3.5-rounded up. Favourite characters, humour, slavery, witch trials, revisionist history of which I know little. An interesting read that I enjoyed. I think that he has questionably stereotypical attitudes towards race, but it is not hateful, rather he is idealistic and clearly abhors racism so I am not going to take him to task for that.
I keep remembering suddenly that this is the same author that wrote Ender's game which I think is absolutely amazing. They could probably not seem more different but both evidence that this is a complex, deep thinking, very talented and prolific writer wrestling with religion, morals, ethics. I plan to work my way to everything that he has written.

Alvin Maker continues his saga. One thing Orson scott Card has in his books is a lot of talking and very little action. I think the conversations he writes are good enough that he is able to get away with it.

I liked the way it ended.

Subtle innuendos with a fantasy history backdrop to push moral lessons with some fuzzy boundaries. Ending seemed slightly abrupt, but as all Card's stories the character development is natural and engaging. Wresting with some dark topics.

While the quality of almost all series tends to dip by book 5, I do think the Alvin Maker books are mostly holding up, though this one is the part of the series I've like the least so far.

With the other books, I think there was a lot more of Alvin exploring the nature of magic in the Alvin Maker world, whereas this book (and to some extent the previous book) is more OSC exploring the different cultures that have grown up in this magical world. For some reason I liked that a lot when it was the n  Temerairen series, but I don't care that much about it here. Possibly it's the fact that he's not exploring widely enough. The puritanical New Englanders have banned witchcraft, so we get another book where Alvin lets himself sit around in jail most of the time. The slaves in one part of the South have used a specific kind of magic to help them endure their captivity, but that makes them basically non-agents, and we don't see them exploring the African style magic too much.

Calvin has started on something of a redemption arc, which is nice, but it's kind of annoying that his big redeeming act of making the waters rise was just Alvin showing up to save the day anyway. If he finds out about this, I imagine it would set back his character development arc quite a bit.

3.5 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this and am so ready to read the last book!

Love it!!

3.5, maybe 4. I'm definitely still enjoying this series, but also felt like this one didn't accomplish much... but there was another interesting court scene, and the historical figure cameos are fun!

An enjoyable story that moves the series forward and sets up the final book.

I enjoyed this book in the series, maybe more than the others. I am enjoying the historical references even if this is an alternative history.

I have to say, I really enjoyed this book! I hadn't read a book in this series for at least a year, yet found it incredibly easy to get right back into the groove of it, due to Card's ability to effortlessly weave reminders of important events without it breaking up the story at all. It only took about two chapters before I completely recalled who everyone was and what happened in the last few books. Heartfire seemed way too short, considering the gravity of some of the subjects it was dealing with, namely witch trials and slavery, but the story was still engaging, and the characters likeable (even Calvin, in his own obnoxious way). Overall, it's a worthy, all-too-brief addition in a wonderful series!

Of all the Alvin Books thus far, this one is my least favorite. I'll not spoil the end with details except to say that OSC has built up a certain amount of plot and then just solves every problem as if he intended to write a book twice as long but had a next day deadline. This series suffers from emotional coddling of the reader, never did I ever "Really" feel nervous about the outcome of any plot line. Almost every plot resolution in this series can be summed up in two words, "Because Superpowers."

I will affirm that OSC writes well, it inspires hope and a willingness to read these books, but the plot and the quick-fixing seem immature and amateurish to me. As in my review of book one, I like the questions that arise in the books, the whole concept of Witch trials and New England Puritanism is fun to look at. However, after provoking my interest, I believed (and felt like I was promised) that I would read profound thought and arguments on the matter. It seemed though, that once the complexity reached a need for thorough thought that OSC simply pulled the ripcord.

Finally, the cohesive nature of the five books is growing tedious. The series keeps talking about a goal to build a Crystal City but now I fear the lasting goal of the series is going to suffer the same fate as each individual novel. I fear that it is going to be a 10 page quick fix that sums up with, "Now I get it," and then the words "He built the city and they lived happily ever after." Book 6 is the last published in the series and I will read that next, but honestly it is simply to honor the time I spent in the series rather than any real interest in the plot.