." He has no reason to do it, other than boredom and vague curiosity. Elsewhere in the book he learns that he has a terrible power that can and does hurt people, but it never seems to really bother him all that much. His sarcastic, devil-may-care attitude only exacerbates the problem: ultimately, Mack has no passion. He doesn't seem to care much about anything, so why should the reader?
On top of this, I was annoyed by the structure of the book. The first chapter or two could've been left out altogether, since the story didn't begin until baby Mack was found. We're three or four chapters in before we meet the main character in a form we can interact with and start "getting to know". We're half a book in before we meet the real antagonist; and by the time all the great mysteries are revealed... well, I got bored before I got that far.
I was also highly irritated by the dialogue. I'm black myself, but I'm not going to pretend I've heard every variant of "black English" in the US. Maybe this is the way black people talk in whatever regions Card has lived. But whatever the reason, I spent most of the book muttering to myself, "Who *talks* like this?!" It was just... off somehow. Used at the wrong times/circumstances, by the wrong characters of the wrong generations and in the wrong rhythm. Just wrong, period.
So this one is, unfortunately, a non-recommend. Hopefully Card's next will be better.
That was probably my biggest problem with the book. Mack Street is simply uninteresting. He's friendly but friendless, tough but ultimately apathetic, likable but somehow bland in personality. I think Card does a good job of depicting an intelligent young man with an imaginative, clever nature, who's dealing with some seriously weird stuff. But I think the problem is that Mack has no drive. There's not enough conflict in the story to bring out the full rich potential of his character. Mack is no Ender, driven to excel under impossible pressure, or Ansset, who overcomes soul-destroying hardships. Mack finds Fairyland and basically goes, "Huh. Guess I'll explore." He has no reason to do it, other than boredom and vague curiosity. Elsewhere in the book he learns that he has a terrible power that can and does hurt people, but it never seems to really bother him all that much. His sarcastic, devil-may-care attitude only exacerbates the problem: ultimately, Mack has no passion. He doesn't seem to care much about anything, so why should the reader?
On top of this, I was annoyed by the structure of the book. The first chapter or two could've been left out altogether, since the story didn't begin until baby Mack was found. We're three or four chapters in before we meet the main character in a form we can interact with and start "getting to know". We're half a book in before we meet the real antagonist; and by the time all the great mysteries are revealed... well, I got bored before I got that far.
I was also highly irritated by the dialogue. I'm black myself, but I'm not going to pretend I've heard every variant of "black English" in the US. Maybe this is the way black people talk in whatever regions Card has lived. But whatever the reason, I spent most of the book muttering to myself, "Who *talks* like this?!" It was just... off somehow. Used at the wrong times/circumstances, by the wrong characters of the wrong generations and in the wrong rhythm. Just wrong, period.
So this one is, unfortunately, a non-recommend. Hopefully Card's next will be better.
39 of 48 people found the following review helpful
A Midsummernight's dream brought to life
3 July 2005
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Depending what you like this may or may not be your favorite book by Orson Scott Card. Although I loved all of the Ender and Shadow novels best of all, I also loved the Sleeping Beauty retelling in Enchantment. Here OSC does for Shakespeare, what he did for Sleeping Beauty.
This is a slower building story than most of his work, but in the end very rewarding. If you enjoy fantasy with a modern twist this is a book for you. If you enjoy exploring motives and motivation of human nature, this is a book for you. As always love, honor and responsibility are the primary themes of this story. Definitely worth a read!
This is a slower building story than most of his work, but in the end very rewarding. If you enjoy fantasy with a modern twist this is a book for you. If you enjoy exploring motives and motivation of human nature, this is a book for you. As always love, honor and responsibility are the primary themes of this story. Definitely worth a read!
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Fantasy > Contemporary
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
