Better than the previous book due to its length. Still using the court cliche to push the story along is getting stale.

Made the awkward story placement of book 4 worthwhile. Its still entertaining, but not as good as the first two books in the series. O.S. Card knew the resolutions he wanted in the first few books of the series, and it feels like he knows what he wants for the end of book 6, but for books 4 and 5 he just tried moving the pieces around, and give us resolutions that'll bide us over until 6. They were good enough to keep me going, but now I fully expect all that is promised to me in the Crystal City

10/10. Media de los 43 libros leídos del autor : 8/10

43 obras que me he leído de Card y media de 8/10. Tela. Creo que eso lo dice todo, y liarme a hacer alabanzas de este autor-y de esta novela- es superfluo. Además El juego de Ender fue la primera novela que leí suya y caí enamorado.
Le he puesto nada menos que 10/10 a siete de sus novelas y 9/10 a otras ocho. Casi merece más la pena decir cuales de esas 43 suspenden; solo hay dos: Ruinas (Pathfinder#2) y Esperanza del venado.
Además solo otras 5 se llevarían tres estrellas. El resto, 4 o 5.
Un crack,vamos.

Quinta entrega de la saga de Alvin Maker en su América alternativa (estilo años del Oeste). Y recuperamos el 10/10 tras 5 novelas, ahí es nada.

Caught between three or four stars on this one. Despite being middle-aged, I'm relatively new to the Fantasy genre. I do get the "series" business model but this installment in particular, while well written and solidly plotted, seems more filler than anything else - a way to squeeze out another Alvin Maker book. I do credit Orson Scott Card for avoiding many of the genre templates and cliches and adding an alternate history viewpoint - one that at times seems a bit heavy-handed and overly sentimental but nonetheless sincere.

yes

Entertaining but hardly moves the story forward. Alvin is basically trying to save the world and surrounding himself with others that do the same

By the fifth book in Orson Scott Card's Tales of Alvin Maker series, Heartfire, there's little chance that this entry will change many opinions about the series. For those with a continued interest in reading about Alvin's quest to become a Maker and build the Crystal City, this will certainly continue that story.

I'm leaning towards the opinion that this series was complete, and better, as a trilogy. Still, the series stands as something which shows the unique voice of the author, and is possibly one of the more accessible alternate-history series out there (though the heavy dose of fantasy may not win over so many fans from the lovers of alternate-history novels). While Ender's Game was the book which brought Card to my attention, this series may very well be the one which I always think of as uniquely his.

Orson's narrative planning and execution bring this 5th installment strongly forward, showing the development of the world's events and pivotal person's influence at play. Branching paths of each actor's role in Alvin Maker's story rise to greater heights as the people who are in Mr. Smith's circles show their strengths in this tale. Harsh themes in America's past are brought to the forefront in Heartfire, delving into their dark influence on history while using their atmosphere to extrapolate grand storylines for the overstory. The humor, lessons, conversations, descriptions, language, and soul in the tale solidify this chapter of the saga as a grand literature.

Read this series while on vacation.

Books 4-6 weren't quite up to the standard of the first 3; interesting setups (like Armor of God being radicalized against knacks/the Miller family) were forgotten without fanfare, the plot got a little repetitive and directionless, the characterization of Alvin got fuzzier (he regressed towards the Standard Snarky Male OSC Hero). I later found out that they were written significantly later than the first 3, and OSC didn't originally intend there to be more than those 3, and that makes sense. I still enjoyed the books though.

1 March 2000 - ***. Fantasy is not my usual comfort zone. But this is genre combination of fantasy and alternate history. It is an intriguing saga of an alternate late 18th century America where magical knacks are real. This is Volume 5; you should start with Seventh Son.

Despite an entertaining court scene, this book was the weakest in the series. It didn't feel like the protagonists had any direction, yet this was the point in their saga where they should have known what they were trying to accomplish.

From the frying pan and into the fire, Alvin breaks his bonds to land into another pit of trouble makers who seem hell bent to kill Alvin Maker. Or so it seems.