Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card

Hello, Stranger.

Let's talk about Orson Scott Card's Seventh Son.

The Short of It

Plot: In an alternate-history America, the seventh son of a seventh son is born with remarkable abilities.  

Page Count: 377

Award: 1988 Locus Fantasy

Worth a read: No
Primary Driver: (Plot, World, or Character) 
Bechdel Test: Fail
Technobabble: None. 
Review: An intriguing alternate timeline that is ultimately undercut by bloat and poor pacing. Interesting use of different magic systems. Many well written scenes of believable family interaction, generally convincing interpersonal stakes. The protagonist, however, is the least compelling character by dint of being exceptional at everything. Weak antagonists as well. This book is longer than it needs to be, the series is even more so.

The Medium of It

Spoiler Free!

This is easily the best book of the Tales of Alvin the Maker series, and is possibly worth reading on its own for that reason.

The main selling point of the series is its depiction of an alternate America, one where things went... differently. Plenty of familiar names from US history are here: Franklin, Washington, Blake, and many more. A few of these figures are actual characters in their own right, while most are there to show how similar/different Card's world is. This alternate history is easily the best part of these books and to Card's credit he does it well. He avoids many of the crutches that other authors use in alternate history: characters do not draw comparisons to our reality or search out books that describe it, as in The Man in the High Castle and Job: A Comedy of Justice. He is able to get away with this because his world has more sweeping changes, and those figures who come up tend to be significant. Washington, for example, does not become the first president of the US - something that even a kid in elementary school would know is off. 

A natural consequence of a divergent history is the changing of place names. Which, while clever, can be frustrating. The edition I have includes a map which is absolutely integral to keeping track of what is where. This is world-building done with an intentional attention to detail and diligent following of parallel threads: why would towns all end up the same if everything else was different? It still grows tiresome at points, and more so in later books. This is not a condemnation, exactly: it's a demonstration of comprehensive development of a world, which is good. It just does not always make for good reading.

Alvin is perfect in a completely unappealing way. Things just work for him, which is part of his power as the seventh son of a seventh son. He is an exhausting protagonist. People love him, he loves people, if he does not like someone they are probably a bad guy. At some point this gets pretty tiresome. 

Pacing is not good. Like, very, very, not good. In one of the prefaces to these books, Card noted that he had planned the whole saga as one book. He then realized just how much more there was to say and stretched this shindig out. And it really, really, really feels like it at points. This book often takes such long detours from actual events that it is maddening.

Which is all to say: there is some truly excellent world building going on, it's just a shame that the books do not do it justice.

And a final note: I am biased in favor of these, because a kind stranger sent me all six books, because her father was a SF and fantasy collector. So I got warm fuzzies while reading them, despite my actual feelings about the book. Thanks!

The Long of It

Spoilers Ahead!

From the get-go this one is a rough read. It is a sloooowwwww start. Far too much time is dedicated to frontloading character introductions. The first four chapters cover the period leading up to Alvin's birth and set up a number of characters. Once we hit chapter five, and Alvin is a child, we need to meet him and the rest of the folks in town. Even once the ball gets rolling it's a slow roll. A spherical meander. A rotund stroll.

This is not a book where things happen. Even in those cases where things do happen, Alvin, despite being the protagonist, is a passive participant. Perhaps it is intended to be a meditation on what to do with power. Early on Alvin realizes that he can communicate to the roaches in his house that they should go to his sisters' room and scare them. He is then granted a vision, an understanding of the terror that the roaches felt as they were squished, the way he had tricked them. And he vows to never abuse his power again. And then he doesn't. It's hard to feel like this is a good lesson about power when he learns immediately and commits to it. There is no temptation, no risk. He is Too Good™ to do anything wrong. 

Do you like antagonists? Good, Alvin's got enemies! Like, water. And also a vague miasma called the Unmaker. And one preacher who is remarkably bad at succeeding at anything. But that water and miasma sure are scary! Stay away from water! I'm trying to convey how uncompelling this are as bad guys. And they go to further entrench Alvin as perfect: the Unmaker, which is evil beyond evil, as it hates existence, is his enemy. Because he is a Maker; he can create in unheard of ways. Well, eventually. By the end of the third book, at least. Which feels a little bit like an reasonable amount of time to wait on Alvin the Maker actually making something.

I am somewhat puzzled how this series won so many awards... I'll probably write one more post for the rest of the series and not do individual ones.

Well, Stranger, a river by any other name is just as deep!

And don't forget to read a book!