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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The saga darkens, February 4, 2005
This review is from: Red Prophet (Tales of Alvin Maker, Book 2) (Mass Market Paperback)
Book II of Card's Alvin Maker fantasy alternative history of frontier America covers some of the same ground as in Book I, Seventh Son, but now through different eyes. Rather than the mostly idyllic and rational vision of the white man's world-that-was-or-might-be, centered on Alvin's family, this story mostly gives us the Red man's view of white oppression versus working to live together. White's forest clearance vs. Red's forest custodianship is the most powerfully expressed metaphor of the contrast, while the black, Unmaker, rivers run through. Certain central events in Alvin's numinous awakening to his powers in the first novel are now seen from an unsuspected "other" side, not that of the Devil as the intolerant Rev. Thrower would have it, but from the native Shaw-Nee or Kicky-Poo side of the rivers. This book includes a version of Tippecanoe, the massacre that made William Harrison our President, that chills the blood. Card has an especially different take on liberty-loving Lafayette, an associate here of Napoleon rather than dead Washington! Really, these amazing shifts in view on American political icons are one of the great appeals of this series.
The other appeal, of course, is that Card is an imaginative teller of tales. He infuses this tale with a mythic, sometimes elegiac and mystical, quality, despite dialogue cast in backwoods provincial patois. Card is imagining a more hopeful frontier experience, among Hoosier "hill-billys," where the green hope of the Reds and their Napoleon is crushed finally. The story has become fiercer, bleaker and more desperate. It can be hard going because attention is not always on the central character, but digresses into sweeping quasi-historical tangents that only eventually feed back in to the "main story"--if that really is Alvin. I suspect the more you know of frontier history in the old Northwest Territory (after the East Coast Revolution and before the Cowboy Frontier of the West), the more fun these stories will be. That adds a level of detection to the interest of the story. The similarity here to Card's totally brilliant ENDERS GAME is the coming of age of another boy, who also struggles with "swarms" and powers whose strength is only slowly revealed.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Height of The Tales of Alvin Maker so far, wonderfully epic, August 19, 2002
This review is from: Red Prophet (Tales of Alvin Maker, Book 2) (Mass Market Paperback)
RED PROPHET is the second book of Orson Scott Card's "Tales of Alvin Maker" and perhaps the best book in the series (out of the five released so far). It has unforgettable events, an epic sweep, and gives a sobering reminder of how white settlers wiped out the Native Americans. For the first forty pages the reader is introduced to the world outside of the frontier town of Vigor Church, where most of the first book SEVENTH SON was set. There is a glimpse at the French Canadians in this alternate history, and the black heart of one William Henry Harrison, who in our world became president after his slaughter of the Indians at Tippecanoe. The novel's main plotline then begins with Alvin's setting out from Vigor Church to Hatrack River, the place of his tumultuous birth and where he now will become an apprentice smith. He is accompanied by his brother Measure and it isn't long before they are captured by Choc-Taw hired by Harrison to smear the reputation of the Red prophet Tenskwa-Tawa (formerly Lolla-Wossiky) and his brother Ta-Kumsaw. Alvin and Measure survive their capture and are rescued by Ta-Kumsaw. Then, on the shores of Lake Mizogan, Alvin begins to learn of his destiny as a Maker and the incredible city which he must build. And this is only the beginning. RED PROPHET takes us over a wide array of places and shows us incredible characters and sweep of history. There is so much here that stays with the reader long after the novel ends, such as the anger of the townsmen at Tippecanoe, Alvin's travels all over this wide land, Eight-Face Mound, and Becky's mystical loom. Card has triumphed in creating such an enchanting novel. While The Tales of Alvin Maker isn't of the highest quality in terms of prose, I'd certainly recommend this series, especially because RED PROPHET is part of it. This installment is not only captivating, but it also spurs one to read more about this era of American history, when settlers and Native Americans violently clashed.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well-written, highly entertaining and original!, April 17, 2001
This review is from: Red Prophet (Tales of Alvin Maker, Book 2) (Mass Market Paperback)
This was a wonderful book that deserves wider attention. It is set in an alternate early America, during the time of the Tecumseh and the Indian Wars. As much a frontier western as it is a fantasy, this novel will delight fans of both genres. Card is an excellent writer who weaves his story with moral and religious overtones. He exposes the best and worst of the frontier Americans, as well as objectively showing the impossible and inevitable conflict with the Native Americans. Card doesn't ignore his characters. Alvin, Tecumseh (renamed Ta-Kumsaw) and his brother, the Prophet, are all deep and vividly portrayed characters. And William Henry Harrison, notorious in history for being the president with the shortest term, is portrayed here as the darkest of men. If you want to read this book, you will have to read the first in the series, The Seventh Son, also a very good novel, but as you read it keep in mind that you have this one to look forward to. The Red Prophet is a well-written, highly entertaining and original story that ranks among the best fantasy fiction available.
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