Treasure Box [Hardcover]

Orson Scott Card (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1996

With his second foray into mainstream fiction, following the success of Lost Boys, bestselling and award-winning speculative fiction writer Orson Scott Card creates a sublimely quirky, haunting tale--a clever mix of horror and comedy--about a young man who marries the woman of his dreams--only to be drawn into her family's nightmare.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When naive computer-nerd and millionaire Quentin Fears meets the woman of his dreams at a posh Washington, D.C., party and then marries her, he thinks his life is complete. But in this low-key horror novel, appearances can't be trusted and people aren't always in control of their actions. Although Madeleine seems quite sophisticated, there are deficits in her memory and her background is vague. She claims a large, well-to-do family but invites no relatives to the wedding. When Quentin finally meets his in-laws at their palatial Upstate New York mansion, they strike him as eccentric, almost as cartoons of real people. The domineering grandmother, whom Madeleine hates, sits in a trance, eyes closed, refusing to speak. There are hints of past child abuse?and of the possibility that a young boy may have been murdered. Why do so many of Madeleine's relatives have names identical to those buried in the family cemetery? And why doesn't Madeleine leave any footprints in the snow? Although the story moves toward a powerful climax, its primary pleasures are more subtle: strong character development and complex motivations, a mystery to solve, the discovery of wheels within wheels. It's rare that Card, renowned for his science fiction (see the review of his Children of the Mind, below), switches genres. But when he does, here as in his Lost Boys (1992), there's little lost and a rare pleasure gained. $50,000 ad/promo; author tour; U.K., translation, first serial and dramatic rights: Barbara Bova.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

At age 11, Quentin Fears is devastated by his older sister Lizzy's death. Subsequently, he grows up to be a lonely man, obsessed with memories of Lizzy. He becomes extremely wealthy, yet everything he does centers around Lizzy. He even picks a wife who reminds him of her. Madeleine, the woman with whom he falls in love and marries in a matter of weeks, turns out to be an apparition invented by an evil witch. Once the story turns to Quentin's wife and her family, the plot degenerates into the script of a B-movie, with wild explanations for the comings and goings of ghosts and the mysterious treasure box that Madeleine wants her new husband to open. Card, the author of many highly acclaimed works (e.g., Children of the Mind, Tor, 1996) is more handy with quick and witty dialog than story content. There is not enough humor here it to be funny and not enough horror or fantasy for it to be either. Recommended only for large collections.?Shirley Gibson Coleman, Ann Arbor Dist. Lib, Mich.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 519 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Pr (December 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786208872
• ISBN-13: 978-0786208876
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (68 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,286,629 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Orson Scott Card is the bestselling author best known for the classic Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow and other novels in the Ender universe. Most recently, he was awarded the 2008 Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in Young Adult literature, from the American Library Association. Card has written sixty-one books, assorted plays, comics, and essays and newspaper columns. His work has won multiple awards, including back-to-back wins of the Hugo and the Nebula Awards-the only author to have done so in consecutive years. His titles have also landed on 'best of' lists and been adopted by cities, universities and libraries for reading programs. The Ender novels have inspired a Marvel Comics series, a forthcoming video game from Chair Entertainment, and pre-production on a film version. A highly anticipated The Authorized Ender Companion, written by Jake Black, is also forthcoming.Card offers writing workshops from time to time and occasionally teaches writing and literature at universities.Orson Scott Card currently lives with his family in Greensboro, NC.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing compared to his more intellectual works, June 15, 2000

By 

Ellen Denham (Indianapolis, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Treasure Box (Mass Market Paperback)

Since I love Orson Scott Card's other work I probably am more critical of this than I would be from another writer. I found this book a mild disappointment, though it is still an engaging and fun read.

If you like his Alvin series, Ender, and so forth, this reads a bit more like, well, Stephen King. The characters are believable but the supernatural elements pushed the plausibility meter a little, and this from someone who loves his fantasy and science fiction oriented work and never had any trouble with his explanations in these books. I can't say much more about that without giving away the one big plot twist, but I found what happened with the character Madeline a little too convenient and not set up very well -- like a bad mystery where once you find out 'whodunit', you do recall a few previous clues, but still just don't buy it.

That may sound overly critical, but Card is one of my favorite writers so I hold him to a high standard. He can do (and does) much better. If you haven't read this one yet and are a fan of his other books, I would recommend one of his newer books, Enchantment, which is an amazing read.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An Entertaining Read, November 10, 1999

By 

Fosky Bob "human" (Vacaville, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Treasure Box (Mass Market Paperback)

You know you'll never go wrong with a Card book. They're all entertaining. The first 20-30 pages of this book are enchanting. I couldn't put it down. It was entertaining the rest of the way, but not at the same level.

The climax of the book is rushed, Card compresses it into 20 pages leaving the reader a little shell-shocked. Tension and mystery build..and then it's all over. Not a great book, but a decent read.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars THINGS ARE NOT ALWAYS WHAT THEY SEEM..., November 25, 2006

By 

Lawyeraau (Balmoral Castle) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Treasure box : a novel

This was my first book by this author, and I was not disappointed, as I found it to be a very creative and inventive book with some genuinely spooky moments. It started off a little slowly but then quickly picked up momentum.

The book revolves around Quentin Fears, whose childhood was marred by the tragic death of his beloved sister. Though it left him emotionally crippled, it did not stop him from discovering a talent he had for making money. Independently wealthy, his life is a fairly reclusive one, until he meets the women of his dreams, the mysterious Madeleine, a woman about whom he knows little. After a brief courtship, he marries her. After all, for him it was love at first sight.

When he finally goes to her family homestead in upstate New York and meets her family, a motley and bizarre crew at best, he realizes that he may have bitten off more than he can chew. It seems that Madeleine has a secret, and had she shared it with Quentin when they had first met, he most certainly would not have married her. You see, Madeleine is not exactly as she seems.

This is a wonderfully inventive and genuinely spooky book that has some great moments. Towards the end, however, the story sort of gets away a bit from the author. Still, this is a very entertaining read and one that will make me look for this author again.