The Crystal City: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Book Six
Oct 2004 · Alvin Maker Book 6 · Tor Books
3.6star
61 reviewsreport
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384
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About this ebook
The Tales of Alvin Maker continue in The Crystal City, the sixth book in the historical fantasy series from the Hugo and Nebula award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Ender's Game.
Using the lore and the folk-magic of the men and women who settled North America, Orson Scott Card has created an alternate world where magic works, and where that magic has colored the entire history of the colonies. Charms and beseechings, hexes and potions, all have a place in the lives of the people of this world. Dowsers find water, the second sight warns of dangers to come, and a torch can read a person's future--or their heart.
In this world where "knacks" abound, Alvin, the seventh son of a seventh son, is a very special man indeed. He's a Maker; he has the knack of understanding how things are put together, how to create them, repair them, keep them whole, or tear them down. He can heal hearts as well as bones, he can build a house, he can calm the waters or blow up a storm. And he can teach his knack to others, to the measure of their own talent.
Alvin has been trying to avert the terrible war that his wife, Peggy, a torch of extraordinary power, has seen down the life-lines of every American. Now she has sent him down the Mizzippy to the city of New Orleans, or Nueva Barcelona as they call it under Spanish occupation. Alvin doesn't know exactly why he's there, but when he and his brother-in-law, Arthur Stuart, find lodgings with a family of abolitionists who know Peggy, he suspects he'll find out soon.
But Nueva Barcelona is about to experience a plague, and Alvin's efforts to protect his friends by keeping them healthy will create more danger than he could ever have suspected. And in saving the poor people of the city, Alvin will be put to the greatest test of his life--a test that will draw on all his power. For the time has come for him to turn to his old friend Tenskwa-Tawa, the Red Prophet who controls the lands to the west of the Mizzippy.
Now Alvin must take the first steps on the road to the Crystal City that was shown to him in a vision so long ago.
The Tales of Alvin Maker series
Seventh Son
Red Prophet
Prentice Alvin
Alvin Journeyman
Heartfire
The Crystal City
Master Alvin
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Using the lore and the folk-magic of the men and women who settled North America, Orson Scott Card has created an alternate world where magic works, and where that magic has colored the entire history of the colonies. Charms and beseechings, hexes and potions, all have a place in the lives of the people of this world. Dowsers find water, the second sight warns of dangers to come, and a torch can read a person's future--or their heart.
In this world where "knacks" abound, Alvin, the seventh son of a seventh son, is a very special man indeed. He's a Maker; he has the knack of understanding how things are put together, how to create them, repair them, keep them whole, or tear them down. He can heal hearts as well as bones, he can build a house, he can calm the waters or blow up a storm. And he can teach his knack to others, to the measure of their own talent.
Alvin has been trying to avert the terrible war that his wife, Peggy, a torch of extraordinary power, has seen down the life-lines of every American. Now she has sent him down the Mizzippy to the city of New Orleans, or Nueva Barcelona as they call it under Spanish occupation. Alvin doesn't know exactly why he's there, but when he and his brother-in-law, Arthur Stuart, find lodgings with a family of abolitionists who know Peggy, he suspects he'll find out soon.
But Nueva Barcelona is about to experience a plague, and Alvin's efforts to protect his friends by keeping them healthy will create more danger than he could ever have suspected. And in saving the poor people of the city, Alvin will be put to the greatest test of his life--a test that will draw on all his power. For the time has come for him to turn to his old friend Tenskwa-Tawa, the Red Prophet who controls the lands to the west of the Mizzippy.
Now Alvin must take the first steps on the road to the Crystal City that was shown to him in a vision so long ago.
The Tales of Alvin Maker series
Seventh Son
Red Prophet
Prentice Alvin
Alvin Journeyman
Heartfire
The Crystal City
Master Alvin
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Ratings and reviews
3.6
61 reviews
A Google user
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June 19, 2009
Orson Scott Card continues to capture the reader's attention and to ask bigger questions about how people relate to their world through this alternate America story. Not my favorite in the series, it still has a compelling story worth every page.
A Google user
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September 13, 2012
I greatly enjoyed the series as a teen, and read it again recently on vacation. It (the series as a whole) has lost some of its appeal since then, but still enjoyable. Where's the ending? I agree with Mal that this book was one of the lesser works in comparison with its brethren.
Phillip Sperry
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September 25, 2015
Horrible ending to a series. It could have been so much more!
About the author
ORSON SCOTT CARD may be best known for his science fiction (including Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead), but, regretting the lack of fantasy novels set in the American past, he started the Tales of Alvin Maker, the epic of a powerful mage on the American frontier.
Card was born in 1951 in Richland, Washington, and went to school in Santa Clara, California; Mesa, Arizona; and Provo, Utah. After serving as a missionary for the LDS Church in São Paulo, Brazil, he earned degrees at Brigham Young University and the University of Utah, worked as an editor of books and magazines, and wrote plays and audioplays. He lives in Greensboro, North Carolina with his wife, Kristine Allen Card. They are the parents of three adult children and grandparents of seven.
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