Heartfire (The tales of Alvin Maker) (Paperback)

Card's Alvin Maker series is ambitious, there's no denying that. The first books in the series laid out nothing less than a coming-of-the-Messiah story set in an altenate North America where magic works and the Revolution didn't. Any writer who could bring that off deserved respect and Card had mine.

Until lately, that is.

In the terminology of the Alvin Maker universe, Card seems to have banked his heartfire, the spark of divinity that defines our talents and course in life. Where Seventh Son turned a pioneer family's struggle to find a new home into an epic tale, Heartfire lets an archetypical struggle between good and evil slide into being! ! a mere spat between bratty siblings.

Oddly enough, the book generated the most emotion in me in a way that I doubt Card intended - his description of the Puritan New England colonies. What was most chilling wasn't so much the description of the overbearing theocracy so much as the implicit assumption that such a theocracy would be admirable if only it didn't get 'out of hand.' It's one thing to describe psychic abilities in terms of theology when the characters are obviously steeped in their mythos, but when a Big Brother State is put up as something of a 'near-miss', well, thanks, but no thanks. I'm from Texas, a place that has just decided to throw away millions of educational dollars on the whim of a group of religious fanatics, a place that leads the thundering herd of no-nothings in stamping biology back to a pre-19th Century level. I don't need to read about how wonderful it would be to live in a Christian country. I'm familiar with history. I already know of a! ! time when the world lived under Christianity. It was call! ed the Dark Ages.

I wish I could chalk up my dislike of this book to Card's theistic bent, but that just isn't the case. The entire series has been steeped in theism which did nothing to put me off. No, the sour theological undertaste is only disturbing because the book has so little working for it.

I hope Card can get his act together, get his head back on straight and write the next book in the series in a way that blows this place-keeping little tale out of my memory. Otherwise, I think I'll just save the cash.

'Heartfire' has none of the charm of the first books in the series. The main plot lines consist of slaves voluntarily trapping their 'spirits' (for lack of a better term), and Alvin's quest to help a girl with special powers.

As if that's not enough Card does nothing to advance his 'Crystal City' storyline. He saddles the reader with incredibly annoying characters..Mike Fink (I believe his name is) who swears and serves no purpose I can fathom..the frenchman-philosopher (whose name I can't recall)..ditto Fink..and Arthur Stuart, who becomes more and more annoying with each passing page. If I were Alvin I'd leave the annoying child behind.

If Card weren't so good at creating interesting fiction I'd stop reading him in a heartbeat. I don't know whether he gets bored with his series, or there are no new stories to tell, but just as with books 3&4 in the Ender series (awful), and books 4&5 (especially 5) in the Earthfall series, Card apparently quits on another series.