I've been reading the fantasy series "The Tales of Alvin Maker" by Orson Scott Card. Card is better known for his sci fi series Ender's Game, which has been made into a movie to be released in November. He is also known for membership on the National Organization for Marriage and his outspoken political efforts to ban gay marriage in his home state of North Carolina.
I didnt like Ender's game. I couldnt really connect with the main character, a child who takes over earth space military and saves the universe. I've only read the first 3 books of the Alvin series so far but that farther than I got with the Ender's series. In The Tales of Alvin Maker, each chapter is from a different characters point of view, much like George Martin has recently done with his now famous Game of Thrones. Its good writting, set in the colonial period in an alternate history US where the war for independence never happened and George Washington's was beheaded for treason. Colonial American History is a great setting for fantasy, full of unsettled wilds and superstition. And its relatively untapped. So I like them thus far..but...
Its good writing and I'm defiantly going to finish the series, but there is a point I want to make before I recommend them - These books are very ghey. There must have been some intent here, at least by the publisher, because the covers of the books all sport a shirtless, quasi-naked guy. They look like the covers of romance novels. As I mentioned before there are multiple charecters, and I cant help but wonder if this series would have done better had it focused more on them. With the Alvin Maker character, Card is clearly trying to create a messianic figure that would fit into his Mormon belief system. Which is fine in concept but it comes off gay..and a bit deviant. While the other characters are doing something through the novel, Alvin, who is a youth/teen for the first 2 books spends most of that time running back and forth through the forest naked. See, Indians use nature magic and clothing somehow hinders his ability to access "green power". And thats fine but Card seems to make and a point of reminding us that settlers slept basically naked, bunked with other men naked, and Native Americans on the frontier only wear thongs. The character is just difficult to identity with, which is a problem because the series is mostly about him. And you really have to wonder what Card is thinking with some of his scenes. For example Alvin goes skinny dipping with a 12yo black boy his family adopted. Which is..very..frontier. But..He does this immediately after being driven from his village because a girl lied about him skinny dipping (and more) with her. When the little boy asks Alvin about why skinny dipping with him is different from skinny dipping with the girl Alvin says " We didnt do no hugging or unnatural things while we were in the water". What did you do in the water? Then the boy says while he was holding Alvin's hand (nekkid in the water) he was able to access the Native American magic.Ummmm....awkward.
Seriously...What is Card going for in this scene ? Its like its written by Michael Jackson. And it leaves me wondering whether Card has some issues that are making their way into his writing. Normally I'd be like who cares what the author fantasizes about but this guy is yet another outspoken hatefilled right winger who appears to be very much in the closet.
The books/writing is still good..the other character are pretty engaging and the work as a whole inspires me to revist my unwritten frontier era sci-fi/fantasy story. The genres needs more books like this...without messianic pedos distracting from a good story.
I didnt like Ender's game. I couldnt really connect with the main character, a child who takes over earth space military and saves the universe. I've only read the first 3 books of the Alvin series so far but that farther than I got with the Ender's series. In The Tales of Alvin Maker, each chapter is from a different characters point of view, much like George Martin has recently done with his now famous Game of Thrones. Its good writting, set in the colonial period in an alternate history US where the war for independence never happened and George Washington's was beheaded for treason. Colonial American History is a great setting for fantasy, full of unsettled wilds and superstition. And its relatively untapped. So I like them thus far..but...
Its good writing and I'm defiantly going to finish the series, but there is a point I want to make before I recommend them - These books are very ghey. There must have been some intent here, at least by the publisher, because the covers of the books all sport a shirtless, quasi-naked guy. They look like the covers of romance novels. As I mentioned before there are multiple charecters, and I cant help but wonder if this series would have done better had it focused more on them. With the Alvin Maker character, Card is clearly trying to create a messianic figure that would fit into his Mormon belief system. Which is fine in concept but it comes off gay..and a bit deviant. While the other characters are doing something through the novel, Alvin, who is a youth/teen for the first 2 books spends most of that time running back and forth through the forest naked. See, Indians use nature magic and clothing somehow hinders his ability to access "green power". And thats fine but Card seems to make and a point of reminding us that settlers slept basically naked, bunked with other men naked, and Native Americans on the frontier only wear thongs. The character is just difficult to identity with, which is a problem because the series is mostly about him. And you really have to wonder what Card is thinking with some of his scenes. For example Alvin goes skinny dipping with a 12yo black boy his family adopted. Which is..very..frontier. But..He does this immediately after being driven from his village because a girl lied about him skinny dipping (and more) with her. When the little boy asks Alvin about why skinny dipping with him is different from skinny dipping with the girl Alvin says " We didnt do no hugging or unnatural things while we were in the water". What did you do in the water? Then the boy says while he was holding Alvin's hand (nekkid in the water) he was able to access the Native American magic.Ummmm....awkward.
Seriously...What is Card going for in this scene ? Its like its written by Michael Jackson. And it leaves me wondering whether Card has some issues that are making their way into his writing. Normally I'd be like who cares what the author fantasizes about but this guy is yet another outspoken hatefilled right winger who appears to be very much in the closet.
The books/writing is still good..the other character are pretty engaging and the work as a whole inspires me to revist my unwritten frontier era sci-fi/fantasy story. The genres needs more books like this...without messianic pedos distracting from a good story.
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