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Tales of Alvin Maker #7
Master Alvin: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Book Seven
The Tales of Alvin Maker concludes in Master Alvin, the final book in the historical fantasy series from the Hugo and Nebula award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Ender's Game.
This program features multicast narration.
Inspired by 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 a 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 builds 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.
In this final novel in the Alvin Maker series, Alvin’s journey leads him across the river—visiting his old friend the Red Prophet, across the country, and even across the Atlantic, where Irish folk with knacks are being persecuted. Through trials and tribulations, Alvin must learn when to use his extraordinary powers, and when to not, as he strives to safehold his people from a darkness that threatens everything they’ve built in the Crystal City, and in their very hearts.
The Tales of Alvin Maker series
Seventh Son
Red Prophet
Prentice Alvin
Alvin Journeyman
Heartfire
The Crystal City
Master Alvin
A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books
This program features multicast narration.
Inspired by 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 a 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 builds 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.
In this final novel in the Alvin Maker series, Alvin’s journey leads him across the river—visiting his old friend the Red Prophet, across the country, and even across the Atlantic, where Irish folk with knacks are being persecuted. Through trials and tribulations, Alvin must learn when to use his extraordinary powers, and when to not, as he strives to safehold his people from a darkness that threatens everything they’ve built in the Crystal City, and in their very hearts.
The Tales of Alvin Maker series
Seventh Son
Red Prophet
Prentice Alvin
Alvin Journeyman
Heartfire
The Crystal City
Master Alvin
A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books
Audible Audio
Published April 28, 2026
41 people are currently reading
687 people want to read
About the author
Orson Scott Card
846 books20.9k followersOrson Scott Card is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is (as of 2023) the only person to have won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for his novel Ender's Game (1985) and its sequel Speaker for the Dead (1986). A feature film adaptation of Ender's Game, which Card co-produced, was released in 2013. Card also wrote the Locus Fantasy Award-winning series The Tales of Alvin Maker (1987–2003).
Card's fiction often features characters with exceptional gifts who make difficult choices with high stakes. Card has also written political, religious, and social commentary in his columns and other writing; his opposition to homosexuality has provoked public criticism.
Card, who is a great-great-grandson of Brigham Young, was born in Richland, Washington, and grew up in Utah and California. While he was a student at Brigham Young University (BYU), his plays were performed on stage. He served in Brazil as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and headed a community theater for two summers. Card had 27 short stories published between 1978 and 1979, and he won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 1978. He earned a master's degree in English from the University of Utah in 1981 and wrote novels in science fiction, fantasy, non-fiction, and historical fiction genres starting in 1979. Card continued to write prolifically, and he has published over 50 novels and 45 short stories.
Card teaches English at Southern Virginia University; he has written two books on creative writing and serves as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest. He has taught many successful writers at his "literary boot camps". He remains a practicing member of the LDS Church and Mormon fiction writers Stephenie Meyer, Brandon Sanderson, and Dave Wolverton have cited his works as a major influence.
Card's fiction often features characters with exceptional gifts who make difficult choices with high stakes. Card has also written political, religious, and social commentary in his columns and other writing; his opposition to homosexuality has provoked public criticism.
Card, who is a great-great-grandson of Brigham Young, was born in Richland, Washington, and grew up in Utah and California. While he was a student at Brigham Young University (BYU), his plays were performed on stage. He served in Brazil as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and headed a community theater for two summers. Card had 27 short stories published between 1978 and 1979, and he won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 1978. He earned a master's degree in English from the University of Utah in 1981 and wrote novels in science fiction, fantasy, non-fiction, and historical fiction genres starting in 1979. Card continued to write prolifically, and he has published over 50 novels and 45 short stories.
Card teaches English at Southern Virginia University; he has written two books on creative writing and serves as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest. He has taught many successful writers at his "literary boot camps". He remains a practicing member of the LDS Church and Mormon fiction writers Stephenie Meyer, Brandon Sanderson, and Dave Wolverton have cited his works as a major influence.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
(Review copy courtesy of Macmillan Audio, Orson Scott Card, and NetGalley.)
2 viscerally disappointed ⭐ OR… “We waited 23 years for this?!”
WARNING! THIS REVIEW IS “OOPS ALL SPOILERS.” There are so many, and they are so prevalent, that I will not be marking them individually. Also, my annoyance brought out FULL MILLENNIAL ENERGY. (I’m cringe but free.) Read on at your own spoilerific peril.
3…
2…
1…
Let’s go.
After downloading the book from NetGalley, I went back and reread all six previous books. The last time I read Crystal City was in 2012, so I was long overdue for a refresh.
You need to understand something about my reading philosophy: I can get behind any plot point, as long as it is well executed. Any genre, any style, any theme. Do I have my favorites? Of course. Do some things make me uncomfortable? Sure. But good execution will always win me over.
This book commits the cardinal sin. This book suffers from poor execution. It’s made worse by the fact that the first book in the series was one of my all-time favorites—and that I’ve been waiting a really long time to experience the end of Alvin’s adventure.
Which. Let’s discuss THAT.
Every author has a duty of care to the characters they create. That doesn't mean everyone gets a soft landing or a happy ending. This isn’t a fairy tale. But Card abused Alvin for six straight books, and then really said, “Let’s go ahead and off him.” Guess it's not a messianic figure if he’s not dead. (Though, a messianic figure could just as easily come back to life. Just sayin’.)
It wasn’t just Alvin, either. Margaret got the shaft, too. They hardly ever had time together because he was always gone. Then he does the thing she begged him not to do and he dies. And then she casually mentions she’s going to remarry because, *checks notes*, her THREE CHILDREN need more siblings… (Sir, your Mormonism is showing.)
Also, can we talk about Calvin? A.K.A. the reason the first book was five stars and everything else wasn’t. That man is the bane of this series, and maybe—MAYBE—it would have been worth it if there were catharsis.
Catharsis? I don't know her.
This asshole needed either a strong redemption arc OR actual consequences. Oh, you don’t get to be the seventh son?? Weaksauce. You raped multiple women with your sEdUcTiOn pOwERs and impregnated at least 14 (among your MANY other crimes.) No, no, no. I wanted punishment that left me grinning like a feral maniac. We very much did not receive that.
Maybe the thing that pissed me off the most was the Crystal City. It was conceptually so fucking cool. It was the thing they were building toward the entire series. It should have been absolutely MAGNIFICENT. Or a DISASTER. But something in ALL CAPS—not… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ “The Crystal City is the people…” And then abandoning it.
👏THE👏 CRIME👏 OF👏POOR👏 EXECUTION👏
The one thing I will give the story is that the writing itself is stylistically consistent with the writing from 23 years ago. I mean, that’s pretty impressive. But the story isn’t cohesive. It’s a jumbled mess of ideas and hanging threads. (Why bring back all the big bads from previous books and then do nothing with them??)
Card clearly did not have a strong enough premise to support a seventh book. Would it be weird to leave it at six when you have the seventh son of a seventh son theme? Obviously. But at this point, it would have been better than giving us this.
My takeaway is that Orson Scott Card wrote himself into a corner and didn’t have the chops to write himself out. The story comes down to a false dilemma: do I run away from my problems, or do I die? And those are somehow the only options. I am certain that someone with a better handle on the reins would have come up with more—better—cleverer.
The thing that really drives home just how disappointed I was? This book includes an afterward read by Orson Scott Card himself, ostensibly explaining his method, logic, or inspiration. I wouldn’t know because I noped out. I just could not give a fuck at that point.
Audio-Specific 🎧: 20 hours 17 minutes. Narrated by Gabrielle de Cuir, Kirby Heyborne, Mirron Willis, Nan McNamara, Scott Brick, and Stefan Rudnicki. Plus an afterward from Orson Scott Card himself. I ran the other six books at 1.5x and this one at 1.75x, which may support a theory I’ve had for a while (and seen VAs on Reddit back up): publishers are now deliberately having voice actors read more slowly than they used to.
As for the specific performances, all I wanted was Stefan Rudnicki back, and I got him, so I was satisfied there.
📌 TL;DR: What more is there to say? Pour one out for Alvin. He deserved better in every single way. And so did we.
2 viscerally disappointed ⭐ OR… “We waited 23 years for this?!”
WARNING! THIS REVIEW IS “OOPS ALL SPOILERS.” There are so many, and they are so prevalent, that I will not be marking them individually. Also, my annoyance brought out FULL MILLENNIAL ENERGY. (I’m cringe but free.) Read on at your own spoilerific peril.
3…
2…
1…
Let’s go.
After downloading the book from NetGalley, I went back and reread all six previous books. The last time I read Crystal City was in 2012, so I was long overdue for a refresh.
You need to understand something about my reading philosophy: I can get behind any plot point, as long as it is well executed. Any genre, any style, any theme. Do I have my favorites? Of course. Do some things make me uncomfortable? Sure. But good execution will always win me over.
This book commits the cardinal sin. This book suffers from poor execution. It’s made worse by the fact that the first book in the series was one of my all-time favorites—and that I’ve been waiting a really long time to experience the end of Alvin’s adventure.
Which. Let’s discuss THAT.
Every author has a duty of care to the characters they create. That doesn't mean everyone gets a soft landing or a happy ending. This isn’t a fairy tale. But Card abused Alvin for six straight books, and then really said, “Let’s go ahead and off him.” Guess it's not a messianic figure if he’s not dead. (Though, a messianic figure could just as easily come back to life. Just sayin’.)
It wasn’t just Alvin, either. Margaret got the shaft, too. They hardly ever had time together because he was always gone. Then he does the thing she begged him not to do and he dies. And then she casually mentions she’s going to remarry because, *checks notes*, her THREE CHILDREN need more siblings… (Sir, your Mormonism is showing.)
Also, can we talk about Calvin? A.K.A. the reason the first book was five stars and everything else wasn’t. That man is the bane of this series, and maybe—MAYBE—it would have been worth it if there were catharsis.
Catharsis? I don't know her.
This asshole needed either a strong redemption arc OR actual consequences. Oh, you don’t get to be the seventh son?? Weaksauce. You raped multiple women with your sEdUcTiOn pOwERs and impregnated at least 14 (among your MANY other crimes.) No, no, no. I wanted punishment that left me grinning like a feral maniac. We very much did not receive that.
Maybe the thing that pissed me off the most was the Crystal City. It was conceptually so fucking cool. It was the thing they were building toward the entire series. It should have been absolutely MAGNIFICENT. Or a DISASTER. But something in ALL CAPS—not… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ “The Crystal City is the people…” And then abandoning it.
👏THE👏 CRIME👏 OF👏POOR👏 EXECUTION👏
The one thing I will give the story is that the writing itself is stylistically consistent with the writing from 23 years ago. I mean, that’s pretty impressive. But the story isn’t cohesive. It’s a jumbled mess of ideas and hanging threads. (Why bring back all the big bads from previous books and then do nothing with them??)
Card clearly did not have a strong enough premise to support a seventh book. Would it be weird to leave it at six when you have the seventh son of a seventh son theme? Obviously. But at this point, it would have been better than giving us this.
My takeaway is that Orson Scott Card wrote himself into a corner and didn’t have the chops to write himself out. The story comes down to a false dilemma: do I run away from my problems, or do I die? And those are somehow the only options. I am certain that someone with a better handle on the reins would have come up with more—better—cleverer.
The thing that really drives home just how disappointed I was? This book includes an afterward read by Orson Scott Card himself, ostensibly explaining his method, logic, or inspiration. I wouldn’t know because I noped out. I just could not give a fuck at that point.
Audio-Specific 🎧: 20 hours 17 minutes. Narrated by Gabrielle de Cuir, Kirby Heyborne, Mirron Willis, Nan McNamara, Scott Brick, and Stefan Rudnicki. Plus an afterward from Orson Scott Card himself. I ran the other six books at 1.5x and this one at 1.75x, which may support a theory I’ve had for a while (and seen VAs on Reddit back up): publishers are now deliberately having voice actors read more slowly than they used to.
As for the specific performances, all I wanted was Stefan Rudnicki back, and I got him, so I was satisfied there.
📌 TL;DR: What more is there to say? Pour one out for Alvin. He deserved better in every single way. And so did we.
Want to Read
August 3, 2025According to Tor publishers, Master Alvin is due to be published 28th April 2026…
March 27, 2026
This is the seventh book in the series about Alvin Maker, the seventh son of a seventh son, born with some powerful "knacks." It combines folklore, history, family ties, indigenous people (called reds... for consistency with the original books published as early as 1987), and adventure in a pre-Civil War period.
I remember reading the first six books in the series many years ago and wondering about the future of the Crystal City. Despite the time lag since book six, I was able to jump into the story with no problem. Of course, I'm older now, and the story struck me as more preachy than I remember. Still, it's full of good messages - caring for the earth, caring for each other - and the consequence of acting out of fear or spite.
If you're unfamiliar with the series, start from the first book and be happy you can read them all without waiting 23 years for the final installment! If, however, you remember reading the earlier novels, then jump in and enjoy this fine conclusion to this epic American fantasy series.
The audiobook has a couple of narrators who do an excellent job. After the epilogue, there is commentary by the author, describing his experience bringing the Alvin Maker series to a conclusion, followed by his very first attempt at the story... written in verse!
My thanks to the author, publisher, @MacmillanAudio, and #NetGalley for early access to the audiobook of #MasterAlvin for review purposes. Publication date: 28 April 2026.
I remember reading the first six books in the series many years ago and wondering about the future of the Crystal City. Despite the time lag since book six, I was able to jump into the story with no problem. Of course, I'm older now, and the story struck me as more preachy than I remember. Still, it's full of good messages - caring for the earth, caring for each other - and the consequence of acting out of fear or spite.
If you're unfamiliar with the series, start from the first book and be happy you can read them all without waiting 23 years for the final installment! If, however, you remember reading the earlier novels, then jump in and enjoy this fine conclusion to this epic American fantasy series.
The audiobook has a couple of narrators who do an excellent job. After the epilogue, there is commentary by the author, describing his experience bringing the Alvin Maker series to a conclusion, followed by his very first attempt at the story... written in verse!
My thanks to the author, publisher, @MacmillanAudio, and #NetGalley for early access to the audiobook of #MasterAlvin for review purposes. Publication date: 28 April 2026.
May 7, 2026
Turns out I like these books a lot less when the nostalgia of rereading a childhood book is gone. It flows worse than any of the other books for a number of reasons: a long creation process, the foreword says there were many rewrites, and the foreword also states that OSC refused to incorporate any of the notes his editor sent him. But a little clunkiness never stopped me before. This book is a serviceable conclusion to Alvin's story. I don't feel like the ending of this book fits with the characters, the world, or the story, and that is the main reason that most of this review is me angrily ranting. However I'm glad that we finally got to see a book 7. I've had this on my TBR list since I was 12 years old. Admittedly I haven't liked anything that OSC has written in the past 20ish years, so this book actually was better than any of my real expectations.
Apparently Hatrack River is the name of an AOL chatroom where Card and others would roleplay as people from the Maker-verse. Complete with the weird old-timey speak and their own knacks. Seems like he only finished the story as a kind gesture to them. Many of their characters are in the book now and a lot of them helped with editing and proofreading. It sounds like his daughter also wrote at least one of the chapters. He spends the last couple pages of the foreword complaining about editors daring to suggest edits to a renowned author like himself, which is always a good look.
The afterword of the book states that OSC didn't want to make a Joseph Smith allegory, but a real American frontier fantasy. Personally I think he failed at this. The plot of this series was continually hampered by adherence to Joseph smith's life, and by the end it was sticking so closely to his life it might as well have just been reading the wikipedia entry. After the first couple books there were only a few times where the series felt like an American frontier fantasy.
Secret theorizing time: In the foreword to the book OSC states that his daughter and editor disagreed with something that Alvin did and made him change it. His daughter then rewrote that chapter for him and helped change the rest of the book to match. He refused to say what it was that changed. So here's my wild guess. This book introduces a new character Eliza who eventually becomes one of the leaders of the Crystal City. She is a promiscuous woman and is flirtatious with Alvin. My big secret theory is that originally OSC wrote Alvin sleeping with Eliza. My evidence is that they spend a bunch of time together, she is the seductress character trope, and I can't think of anything else that Alvin could do in this book that would offend readers. My other evidence is that Eliza is also famously the name of one of Joseph Smiths real life plural wives. The real Eliza also joined the city in Nauvoo and eventually became a leader in the church similar to how book Eliza eventually is a leader of Crystal City.
This book reads like it was written over the course of many years. There are many sections that feel entirely separate from the rest of the book and feel like they've just been haphazardly slotted next to each other. Lots of plotlines get dropped midbook like the author just forgot about them. There are some weird continuity errors like when Rev. Thrower inexplicably teleports from the middle of the Atlantic to Dublin.
Editing mistake: There are two separate sections explaining that Peggy used Alvin's birth caul to save him as a child. One at the beginning and one in ch37. Definitely don't need to explain it twice. Why is this even being brought up at all? Every single book brings this up, but it hasn't been relevant information since book 3. I think OSC is just really proud that he found an old-timey tradition and incorporated it into the story.
This series has been largely chaste, however OSC must have gotten hornier in his old age, because this book is full of some weird stuff. So without further ado, here is the Horny section (Where I catalog the large number of oddly sexual scenes):
-Peggy describes Alvin during sex and the word she choses is cucumber.
-Peggy calls one of the characters "Buttnutter".
-Alvin magically rearranging women's clothes to hide cleavage and keep them modest.
-Calvin groping Eliza's breasts
-Calvin's detailed sex/rape scene
-Peggy repeatedly stomping Calvin's testicles while he tries not to react or fight back. (This week on Alvin Maker, the author's barely disguised fetish!)
-Calvin impregnating dozens of women
-For some reason when Peggy confronts Eliza about flirting with Alvin, Peggy asks her to think about how she would feel if Peggy asked Alvin to kiss Eliza? Chapter 27. What on earth.
CHARACTERS:
Who is Eliza Nutbutter? Is she based on the historical person who lived in Nauvoo? She plays the seductress character who has a change of heart and decides to use her people-manipulating knack to become a leader.
Tenska-Tawa is back and still alive.
Fra Angelico and Father Lukasz are catholic priests working to help Ireland. I can't find anything when I google those names.
Sergeant Porter of Dublin, could this be Porter Rockwell? All he does is arrest Alvin.
Mike Fink somehow is filling the shoes of Porter Rockwell. I still can't get over how
The bishop at the church who interrogates Alvin doesn't even get a name. He's a very notable character, so why is he the only person in the novel without a name?
Bowie: Eliza runs into someone in town carving with a Bowie knife, and it's not Bowie. Are they dropping Bowie as a character? He was more interesting than Calvin.
Rosheen the Irish healer is introduced as the only person that can almost heal people at Alvin's level, but then is never mentioned again.
Dr Elisha Kent Kane: Hey this guy is real! He led the first big expeditions to the north pole! But here he just follows Alvin to Ireland.
Sahara Sandy Grass: I don't see anything when I google this, but what a weird name for a made up character. He has to be real right? In this he's a pirate who can control the wind and ends up joining Alvin's party after Rev Thrower tries to kill him.
Verily Cooper did end up marrying Purity, age gap and all. I'm glad they made him wait a book until she was 18 I guess.
Arthur: He's the best character and he took charge of things in the end (I guess that makes him black Brigham Young?), but largely he felt absent from the narrative. I was really hoping for more Arthur Stuart. At least he got his cool voice knack back so he could do the Brigham Young speaking with the voice of Joseph Smith moment.
Cavil Planter returns just to get run out of town locked in his own prison wagon. Too good of an ending for this guy (The evil super rapist from book 4).
Taleswapper: This is the third consecutive book where they've brought in Taleswapper just so that he could say goodbye. I wish he could still be part of the story.
Peggy: I know that Alvin's conversations with his wife are long because of exposition, but boy does it seem like they hate each other the way they bicker. At least he's consistent with the past books LOL
Reverend Thrower makes his big return in this book, and it's like OSC completely forgot about him for the ending. Nothing from his PoV. It was funny that Alvin claims that Rev Thrower is not a murderer and could never kill him, and then in the very next scene Thrower attempts to murder someone.
Calvin: Let's talk about Calvin's redemption arc. He doesn't really have one. He stays right on the edge of committing atrocities and helping the city until the end when his change of heart is essentially thrust upon him. This is a person who has tortured and killed and raped and hurt everyone he's met in his entire life and yet somehow at the end people see him as a good person and he gets to continue helping the work. He never owned up to any of his mistakes other than disliking Alvin for no good reason. I was really rooting for Calvin to do anything since he was one of my favorite characters when I was a kid, and I did enjoy the fun stuff he was able to do, but I was left wishing for more.
Calvin alters Goody Lamb's mind so that she has sex with him. Why is Peggy allowing Calvin to rape dozens of people? He is trying to create his own seventh son, but this plotline gets dropped. Later she confronts him and he uses the logic that because they made the first move anything he did after that was consensual. Peggy accepts this but it's a pretty stupid understanding of consent.
MINOR NITPICKS:
The ebook that I have did not include a map, which is kind of crazy considering the United States as we know it is divided at least seven ways in this world and it is not easy to keep track of. It doesn't end up mattering too much though since this is the first book that stopped caring about distances and just had everyone greensong fast travel everywhere.
Just like every other book in the series there is a ton of discussion of speaking properly vs talking like a hick. Probably 10-20% of the series is spent on people discussing how one or the other of them is speaking differently. This is apparently because OSC has done a ton of research on how people actually spoke back then and wants to flex. But my goodness does the meta discussion of it get old fast.
The time it takes for magic to happen still varies wildly. Alvin spent 2 full days making the first ship leakproof, but then later he fixes 3 large retired and broken ships in just a few moments.
He spends a while making boats fit together perfectly so they don't leak. But is leaking even a problem? Larger ships are designed with that in mind. Having all the planks be melded together seems like it could cause other problems.
Strange that the book reintroduces weavers to let Alvin know that he needs to go to Ireland and rescue people. Alvin already has like 3 other methods for telling the future, and the weavers state that they can't tell the future, so why did the story need them to tell him? This whole series has been building to him creating the crystal city so people could see the future in the tabernacle walls. But I don't think there is a single time where anyone in the series looks into the walls to see the future outside of this one example with Alvin.
One of the places where the allegory falls apart is the Crystal city. Real Mormons were following unified beliefs that kept them together. But Crystal city was literally just several separate groups of refugees. The only thing keeping them together was strong knacked people like Eliza and John Binder literally mind controlling them into working together. Morally this is a nightmare, but the book kind of pretends that the people are naturally unified for some reason.
Weird section in ch 20 where Thrower is in the middle of the Atlantic and ran out of food and water. Then in the next chapter he is inexplicably back in Dublin. I can't make heads or tails of it. I guess his boat somehow floated back, but they were many days or even weeks into their journey so I can't understand how they survived.
HUGE GRIPES (Everything below here is me angrily ranting)
THE ENDING: Holy crap the ending. I don't know why I expected anything different. The book kept telling us over and over again that he was going to die, but usually books do that so they can subvert your expectations. The whole thing about Alvin is that when he MAKEs something it defies future vision. The whole series set me up to think he was going to do some huge making that changes the future. But no, apparently OSC just wanted to do the exact beat by beat recreation of Joseph Smith's death. He included every single tidbit about his death that I've ever heard. This stuff hits hard because it's the story and details from a real murder by a real mob. I really really really wish this story had gone a different direction. However you can't judge a book by what you wish it could be. As it is, this book is a serviceable conclusion. It gave nice little endings to each of the important characters and finished Alvin's story.
There were some weird things with this ending. Alvin spent a lot of time wondering how many bullets he could block and stop at once. He didn't even stop the first one. Couldn't he have broken all their guns as they were walking up? He saw them coming from a ways off. Using the actual last words that Joseph and Hyrum spoke felt out of place. These characters have a very specific way of speaking and it didn't fit the real life words of people dying to a mob.
Alvin keeps saying that Crystal City is the people and it's his greatest making, but how are they actually connected? It's 5000 black people from near Louisiana, 5000 Irish immigrants, and several thousand Ohio area knacked people. Call me crazy but this group would immediately fall apart when he died and they were asked to cross 1000 miles of wilderness. Racism was serious back then. It seemed like they only held together because John Binder had magic to keep them together. For reference in real life only a few thousand followed the initial push west, and then 70k more followed over the next 20 years.
A huge problem with this series is that the Native American subplot is way cooler than the mainline story. The Red Prophet is more exciting, more powerful, and accomplishes way more than Alvin ever does. The biggest change in this alternate universe is that Native Americans still have absolute control of half of the country by 1850. They also seem to have free reign over Mexico and most of Canada. They are having all sorts of adventures over there like when they Nuked Mexico City to kill the evil fire Aztecs. Unfortunately we only see minor glimpses of this part of the world after book 2.
Another huge problem with this series is that it forgot it was ALT history. Sure Alvin saved some starving Irish folk, but the 1850s were full of interesting historical figures, why did only a couple of them get to make cameos? The first few books in the series had no qualms making Napoleon and many others into interesting characters. But this book only used a few real people, and they barely did anything exciting.
Another Another huge problem with this series is that it stayed too close to Joseph Smith's life. Books 3 and 4 were basically wasted as "American Frontier Fantasy" stories because Alvin spent the whole time blacksmithing, then in jail, then in court. Going out of your way to have 3 witnesses to the plow and then 8 witnesses added nothing to the story. Same with the ending. It makes no sense for a wizard like Alvin to die to a mob that he had plenty of time to outwit. There are a thousand ways he could have used magic to keep his people safe, but he just sat in jail awaiting death instead. Alvin always finds a way to change the future with making, but the only thing he couldn't make was a life outside of Joseph Smith's shadow.
Things that I wish this book resolved:
What happened to Reverend Thrower? He had a bunch of chapters in the middle and then disappeared
The Unmaker: We still know nothing about it. It feels like OSC changed his mind on what it was many times throughout the series, but this book gave no answers.
Ranking of the Series:
2, 1, 6, 5, 7, 3, 4
Red Prophet was so fun and full of alt history and magic and potential. It wasn't perfect, but it was the best the series ever was. Book 1 was the best written book and made for a great origin story. Books 5 and 6 were when the series finally let Alvin start running around doing miracles and saving people. 6 is better because 5 is the one where OSC seems to have rage-quit and just ended the book prematurely while breaking a ton of his worldbuilding. Books 3 and 4 are the worst because they spend the entire time stuck in one town, and nothing exciting happens. 4 takes the lousiest spot because it was just a rehash of 3, but this time in a courtroom. I ranked 7 in the middle because it felt pretty disjointed, and I really don't think Joseph Smith's real life ending fits this story. However it was treated very reverently and the chapters that wrapped everything up seemed to fit.
Apparently Hatrack River is the name of an AOL chatroom where Card and others would roleplay as people from the Maker-verse. Complete with the weird old-timey speak and their own knacks. Seems like he only finished the story as a kind gesture to them. Many of their characters are in the book now and a lot of them helped with editing and proofreading. It sounds like his daughter also wrote at least one of the chapters. He spends the last couple pages of the foreword complaining about editors daring to suggest edits to a renowned author like himself, which is always a good look.
The afterword of the book states that OSC didn't want to make a Joseph Smith allegory, but a real American frontier fantasy. Personally I think he failed at this. The plot of this series was continually hampered by adherence to Joseph smith's life, and by the end it was sticking so closely to his life it might as well have just been reading the wikipedia entry. After the first couple books there were only a few times where the series felt like an American frontier fantasy.
Secret theorizing time: In the foreword to the book OSC states that his daughter and editor disagreed with something that Alvin did and made him change it. His daughter then rewrote that chapter for him and helped change the rest of the book to match. He refused to say what it was that changed. So here's my wild guess. This book introduces a new character Eliza who eventually becomes one of the leaders of the Crystal City. She is a promiscuous woman and is flirtatious with Alvin. My big secret theory is that originally OSC wrote Alvin sleeping with Eliza. My evidence is that they spend a bunch of time together, she is the seductress character trope, and I can't think of anything else that Alvin could do in this book that would offend readers. My other evidence is that Eliza is also famously the name of one of Joseph Smiths real life plural wives. The real Eliza also joined the city in Nauvoo and eventually became a leader in the church similar to how book Eliza eventually is a leader of Crystal City.
This book reads like it was written over the course of many years. There are many sections that feel entirely separate from the rest of the book and feel like they've just been haphazardly slotted next to each other. Lots of plotlines get dropped midbook like the author just forgot about them. There are some weird continuity errors like when Rev. Thrower inexplicably teleports from the middle of the Atlantic to Dublin.
Editing mistake: There are two separate sections explaining that Peggy used Alvin's birth caul to save him as a child. One at the beginning and one in ch37. Definitely don't need to explain it twice. Why is this even being brought up at all? Every single book brings this up, but it hasn't been relevant information since book 3. I think OSC is just really proud that he found an old-timey tradition and incorporated it into the story.
This series has been largely chaste, however OSC must have gotten hornier in his old age, because this book is full of some weird stuff. So without further ado, here is the Horny section (Where I catalog the large number of oddly sexual scenes):
-Peggy describes Alvin during sex and the word she choses is cucumber.
-Peggy calls one of the characters "Buttnutter".
-Alvin magically rearranging women's clothes to hide cleavage and keep them modest.
-Calvin groping Eliza's breasts
-Calvin's detailed sex/rape scene
-Peggy repeatedly stomping Calvin's testicles while he tries not to react or fight back. (This week on Alvin Maker, the author's barely disguised fetish!)
-Calvin impregnating dozens of women
-For some reason when Peggy confronts Eliza about flirting with Alvin, Peggy asks her to think about how she would feel if Peggy asked Alvin to kiss Eliza? Chapter 27. What on earth.
CHARACTERS:
Who is Eliza Nutbutter? Is she based on the historical person who lived in Nauvoo? She plays the seductress character who has a change of heart and decides to use her people-manipulating knack to become a leader.
Tenska-Tawa is back and still alive.
Fra Angelico and Father Lukasz are catholic priests working to help Ireland. I can't find anything when I google those names.
Sergeant Porter of Dublin, could this be Porter Rockwell? All he does is arrest Alvin.
Mike Fink somehow is filling the shoes of Porter Rockwell. I still can't get over how
The bishop at the church who interrogates Alvin doesn't even get a name. He's a very notable character, so why is he the only person in the novel without a name?
Bowie: Eliza runs into someone in town carving with a Bowie knife, and it's not Bowie. Are they dropping Bowie as a character? He was more interesting than Calvin.
Rosheen the Irish healer is introduced as the only person that can almost heal people at Alvin's level, but then is never mentioned again.
Dr Elisha Kent Kane: Hey this guy is real! He led the first big expeditions to the north pole! But here he just follows Alvin to Ireland.
Sahara Sandy Grass: I don't see anything when I google this, but what a weird name for a made up character. He has to be real right? In this he's a pirate who can control the wind and ends up joining Alvin's party after Rev Thrower tries to kill him.
Verily Cooper did end up marrying Purity, age gap and all. I'm glad they made him wait a book until she was 18 I guess.
Arthur: He's the best character and he took charge of things in the end (I guess that makes him black Brigham Young?), but largely he felt absent from the narrative. I was really hoping for more Arthur Stuart. At least he got his cool voice knack back so he could do the Brigham Young speaking with the voice of Joseph Smith moment.
Cavil Planter returns just to get run out of town locked in his own prison wagon. Too good of an ending for this guy (The evil super rapist from book 4).
Taleswapper: This is the third consecutive book where they've brought in Taleswapper just so that he could say goodbye. I wish he could still be part of the story.
Peggy: I know that Alvin's conversations with his wife are long because of exposition, but boy does it seem like they hate each other the way they bicker. At least he's consistent with the past books LOL
Reverend Thrower makes his big return in this book, and it's like OSC completely forgot about him for the ending. Nothing from his PoV. It was funny that Alvin claims that Rev Thrower is not a murderer and could never kill him, and then in the very next scene Thrower attempts to murder someone.
Calvin: Let's talk about Calvin's redemption arc. He doesn't really have one. He stays right on the edge of committing atrocities and helping the city until the end when his change of heart is essentially thrust upon him. This is a person who has tortured and killed and raped and hurt everyone he's met in his entire life and yet somehow at the end people see him as a good person and he gets to continue helping the work. He never owned up to any of his mistakes other than disliking Alvin for no good reason. I was really rooting for Calvin to do anything since he was one of my favorite characters when I was a kid, and I did enjoy the fun stuff he was able to do, but I was left wishing for more.
Calvin alters Goody Lamb's mind so that she has sex with him. Why is Peggy allowing Calvin to rape dozens of people? He is trying to create his own seventh son, but this plotline gets dropped. Later she confronts him and he uses the logic that because they made the first move anything he did after that was consensual. Peggy accepts this but it's a pretty stupid understanding of consent.
MINOR NITPICKS:
The ebook that I have did not include a map, which is kind of crazy considering the United States as we know it is divided at least seven ways in this world and it is not easy to keep track of. It doesn't end up mattering too much though since this is the first book that stopped caring about distances and just had everyone greensong fast travel everywhere.
Just like every other book in the series there is a ton of discussion of speaking properly vs talking like a hick. Probably 10-20% of the series is spent on people discussing how one or the other of them is speaking differently. This is apparently because OSC has done a ton of research on how people actually spoke back then and wants to flex. But my goodness does the meta discussion of it get old fast.
The time it takes for magic to happen still varies wildly. Alvin spent 2 full days making the first ship leakproof, but then later he fixes 3 large retired and broken ships in just a few moments.
He spends a while making boats fit together perfectly so they don't leak. But is leaking even a problem? Larger ships are designed with that in mind. Having all the planks be melded together seems like it could cause other problems.
Strange that the book reintroduces weavers to let Alvin know that he needs to go to Ireland and rescue people. Alvin already has like 3 other methods for telling the future, and the weavers state that they can't tell the future, so why did the story need them to tell him? This whole series has been building to him creating the crystal city so people could see the future in the tabernacle walls. But I don't think there is a single time where anyone in the series looks into the walls to see the future outside of this one example with Alvin.
One of the places where the allegory falls apart is the Crystal city. Real Mormons were following unified beliefs that kept them together. But Crystal city was literally just several separate groups of refugees. The only thing keeping them together was strong knacked people like Eliza and John Binder literally mind controlling them into working together. Morally this is a nightmare, but the book kind of pretends that the people are naturally unified for some reason.
Weird section in ch 20 where Thrower is in the middle of the Atlantic and ran out of food and water. Then in the next chapter he is inexplicably back in Dublin. I can't make heads or tails of it. I guess his boat somehow floated back, but they were many days or even weeks into their journey so I can't understand how they survived.
HUGE GRIPES (Everything below here is me angrily ranting)
THE ENDING: Holy crap the ending. I don't know why I expected anything different. The book kept telling us over and over again that he was going to die, but usually books do that so they can subvert your expectations. The whole thing about Alvin is that when he MAKEs something it defies future vision. The whole series set me up to think he was going to do some huge making that changes the future. But no, apparently OSC just wanted to do the exact beat by beat recreation of Joseph Smith's death. He included every single tidbit about his death that I've ever heard. This stuff hits hard because it's the story and details from a real murder by a real mob. I really really really wish this story had gone a different direction. However you can't judge a book by what you wish it could be. As it is, this book is a serviceable conclusion. It gave nice little endings to each of the important characters and finished Alvin's story.
There were some weird things with this ending. Alvin spent a lot of time wondering how many bullets he could block and stop at once. He didn't even stop the first one. Couldn't he have broken all their guns as they were walking up? He saw them coming from a ways off. Using the actual last words that Joseph and Hyrum spoke felt out of place. These characters have a very specific way of speaking and it didn't fit the real life words of people dying to a mob.
Alvin keeps saying that Crystal City is the people and it's his greatest making, but how are they actually connected? It's 5000 black people from near Louisiana, 5000 Irish immigrants, and several thousand Ohio area knacked people. Call me crazy but this group would immediately fall apart when he died and they were asked to cross 1000 miles of wilderness. Racism was serious back then. It seemed like they only held together because John Binder had magic to keep them together. For reference in real life only a few thousand followed the initial push west, and then 70k more followed over the next 20 years.
A huge problem with this series is that the Native American subplot is way cooler than the mainline story. The Red Prophet is more exciting, more powerful, and accomplishes way more than Alvin ever does. The biggest change in this alternate universe is that Native Americans still have absolute control of half of the country by 1850. They also seem to have free reign over Mexico and most of Canada. They are having all sorts of adventures over there like when they Nuked Mexico City to kill the evil fire Aztecs. Unfortunately we only see minor glimpses of this part of the world after book 2.
Another huge problem with this series is that it forgot it was ALT history. Sure Alvin saved some starving Irish folk, but the 1850s were full of interesting historical figures, why did only a couple of them get to make cameos? The first few books in the series had no qualms making Napoleon and many others into interesting characters. But this book only used a few real people, and they barely did anything exciting.
Another Another huge problem with this series is that it stayed too close to Joseph Smith's life. Books 3 and 4 were basically wasted as "American Frontier Fantasy" stories because Alvin spent the whole time blacksmithing, then in jail, then in court. Going out of your way to have 3 witnesses to the plow and then 8 witnesses added nothing to the story. Same with the ending. It makes no sense for a wizard like Alvin to die to a mob that he had plenty of time to outwit. There are a thousand ways he could have used magic to keep his people safe, but he just sat in jail awaiting death instead. Alvin always finds a way to change the future with making, but the only thing he couldn't make was a life outside of Joseph Smith's shadow.
Things that I wish this book resolved:
What happened to Reverend Thrower? He had a bunch of chapters in the middle and then disappeared
The Unmaker: We still know nothing about it. It feels like OSC changed his mind on what it was many times throughout the series, but this book gave no answers.
Ranking of the Series:
2, 1, 6, 5, 7, 3, 4
Red Prophet was so fun and full of alt history and magic and potential. It wasn't perfect, but it was the best the series ever was. Book 1 was the best written book and made for a great origin story. Books 5 and 6 were when the series finally let Alvin start running around doing miracles and saving people. 6 is better because 5 is the one where OSC seems to have rage-quit and just ended the book prematurely while breaking a ton of his worldbuilding. Books 3 and 4 are the worst because they spend the entire time stuck in one town, and nothing exciting happens. 4 takes the lousiest spot because it was just a rehash of 3, but this time in a courtroom. I ranked 7 in the middle because it felt pretty disjointed, and I really don't think Joseph Smith's real life ending fits this story. However it was treated very reverently and the chapters that wrapped everything up seemed to fit.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
3 stars, Metaphorosis reviews
Summary
Alvin Smith, a Maker with extraordinary powers, has created a Crystal City for himself and other people whose 'knacks' make them persecuted. But before he can find them a final home, he'll venture out across the ocean to help others in need.
Review
I've been a fan of Orson Scott Card's writing since I read his first published story, "Ender's Game" in Analog in 1977. I've written about how those magazines played a role in focusing my reading attention on SFF, and Card's story was a key part of that. I continue to think, including in a recent re-read, that his novel Songmaster is a work of genius. Of course, no one can keep that level of success up for ever, so while I've read a lot of his work, including some of his historical fiction, I've seen the quality of his work (or perhaps my appreciation of it) decline. And of course his politics are quite different than mine, but if I only read people I agree with, I'd have very little to read.
All that said, even back when, I wasn't a fan of the Alvin series. I appreciate Card's desire to write an American fantasy (discussed in an afterword here), but it didn't resonate much with me. I bought and read the first six books, but the opener, Seventh Son, is a handy rough marker for me of when Card lost his magic. I read the books, but I didn't like them, or care much about Alvin. And since the series began, his other books have been very hit or miss. His other latest work seems to me to be the work of an author who's no longer trying as hard as he used to. Or maybe he's just lost his spark.
I frankly thought the series was done, so was surprised when this book came out. And while I wasn't a fan of the series, I wanted to see if time (I read book six twenty years ago) and a fresh view would change things. But note that I recalled enough of the feeling of the series that I definitely did not want to go back and re-read it, though the books are sitting on my shelf.
To get down at last to the review - my feelings haven't really changed. I found this final book readable, but never gripping. While Card works hard to make his characters, even the powerful, near-divine Alvin, human and lifelike, I found the supporting characters' devotion to Alvin (and to some extent to his wife Margaret) grating. I'm glad to have read this conclusion, but I'm pretty confident I'll never go back.
Along with the near sycophancy, the story has other problems. To me, Alvin's decision to travel to Ireland comes out of nowhere and isn't a great fit for the book. Because Card makes it obvious in this book that he's building on Joseph Smith and Mormon history - something that I honestly, and perhaps dully, hadn't picked up on before - I was tempted to blame that. But the internet tells me Joseph Smith never went to Ireland. So I can't explain it. Card skimps on the final treatment of Calvin, Alvin's bitterly envious younger brother, at the very same point when he's indulging in long, repetitive set-piece speeches. The result is an ending that feels long and overly drawn out to make philosophical points while glossing over important character elements that the story previously made central.
Card notes that in this and the reissued earlier books, he inserted existing same-world short stories. Perhaps this, or other editing he mentions, some sequences feel out of place, and there's some mild repetition.
While I missed or understated the Mormon element until now, there are other elements that verged between overstated and fun - such as parallels to Jesus and implicit jokes about Eliza crossing the ice. Card's afterword makes clear that he had very definite plans from the start, so perhaps I'm seeing things that weren't intended, but I do think are there. The afterword itself has an oddly defensive tone. It doesn't go explicitly into politics, and perhaps again I'm seeing what's not intended, but I certainly read it as informed by popular criticism of Card and his beliefs. In other ways, as well, it reads as by a man who's, if not arrogant, at least very confident of his decisions, yet doth protest too much.
I think Card has been a fantastic writer - among the very best, and I think his earliest work has stood up well over time. The Alvin series, however, dear as it may be to Card's own heart, has never been his best work, and that remains true of this final book. It's of a piece with the rest, so if you enjoyed the earlier books, you'll enjoy this. If you know and like Card from his earlier work, I can't recommend this. If you know Card only from his later books, I think you might be confused by this; it's deeper and more careful, but I can't say it's better.
While this series may earn at best a shrug and an 'eh' from me, I urge you to read Card's earlier work, of which I remain a strong fan - Songmaster, A Planet Called Treason, Capitol, Hot Sleep, etc. - you'll be glad you did. And parts of The Worthing Chronicle series, which includes those last two, have some overlap in tone and concept with Alvin - just done better.
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.
Summary
Alvin Smith, a Maker with extraordinary powers, has created a Crystal City for himself and other people whose 'knacks' make them persecuted. But before he can find them a final home, he'll venture out across the ocean to help others in need.
Review
I've been a fan of Orson Scott Card's writing since I read his first published story, "Ender's Game" in Analog in 1977. I've written about how those magazines played a role in focusing my reading attention on SFF, and Card's story was a key part of that. I continue to think, including in a recent re-read, that his novel Songmaster is a work of genius. Of course, no one can keep that level of success up for ever, so while I've read a lot of his work, including some of his historical fiction, I've seen the quality of his work (or perhaps my appreciation of it) decline. And of course his politics are quite different than mine, but if I only read people I agree with, I'd have very little to read.
All that said, even back when, I wasn't a fan of the Alvin series. I appreciate Card's desire to write an American fantasy (discussed in an afterword here), but it didn't resonate much with me. I bought and read the first six books, but the opener, Seventh Son, is a handy rough marker for me of when Card lost his magic. I read the books, but I didn't like them, or care much about Alvin. And since the series began, his other books have been very hit or miss. His other latest work seems to me to be the work of an author who's no longer trying as hard as he used to. Or maybe he's just lost his spark.
I frankly thought the series was done, so was surprised when this book came out. And while I wasn't a fan of the series, I wanted to see if time (I read book six twenty years ago) and a fresh view would change things. But note that I recalled enough of the feeling of the series that I definitely did not want to go back and re-read it, though the books are sitting on my shelf.
To get down at last to the review - my feelings haven't really changed. I found this final book readable, but never gripping. While Card works hard to make his characters, even the powerful, near-divine Alvin, human and lifelike, I found the supporting characters' devotion to Alvin (and to some extent to his wife Margaret) grating. I'm glad to have read this conclusion, but I'm pretty confident I'll never go back.
Along with the near sycophancy, the story has other problems. To me, Alvin's decision to travel to Ireland comes out of nowhere and isn't a great fit for the book. Because Card makes it obvious in this book that he's building on Joseph Smith and Mormon history - something that I honestly, and perhaps dully, hadn't picked up on before - I was tempted to blame that. But the internet tells me Joseph Smith never went to Ireland. So I can't explain it. Card skimps on the final treatment of Calvin, Alvin's bitterly envious younger brother, at the very same point when he's indulging in long, repetitive set-piece speeches. The result is an ending that feels long and overly drawn out to make philosophical points while glossing over important character elements that the story previously made central.
Card notes that in this and the reissued earlier books, he inserted existing same-world short stories. Perhaps this, or other editing he mentions, some sequences feel out of place, and there's some mild repetition.
While I missed or understated the Mormon element until now, there are other elements that verged between overstated and fun - such as parallels to Jesus and implicit jokes about Eliza crossing the ice. Card's afterword makes clear that he had very definite plans from the start, so perhaps I'm seeing things that weren't intended, but I do think are there. The afterword itself has an oddly defensive tone. It doesn't go explicitly into politics, and perhaps again I'm seeing what's not intended, but I certainly read it as informed by popular criticism of Card and his beliefs. In other ways, as well, it reads as by a man who's, if not arrogant, at least very confident of his decisions, yet doth protest too much.
I think Card has been a fantastic writer - among the very best, and I think his earliest work has stood up well over time. The Alvin series, however, dear as it may be to Card's own heart, has never been his best work, and that remains true of this final book. It's of a piece with the rest, so if you enjoyed the earlier books, you'll enjoy this. If you know and like Card from his earlier work, I can't recommend this. If you know Card only from his later books, I think you might be confused by this; it's deeper and more careful, but I can't say it's better.
While this series may earn at best a shrug and an 'eh' from me, I urge you to read Card's earlier work, of which I remain a strong fan - Songmaster, A Planet Called Treason, Capitol, Hot Sleep, etc. - you'll be glad you did. And parts of The Worthing Chronicle series, which includes those last two, have some overlap in tone and concept with Alvin - just done better.
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I want to be as respectful as I am able in my review and, as much as I hate long-winded reviews, I feel I need to be as honest as possible.
Regarding the audiobook, I was able to understand the story without having read the previous books in the series. This should be good news for any readers who want to read the book without having the background knowledge. This audiobook was recorded with multiple readers and this was helpful and made it more enjoyable. I had issues with hearing the baritone-bass male voice that I think are mostly due to hearing damage on my part. The Native American prophet is voiced by the male narrator with an “accent” and it sounds reminiscent of 1940s-50s stagecoach/cowboy movie stereotype. I feel similarly about the character of Lebanese descent and a few other characters. In the year of 2026 we have multiple voice talents from all areas of the globe. Using such "accents" in an audiobook is disrespectful to the people of those countries, history, and culture.
Regarding the book, the writing and world building was okay, but I wasn't blown away. If all the contentious dialogue was omitted, I feel like this would've been a four-star-read for me. That said, I found the portions of the story that were purely dialogue long-winded, mostly argumentative, and reminiscent of unpleasant circular conversations I've had with people. They were not enjoyable to listen to. The main character Alvin is near-worshipped by the people in the town to the point where it sits unpleasantly in my stomach. The action of the story is situational and I didn't really connect with any of the characters. This is the baseline for me in what I consider a book that I enjoy reading.
Finally and with much regret, I deeply disagree with how women are portrayed and thought of within the story. If this was historically-based I would be fine with the read, but this goes beyond my studies in women's history. Frequent conversation between men and women randomly turn into talk about making babies without any comments or words to bring the topic into conversation. I also consider it a problem when conversations between men randomly point out the bosom size of women within eyesight when the previous topic was completely unrelated. This happened enough to be considered an obsession of the author. It’s hard to ignore when it frequently returns throughout the story. In addition, random references to female anatomy often lean toward crass vocabulary and is completely unnecessary to the story or character development. It made me feel gross (and I teach in a public school).
There are many times I wanted to stop reading but I forced myself to finish it because I wanted to give it the attention it was due as an ARC reader.
#MasterAlvin #NetGalley
Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Regarding the audiobook, I was able to understand the story without having read the previous books in the series. This should be good news for any readers who want to read the book without having the background knowledge. This audiobook was recorded with multiple readers and this was helpful and made it more enjoyable. I had issues with hearing the baritone-bass male voice that I think are mostly due to hearing damage on my part. The Native American prophet is voiced by the male narrator with an “accent” and it sounds reminiscent of 1940s-50s stagecoach/cowboy movie stereotype. I feel similarly about the character of Lebanese descent and a few other characters. In the year of 2026 we have multiple voice talents from all areas of the globe. Using such "accents" in an audiobook is disrespectful to the people of those countries, history, and culture.
Regarding the book, the writing and world building was okay, but I wasn't blown away. If all the contentious dialogue was omitted, I feel like this would've been a four-star-read for me. That said, I found the portions of the story that were purely dialogue long-winded, mostly argumentative, and reminiscent of unpleasant circular conversations I've had with people. They were not enjoyable to listen to. The main character Alvin is near-worshipped by the people in the town to the point where it sits unpleasantly in my stomach. The action of the story is situational and I didn't really connect with any of the characters. This is the baseline for me in what I consider a book that I enjoy reading.
Finally and with much regret, I deeply disagree with how women are portrayed and thought of within the story. If this was historically-based I would be fine with the read, but this goes beyond my studies in women's history. Frequent conversation between men and women randomly turn into talk about making babies without any comments or words to bring the topic into conversation. I also consider it a problem when conversations between men randomly point out the bosom size of women within eyesight when the previous topic was completely unrelated. This happened enough to be considered an obsession of the author. It’s hard to ignore when it frequently returns throughout the story. In addition, random references to female anatomy often lean toward crass vocabulary and is completely unnecessary to the story or character development. It made me feel gross (and I teach in a public school).
There are many times I wanted to stop reading but I forced myself to finish it because I wanted to give it the attention it was due as an ARC reader.
#MasterAlvin #NetGalley
Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
April 15, 2026
Master Alvin (Tales of Alvin Maker #7): A Spoiler-Free Review
I'll be super transparent, I came into Master Alvin with some initial trepidation. I heartily enjoyed the first two books in Orson Scott Card's Tales of Alvin Maker series, a truly American historical-fantasy set in an alternate 1800s, but the series suffered from diminishing marginal returns after that. Each subsequent entry left me a little colder than the last. When the series wrapped at six novels, I was perfectly at peace with that. So when a seventh entry appeared more than twenty years later, my enthusiasm was measured.
I'm happy to report that my skepticism was largely misplaced.
Master Alvin is a richly imagined conclusion to a series that, for all its unevenness, was always swinging for something ambitious. Card's Tales of Alvin Maker draws heavily on the early history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Alvin and much of the main cast share unmistakable parallels with Joseph Smith and other prominent early figures of the Restoration. This seventh entry leans into those parallels more fully than ever, covering territory that maps closely to the missionary work in the British Isles, the gathering at Nauvoo, the martyrdom of the Prophet, the succession of leadership, and the great exodus westward.
A working knowledge of that history isn't strictly required, but it will significantly deepen your experience. For those who want the full context, I'd recommend Saints, Volumes 1 (chapters 34-46) and Volume 2 (chapters 1-4), both available to read for free here:
Saints, Volume 1: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/s...
Saints, Volume 2: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/s...
Even knowing exactly where the story was headed, and I did, I found myself genuinely engaged. The ending lands almost precisely where the real-life parallels demand, and yet it still felt earned. That's no small feat.
The multicast narration is excellent. Gabrielle de Cuir, Kirby Heyborne, Mirron Willis, Nan McNamara, Scott Brick, Calvin Smith, and Stefan Rudnicki form an equally strong ensemble. No weak links, no awkwardness, just a cohesive, immersive audio experience that serves the story well.
📖 Text: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🎙️ Narration: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
⭐️ Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Master Alvin is a satisfying conclusion to an uneven series and a better book than I had any right to expect. That said, this one is strictly for readers who have already made it through the full saga. If you're new to Card or to Alvin Maker, start at the beginning. This is not the place to jump in.
Disclaimer: I received a free advanced reader copy (ARC) of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. These are my personal opinions.
I'll be super transparent, I came into Master Alvin with some initial trepidation. I heartily enjoyed the first two books in Orson Scott Card's Tales of Alvin Maker series, a truly American historical-fantasy set in an alternate 1800s, but the series suffered from diminishing marginal returns after that. Each subsequent entry left me a little colder than the last. When the series wrapped at six novels, I was perfectly at peace with that. So when a seventh entry appeared more than twenty years later, my enthusiasm was measured.
I'm happy to report that my skepticism was largely misplaced.
Master Alvin is a richly imagined conclusion to a series that, for all its unevenness, was always swinging for something ambitious. Card's Tales of Alvin Maker draws heavily on the early history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Alvin and much of the main cast share unmistakable parallels with Joseph Smith and other prominent early figures of the Restoration. This seventh entry leans into those parallels more fully than ever, covering territory that maps closely to the missionary work in the British Isles, the gathering at Nauvoo, the martyrdom of the Prophet, the succession of leadership, and the great exodus westward.
A working knowledge of that history isn't strictly required, but it will significantly deepen your experience. For those who want the full context, I'd recommend Saints, Volumes 1 (chapters 34-46) and Volume 2 (chapters 1-4), both available to read for free here:
Saints, Volume 1: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/s...
Saints, Volume 2: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/s...
Even knowing exactly where the story was headed, and I did, I found myself genuinely engaged. The ending lands almost precisely where the real-life parallels demand, and yet it still felt earned. That's no small feat.
The multicast narration is excellent. Gabrielle de Cuir, Kirby Heyborne, Mirron Willis, Nan McNamara, Scott Brick, Calvin Smith, and Stefan Rudnicki form an equally strong ensemble. No weak links, no awkwardness, just a cohesive, immersive audio experience that serves the story well.
📖 Text: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🎙️ Narration: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
⭐️ Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Master Alvin is a satisfying conclusion to an uneven series and a better book than I had any right to expect. That said, this one is strictly for readers who have already made it through the full saga. If you're new to Card or to Alvin Maker, start at the beginning. This is not the place to jump in.
Disclaimer: I received a free advanced reader copy (ARC) of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. These are my personal opinions.
May 4, 2026
I dont know if I have written reviews (or added ) the rest of the series. However I liked it. I saw it as a kind of alternative history of the USA, which includes several real figures (White Murderer Harrison and his record short precidency, with a record long inauguration speech (which I think still holds...? No former president whispered to another one's wife "that was some weird sh.. t!" tho lol.
I think the author write good. I read the series about "Not Ender too" (the small smart guy..)
Anyway. This review
I said I didn't think this would ever finish. I am happy it did. Usually I try to read the former books when it's gone this long, however I read them when they were free for Audible plus. But I did remember a lot and I was fast in the story. Especially because the second to last book, did finish up most of the storylines.
I am glad I didn't knew the author was religious and his reference to Joseph Smith (who before leading the religious people on the hunt for gold (him) and some naive people believing that somehow America, that noone would know before 1000 yrs after Christ (whether you believe or not) when Leiv Eriksson found it and Columbus 1500 yrs later, have something with the Bibles story to do. i understand Smith idea (as he had already been in jail for fraud (I think selling a bridge or several in New York) came with the Mormons. You know the history is pretty absurd when South Park actually made an episode which actually told the story regarding Smith and Mormons (except I think he was killed by his own congruatuon (sp?), I assume it probably was a child bride to many, which often is a reason for rebel in sects.
Well I don't care. i just have to put some facts regarding the afterword seems to leak a tiny bit more fantasy i(religion and the guy sentence for fraud haf a vision at 14. I bet noone heard a word about it until he met his marks (the soon to be Mormons) in his otherwise decent explanation about his alternative American history.
I think the author write good. I read the series about "Not Ender too" (the small smart guy..)
Anyway. This review
I said I didn't think this would ever finish. I am happy it did. Usually I try to read the former books when it's gone this long, however I read them when they were free for Audible plus. But I did remember a lot and I was fast in the story. Especially because the second to last book, did finish up most of the storylines.
I am glad I didn't knew the author was religious and his reference to Joseph Smith (who before leading the religious people on the hunt for gold (him) and some naive people believing that somehow America, that noone would know before 1000 yrs after Christ (whether you believe or not) when Leiv Eriksson found it and Columbus 1500 yrs later, have something with the Bibles story to do. i understand Smith idea (as he had already been in jail for fraud (I think selling a bridge or several in New York) came with the Mormons. You know the history is pretty absurd when South Park actually made an episode which actually told the story regarding Smith and Mormons (except I think he was killed by his own congruatuon (sp?), I assume it probably was a child bride to many, which often is a reason for rebel in sects.
Well I don't care. i just have to put some facts regarding the afterword seems to leak a tiny bit more fantasy i(religion and the guy sentence for fraud haf a vision at 14. I bet noone heard a word about it until he met his marks (the soon to be Mormons) in his otherwise decent explanation about his alternative American history.
April 28, 2026
At long last Orson Scott Card finishes the Alvin Maker series! For those who have waited 23 yrs for this, I don't think you will be disappointed. All the various threads are pulled together and wrapped up nicely! Thank you to netgalley for an advance copy of this book.
June 21, 2025
A worthy conclusion to a series I’ve been reading since I was 13 years old! Spoilers: I loved how much time we got with Alvin’s Native American friends, his frontier family, Taleswapper, Arthur Stuart (and even a few small but important scenes with my personal favorites, Verily and Purity — I wish they had been a bigger part of the story!) The journey to Ireland and back was fun, and I have to say, I could have read an entire novel of Alvin having witty theological debates with authority figures who underestimate him. The morally grey characters and outright villains were great; I enjoyed Calvin and Eliza’s twisted relationship, and Arthur’s confrontation with one important figure from his past was cathartic. I loved that so many threads tied together all the enemies that Alvin had made over the years (as detailed in previous books) and all came together in one grand conspiracy orchestrated by Reverend Thrower and the Unmaker, who seem to triumph, only to be defeated in the end by those with knacks choosing to create a safe haven of Makers where all people can belong. Alvin’s sacrifice and the denouement, especially Arthur’s and Margaret’s responses, were moving as well. A magical and bittersweet end to a great story. (For historical accuracy, I actually finished this on March 31st, when the last chapter was serialized in OSC’s “On The Fly.”)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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