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3.55 AVERAGE
3.55 AVERAGE
There are enough prime spots in this book to warrant 4 stars. I loved the Salamander courtroom scene.
Fantastic books! See my review on Seventh Son for my thoughts on the series.
#classroomlibrary
#classroomlibrary
Excellent. Love the “alternate” history in this series.
This has been my least favorite book in the series so far. The plot plodded - feeling more like an extra side-tale most of the time - and most of the encounters between characters were irritating or frustrating. Calvin is almost too evil to be believed, and all the French characters irritating. The exchanges between Alvin and Margaret we also very strange. Knowing what I did about Peggy, I did not expect the level of resistance she suddenly put up against Alvin, and the death of her mother seemed like an inadequate excuse. I do hope the next book gets on with it now that all the relationship issues have been established or resolved.
It has been said that any plot which depends on a dramatic courtroom trial is doomed to mediocrity. ALVIN JOURNEYMAN, unfortunately, is one of those plots. In this fourth instalment of Orson Scott Card's alternate-history and Mormon allegory "The Tales of Alvin Maker", Alvin is put on trial for his life. We, the readers, spend half the book being dragged through courtroom melodrama with a protagonist the reader is having a hard time caring about any more.
At the end of PRENTICE ALVIN, Alvin finished his prentice stint with Makepeace Smith and had returned to his hometown of Vigor Church to teach Making. ALVIN JOURNEYMAN sees him return almost immediately to Hatrack River due to the slander of a young lady in love with him. Upon his arrival, however, he is arrested and put on trial for theft of the golden plow, and his young ward Arthur Stuart faces being taken back to slavery in Appalachee. Verily Cooper, a young English lawyer with a knack for binding things together, is brought to the United States by rumours of a Maker and defends Alvin. And while Alvin endures his hardships in Hatrack River, his malevolent brother Calvin heads for Europe to learn from Napoleon himself how to rule over others.
Orson Scott Card wrote ALVIN JOURNEYMAN five years after the previous installment, and it is pretty evident that he has grown somewhat tired of the series and no longer sure of what direction it will take. Alvin teaches Making in Vigor Church, but how can you teach that, what exactly would you be teaching? Card can't come up with an answer either and thus he abandons the topic as soon as this installment begins. There are several blatant errors with geography (a judge refers to "the state of Kennituck" when Card had already said that Kennituck was a county of Appalachee). After fleeing from Vigor Church and wandering for a bit, Alvin and Arthur Stuart's return to Hatrack River seems forced. Why would Alvin return to a place where his enemies await him? A bit of the novel is dedicated to the comeback of White Murderer Harrison, but after he is elected, Card quickly dispatches him almost beneath the reader's notice. The ending resolves nothing and is little more than a Taleswapper cameo.
The novel is also frustrating because it accomplishes little for the series. We see no progress towards the building of the Crystal City, and the only indication of where the series is headed are the occasional foreboding references to how Alvin should not visit Carthage City lest he die, just as the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, met a violent end in Carthage, Illinois. However, in ALVIN JOURNEYMAN Orson Scott Card does start to go off track with the formerly solid Mormon allegory. The trial of Alvin is obviously symbolic of the trials of Joseph Smith, but while Alvin is acquitted, the young Joseph Smith was found guilty of moneydigging. ALVIN JOURNEYMAN leaves the reader drifting, totally ignorant of what is going to happen next or, indeed, what the point of the series is any more.
The first two volumes of The Tales of Alvin Maker were quite entertaining and the third volume, while it had its moments, was a disappointment. It is becoming increasingly difficult to recommend the series.
At the end of PRENTICE ALVIN, Alvin finished his prentice stint with Makepeace Smith and had returned to his hometown of Vigor Church to teach Making. ALVIN JOURNEYMAN sees him return almost immediately to Hatrack River due to the slander of a young lady in love with him. Upon his arrival, however, he is arrested and put on trial for theft of the golden plow, and his young ward Arthur Stuart faces being taken back to slavery in Appalachee. Verily Cooper, a young English lawyer with a knack for binding things together, is brought to the United States by rumours of a Maker and defends Alvin. And while Alvin endures his hardships in Hatrack River, his malevolent brother Calvin heads for Europe to learn from Napoleon himself how to rule over others.
Orson Scott Card wrote ALVIN JOURNEYMAN five years after the previous installment, and it is pretty evident that he has grown somewhat tired of the series and no longer sure of what direction it will take. Alvin teaches Making in Vigor Church, but how can you teach that, what exactly would you be teaching? Card can't come up with an answer either and thus he abandons the topic as soon as this installment begins. There are several blatant errors with geography (a judge refers to "the state of Kennituck" when Card had already said that Kennituck was a county of Appalachee). After fleeing from Vigor Church and wandering for a bit, Alvin and Arthur Stuart's return to Hatrack River seems forced. Why would Alvin return to a place where his enemies await him? A bit of the novel is dedicated to the comeback of White Murderer Harrison, but after he is elected, Card quickly dispatches him almost beneath the reader's notice. The ending resolves nothing and is little more than a Taleswapper cameo.
The novel is also frustrating because it accomplishes little for the series. We see no progress towards the building of the Crystal City, and the only indication of where the series is headed are the occasional foreboding references to how Alvin should not visit Carthage City lest he die, just as the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, met a violent end in Carthage, Illinois. However, in ALVIN JOURNEYMAN Orson Scott Card does start to go off track with the formerly solid Mormon allegory. The trial of Alvin is obviously symbolic of the trials of Joseph Smith, but while Alvin is acquitted, the young Joseph Smith was found guilty of moneydigging. ALVIN JOURNEYMAN leaves the reader drifting, totally ignorant of what is going to happen next or, indeed, what the point of the series is any more.
The first two volumes of The Tales of Alvin Maker were quite entertaining and the third volume, while it had its moments, was a disappointment. It is becoming increasingly difficult to recommend the series.
I mean, just look at the cover. I debated whether to even admit on this site that I read the book. This one doesn't even just suffer from the offensiveness, it's also really bad from the long whinge-worthy meandering opening.
Super-tempted to give up on the series -- only the insistence of my daughter keeps me going. Le sigh.
Super-tempted to give up on the series -- only the insistence of my daughter keeps me going. Le sigh.
I enjoyed this episode in the series. Many enjoyable commute hours.