http://nhw.livejournal.com/282327.html[return][return]This is the fifth book in a fantasy series where traditional European folk magic is real and working in early nineteenth century America. For the first time, a helpful map shows that New England remains a puritan, law-based protectorate of England (still under Commonwealth rule) with John Quincy Adams in charge and his elderly father John as a senior judge; after the sudden death of his predecessor, William Henry Harrison, Andrew Jackson presides over the United States, with their capital in Philadelphia; and the Crown Colonies farther south are ruled by the King from Camelot, formerly Charleston, with his ambitious adviser John Calhoun. The cryptic expression "OK" is just becoming fashionable. Tensions are rising over the extent of slaveholding in the newly settled areas west of the moutains.[return][return]Into all this we inject Alvin, central character of the series, who goes by the name of Smith; it's not difficult to work out which historical character he is meant to remind us of. His dream is to build a Crystal City far into the west, and he has assembled an elect band of followers to help him. By the end of the book they are not much closer to fulfilling the dream; they have gained a new member of their circle, made deep changes to society in New England and Charleston/Camelot, and possibly tamed an enemy, but we're still left a bit in the dark as to where it's all going to end. Audubon and Balzac also make appearances. Light enough reading, and comes tolerably close to giving America a mythological interpretation of its own history.

Great characters, Great story!

Orson Scott Card has a gift for creating characters with depth and strength. The story draws you along so you find yourself compelled to read on. Heartfire is an excellent addition to an amazing series. I can’t wait to start the next book.

This fifth volume of the series finds Alvin and Peggy now married, and expecting the birth of their first child, but separated for much of the book by separate missions far apart geographically. His continuing quest for understanding of how to build the "Crystal City" of his vision will take him and his small group of companions to New England, to observe a model human community founded on solidly moral and religious principles. But this is a New England where the Puritan theocracy never fell, and which still hangs "witches" --including anybody who has any visible supernatural knack. Meanwhile, Peggy still hopes to emancipate the slaves AND prevent the looming bloody war over slavery that all the possible threads of the futures she foresees tell her is impending. That will take her on a journey to Camelot (known in our world as Charleston, SC) to seek an audience with the King-in-exile, a mission as dangerous in its own way as Alvin's. And in the background (and sometimes the foreground) is always the wild card posed by Alvin's jealous younger brother Calvin, possessed of significant but untrained powers as a Maker himself, but capricious, vain and lacking in morals and maturity.

A lot of the trademark strengths of this series are evident here, including Card's strong storytelling skills, sometimes singing prose, and attention to ethical and psychological verities. The latter underlies his outstanding characterizations, both of his wholly fictional characters --new ones here include the slave girl Fishy, the confused and conflicted Purity, and the malevolent witch hunter Micah Quill (whom you want to reach into the page and strangle)-- and the ones who are counterparts of real people in our world, with the same personalities but their situations changed by the changed circumstances here, including Honore de Balzac, John James Audubon, Denmark Vesey, and an aged John Adams. (Readers should remember that this is a version of history in which Adams and Jefferson didn't reconcile in old age; so the jaundiced view of Jefferson that Adams expresses, and the ideas he attributes to him, don't necessarily reflect Card's own view.) And a strong point of his characterizations is the recognition of the mixture of good and bad, saint and sinner, that can live in us all. "There's no one who doesn't have memories he wishes he didn't have," Peggy says at one point. "And there are crimes that arise from --from decent desires gone wrong, from justified passions carried too far. Crimes that began only as mistakes. I've learned never to judge people. Of course I judge whether they're dangerous or not, or whether they did right or wrong, how can anyone live without judging? What I mean is, I can't condemn them. A few, yes, a few who love the suffering of others, or who never think of others at all, worthless souls who exist only to satisfy themselves. But those are rare. Do you even know what I'm talking about?" (I think I can answer that with an affirmative, from my own observations of life!)

This time, though, I didn't give the book the five stars I gave the preceding series volumes. That's only because I felt Card dropped the ball by not paying attention to some significant details, both in his world-building and his chronology. The previous book was explicitly clear that Appalachee had been admitted to the U.S. as a slave state (in fact, Jackson, who was from there, became President in that book). But at the outset here, we're told that the question of Appalachee's admission to the U.S., and the continuation of slavery there, are still moot points (and a serious bone of contention between the U.S. and the Crown Colonies). For a reader who takes the details of the alternate world seriously, and regards Card's attention to alternate history as a strength of the series and a key part of its appeal, that kind of sloppy mistake is a defect of craftsmanship that bulks large --and should, because I think readers should demand attention to detail from writers! Also, in the earlier part of the book, Card appears to forget that given the chronology here, Arthur Stuart is only twelve years old --his voice wouldn't be changing at that age nor, probably, would he have been interested in girls (kids in that era weren't fed on hormone- drenched meat, and didn't suffer from precocious puberty as a result). But those flaws didn't keep me from really liking the book!

A major interpretive issue with this series is the role Card's Mormon beliefs play into it, and to what extent Alvin is a clone of our world's Joseph Smith (not, IMO, a very big extent, though a comparison exists). The only indication of a direct influence of Mormon theology so far in the series appears in one place here, where Alvin reflects to the effect that God, having made the world, wanted the people in it to "be Makers with Him." (Alvin's magical knack involves considerable power to re-shape matter at the molecular level by "looking" into it and willing the small particles to line up the way he wants, but Card posits that people in general may have some talents along this line and can learn to exercise them by training and practice.) This line can be interpreted as a reference to the Mormon idea of salvation as (for men) eventual deification --and given Card's Mormonism, it's not improbable that he sees it that way. But it's one line in a 336-page book --and it can be interpreted (if you want to apply D. H. Lawrence's "trust the tale and not the teller" adage :-)) in a less extreme way. (From an evangelical perspective, there is a very real sense in which God does want us --and even equips us-- to be "makers" with him: he gives us talent, creativity and imagination that involves bringing into being a great many products of human craftsmanship, inventiveness and hard work that wouldn't exist without us, and that we can take satisfaction in.)

Alvin realizes he must start getting busy finding out how to build the Crystal City. He takes Author Stuart on this journey and picks up some more friends along the way. They end up in New England where it is illegal to have a "knack". A girl named Purity, whose parents were accused of being witches, accuses Alivn and Verity of being one themselves. So we endured a witch trial that was pretty crazy. Peggy on the other hand has traveled to Camelot and is dealing with the slavery issue. She meets up with Calvin and his French friend when some voodoo goes wrong. Calvin's life is in danger and Peggy struggles with the thought of whether to let him live or to let him die to save her husband's life. These events were pretty crazy too. This book was not my favorite of the series, but it did have some interesting parts. The audiobook narrators are wonderful as always.

What it's about: Alvin Smith doesn't know how to create the Crystal City, a place where everyone can live in harmony. He hopes to find some clues by travelling to New England, where Puritans have established a country that is recognized as a peaceful, lawful, moral center. But although the Salem witch trials are far in the past, their shadow still looms, and anyone exhibiting a knack is taken to be a witch. Although executions have become more rare, they are not unknown. And soon Alvin and his travelling companions find themselves in an unfortunate position when a young lady, long orphaned when her parents were found guilty of witchery, finds the knack-filled band during their travels.

Meanwhile, Margaret Smith has re-dedicated herself to the cause of ending slavery. To that end, she has travelled to the southern colonies where the English King-in-Exile, Arthur Stuart, rules over a land that runs on slavery. As she tries to maneuver her way into an audience with the King to try to end slavery in a way that will prevent a terrible war, she finds a mystery about the southern slaves that she cannot solve.

At the same time, Calvin Maker has returned to America with his boon companion Honore de Balzac, who fears Calvin as much as he finds him fascinating. The two find themselves becoming entangled in events that catch them unaware, and bring them into conflict with a power that might leave Calvin dead.

What I thought: This saga continues to entertain. Each volume seems to take up one or two weighty matters as a main focus - the use of power, natives versus immigrants, destiny, the harm lies can bring. This volume generally keeps its focus on how legality does not equal just; and slavery, and how abhorrent it is.

Card pulls a few interesting tricks, coming up with in-universe reasons for arguments made by actual pro-slavery advocates. But although Card manages to bring a sense of the defeatedness, desperation, and anger slaves might have felt, it is definitely a sanitized version of events that actually transpired. Although I found the presentation of slavery here to be infuriating, it is a very pale reflection of the actual conditions, which might leave some younger readers wondering what the big deal about slavery was.

It was also interesting to see how he depicted the witch trials. He makes it clear that when someone is given authority and they decide to abuse it, they can twist the law to make it serve their own ends, to the great detriment of those the authority would like to attack.

Why I rated it like I did: All in all, this is another enjoyable entry in the Alvin Maker series, as long as one is not looking for overly-realistic depictions of the cruelty man often visited (and sadly still visits) on man.

Excellent book

Storyline: 3/5
Characters: 4/5
Writing Style: 3/5
World: 3/5

Almost every new volume in the series has been slightly worse than the previous though none have diminished enough to merit the designation of a bad book. I understand now that a big part of Card's plan with the series was to tour 19th century North America and show off his alternate history. There are probably inside jokes and intriguing contrasts being made with colonial towns, historical personages, and popular ideas. I'd count myself as having an above-average familiarity with early American history, but I clearly lack the historical depth to appreciate what Card is doing here. I end up, then, visiting places that I've heard of and encountering events of which I'm vaguely familiar, but none if it is striking. The writing too, is odd here. My wife was surreptitiously reading over my shoulder, and she remarked that the author didn't use adjectives. I hadn't noticed before, but she was right. Not that he completely forgoes them, but analogies, similes, and nouns aplenty saturate the novel but rare is there a description. Card is an old-hand at writing at this point, and he is careful never to violate the "show-not-tell" rule, but in doing so we are largely deprived of environmental context. Thus I rarely could tell you what a town, room, or someone's clothing looked like. Coupled with a slow story this made for a musty read when Card was hoping for something aromatic.

There's still some highlights here that series fans will enjoy. Card continues to work in excellent characters that are not only a study of the human condition but a look backward into history and the condition at that time. It is unfortunate the main characters take up so much room in the novels. Card isn't doing anything new with them anymore. Some of the minor characters were remarkable enough though that I wished they had been given major roles and more space in the tale. We also finally get a better understanding of the magical system in this book. The details are spread through the story, and, I think, might even contain some retroactive continuity changes, but the system is finally (though slowly) coming together. The whole Mormon allegory thing keeps getting weirder and weirder though. Obviously either I don't understand Mormonism or the point of the story. Still, I'd rather just enjoy it as a fantasy, and that was made more possible here than in some of the earlier books.

I'll read to the end of the series and be glad when it is finished.

5th in the Alvin Maker series. Alvin and his friends travel to New England, renowned for its virtue, and comes up against the New England witch hunters. They twist a natural knack to be seen as Satanic witchery. In the meantime Peggy travels to Camelot, a kingdom ruled by the exiled King of England, where slavery flourishes. Alvin's brother Calvin follows Peggy to see if he can use her against Alvin. All of them confront the looming war, the only path to the destruction of the institution of slavery.

You often hear about a "riveting court scene," but in HEARTFIRE it really is. Between the plans of Alvin, Verily, and John Adams, justice is forced back into its natural path.

Heartfire was another great add to the Tales of Alvin Maker, I love how rich and deep the mystical frontier has become in this epic story.

Note: I won't be finishing this series, given the author's homophobic stance - I'm not going to fill his pockets. But these were my thoughts on the book before I knew how horrible a man the author was:

Though not quite as up to snuff as the other books in the Alvin Maker series to date, this one wins praise for paying as much attention to Verily Cooper and Peggy the Torch as it does to Alvin and Calvin themselves.

Peggy is taking on slavery, trying to use her gift to see the possible futures of people to arrange a war-free way to end slavery, while Verily is tackling witchcraft laws, trying to find a public trial that will let him set a precedant likely to stop witch hunts forever.

Enjoyable banter starts to fill this book (especially that of Verily Cooper), and Margaret's journey among the slaves is just solidly written.

Best Line: "He was aquitted of all charges," said Verily, "Proving that I'm a clever lawyer." / "Proving I was innocent," said Alvin. "An advantage I don't have this time."

Szerencsére ez mér ismét sokkal jobb volt, mint a negyedi kötet. Itt is voltak ugyan zavaró tényezők (pl Agnes karaktere nagyon irritáló volt), de sokkal jobban pörögtek most az események. És szerencsére nem vitte el ezt is egy tárgyalói drámába. A varázslat benne pedig ismét annyi eredetiséget hozott, ami nagyon dicséretes.

It’s been a while since I read this far into a series, and I can start to see why I like trilogies and stand-alone books. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think this series had evolved into a courtroom drama instead of a historical fantasy. At this point, the whole premise of this series seems to have veered off course and has lost its focus to tackle unrelated issues that were somewhat prominent at the time. Or, at least it’s merely acting as a chance to name drop historical figures and take the side of history against well-known issues that haven’t aged well over time.

If anything, Heartfire could have easily been the fourth book in the series, since n  Alvin Journeymann added nothing to the story. Even so, Heartfire didn’t feel as strong as earlier books in the series. It almost seems like there’s more of a focus on world-building. There is less focus on actually progressing the story—like the path toward the Crystal City. Certain plot elements were almost entirely forgotten as well, even if there was a whole legal battle in the last book to re-hash how Alvin came into possession of a sentient golden plow (which itself is still unclear why it’s important).

By now, I’m merely reading the series on autopilot just to see if there is any conclusion to the alternate history presented here. I still think there are clever takes on historical figures, but by now, they seem added in as a heavy winking nod to the reader, most of whom will already know the referenced individual. Perhaps the lack of overall character growth in this book is what made it such a so-so read for me. Sure, there were baby steps toward some redemption arc, but in the end, nothing ended up changing the drive of the overarching story.

Another weak link in the Alvin Journeyman series, I give Heartfire 3.0 stars out of 5.
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