Magic Street

by Orson Scott Card

“A modern suburban fantasy . . . There are quests and complications, conflicts and charms. . . . Card’s back in top form, doing as well as or better than any of his fantasy work so far.”— The San Diego Union-Tribune

In a prosperous African American neighborhood in Los Angeles, infant Mack Street is found abandoned in an overgrown park and taken in by a blunt-speaking single woman. Growing up, Mack senses that he is different from most, and knows that he has strange powers. Yet he cannot possibly understand how unusual he is until the day he discovers, beyond a mysterious narrow house no one else can see, an entryway into a magical world. Passing through, Mack is plunged into a realm where time and reality are skewed, a place where his actions seem to have disturbing effects in the “real world.” Whether he likes it or not, Mack has become a player in an epic drama. His reward, if he can survive the trip, is discovering not only who he really is . . . but why he exists.

Praise for Magic Street

“A great read . . . Card’s take on his characters [is] as sure as ever, his narrative rock solid, his dialogue crackling and authentic.” — Los Angeles Times Book Review

“[Card] is a master at creating a sense of urgency that keeps you turning pages.” — The Charlotte Observer 

“Mind-bending . . . Card’s clever tale comes with sharp writing and crisp dialogue.” — The Tampa Tribune 

“Compelling . . . By the time the ultimate conflict comes into focus, the novel is propelling the reader forward like a bullet.” — Deseret Morning News 

“A suspenseful fantasy thriller that, during the race to the last page, has one mulling over myth, morals, salvation, and will.” — Booklist

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Urban Fantasy, Science Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Magic, Audiobook

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Orson 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.

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was my first (attempt at) Orson Scott Card, but it had so many incomprehensible "WTF" moments that I had to put it down about halfway through...there's not much logic, it's steeped in randomness, and it uses Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream as a crutch for its plot...the characters (especially Mack) aren't especially engaging, and the way everyone talks is just weird. I'm black, and while I can appreciate Card's attempt at authentic African American speech, it just falls short and sounds...bizarre. No recommends from me, but a friend suggested I try his Ender Saga instead.

[Spider the Doof Warrior · Rating 3 out of 5]

OSC does NOT write "ethnic" characters as well as Neil Gaiman does. You're better off reading Ananzi's Boys, the sequel to American Gods. Most of the characters are black, and he gets it right. He realizes that black folks such as myself do not just rhapsodize about their blackness all the time. We don't have anything to prove. We just ARE.
Also, I do not think we needed descriptions of the main character taking a poop. Seriously, leave that shit out!
Also, you do NOT stop the story to have the main character go on and on about how he can't have sex with another character because they have to be married first. They can jump over a broom, you know!
The combination of Shakespeare, faeries and a black suburb is a nice idea, but the execution could have been better in places.

[Damian4 · Rating 3 out of 5]

La verdad que fue una lectura muy amena, fluída, pero por sobre todo, muy interesante. La historia me pareció muy bien escrita, con unos personajes que se las traen y que cada uno, en lo suyo, tuvo su peso necesario. Una historia de hadas? Una historia de "negros"? Una historia onírica? Creo que es todo eso y más...3⭐ y 1/2 para mí

[Wacho Lector! · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un libro que salió ganador del club de lectura que pertenezco, al principio no le tenía mucha confianza pero a lo largo de su lectura me fue enganchando de a poco, de lectura fácil y entretenida. El autor logra desplegar una mente plagada de fantasía como muy pocas veces vi en un libro...siento que es una lectura para distenderse y leer algo diferente, no me voló la cabeza pero me hizo pasar momentos amenos.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Orson Scott Card is such a great writer that even his mediocre books are very, very good. This book cannot begin to compare to Card's books about Alvin Maker or Ender Wiggin - partially because this book is a stand-alone story, not the beginning of an epic series.

But as a stand-alone story, Magic Street is an epic. This one story spans a length of years and brings together a cast of characters large enough to feel like an epic. And the evil which must be fought to save the world is unimaginably powerful and transcendent (and yet believable) enough to be an epic. But at 400-something pages, this is the shortest epic you'll ever read.

I won't bother discussing the story, because even the basic premise of the book comes as a surprise - just as Card said it was for him half-way through writing it. Plus, as with most fantasy stories, trying to explain the premise in a nutshell usually makes the story sound childish, which this book is certainly not.

Put simply this book is more than meets the eye. It may not be Card's best, but it is worth your time.

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay...I've read a few books by Orson Scott Card, and most of them are pretty good. Most of them. Every now and then I guess everyone has a misstep. IN MY OPINION this is one of Card's.

I knew early on I was in trouble as the homeless man of mystery carried off the apparently still born baby and the domestic scenes rolled on setting the scene for our entry into wonder.

We just had trouble getting there.

This was supposed to be inspired by A Midsummer Night's Dream. But I just didn't find the expected magic. Some seem to like this book, but I just didn't care for it and have a lot of books waiting...including another Card book, so not for me.

[Ricardo Parra M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una historia de fantasía contemporánea, es decir magia en situaciones de la vida cotidiana. Es la primera vez que leo algo del subgénero y ha sido una lectura interesante; me encanta la fantasía, sin embargo, este libro me supo a poco.

Había leído con anterioridad a Scott Card por un libro de cuentos y fue un gran descubrimiento, quise conocer más al autor, pero creo que esta historia no fue la indicada, la verdad solo me dejé llevar por la portada y el título xD

Aunque la sinopsis es un poco ambigua. La historia va así: Mack es niño negro cuyo origen es todo un misterio, es encontrado por Ceese un chico del barrio y, sin saber qué hacer con él, lo deja al cuidado de una enfermera llamada Ura Lee. Es así como este chico crece gracias a este par y poco a poco va descubriendo que es diferente a los demás chicos del barrio y que, por si fuera poco, cosas extrañas suceden el barrio y todas están relacionadas con sus sueños y con los sueños de sus vecinos. A lo largo de los capítulos veremos el crecimiento de Mack y toda la magia que se desprende en el barrio, también, personajes misteriosos que aparecen al inicio, más adelante son revelados.

Creo que debería leerse con anterioridad “El sueño de una noche de verano” antes de abordar este libro, ya que sus personajes tienen una especie de cameo en esta historia, o es un calco de la historia original, no estoy seguro. Y debería leerse porque las referencias sobre esta obra, y sobre Shakespeare como tal, son muchísimas, convirtiendo a este último, casi, en un personaje más. Pienso que, si hubiese leído esa obra antes de adentrarme en este libro, hubiera disfrutado mucho más la lectura. Por lo que los invito a que primero conozcan esta obra de Shakespeare, antes de darle una oportunidad.

La narración es sencilla y fluida, pero por momentos se torna pesada y confusa, tal vez tenga que ver la traducción, no lo sé. De cualquier forma, me mantuvo enganchado y quería saber cómo terminaba, perfectamente la historia oscila entre unas 2 o 3 estrellas por lo anteriormente descrito, pero por las últimas páginas que fueron emocionantes, va de un 3,5 a 4 porque realmente no es una gran historia, pero por momentos es emotiva y emocionante.

[Kyle Maas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Direct Quote from dust jacket: “A novel that uses realism and fantasy to delight, challenge, and satisfy on the most profound levels.” Liars.

This should have been a good book. Written by Orson Scott Card, a tried and true literature giant, combining the world of fairy and Midsummer Night’s Dream with urban realism, and telling the classic story of the outsider who rises up to save everyone, it had so much going for it. And for the first half of the book, it held up to its promise. Watching young Mack Street grow up and learn about his powers and who he really is was thoroughly enjoyable. Mack is a great protagonist, likable and surrounded by a colorful cast of characters that add a great sense of depth and realism to the world. Plus, like I said, this is a familiar story being told. Fans of fantasy and literature alike will recognize the classic tale of the orphan/peasant/nobody learning they’re special, having to fight through hardship, and eventually coming out and saving everyone. It’s a classic tale, but Card is a good enough author that he should make it interesting. Hell, he did it in Enders Game, he should be able to do it here. Except he didn’t. So what happened?

Exposition. Oh god, so much exposition. For some reason, half way though the book, when the inciting incident happens and things are supposed to get really interesting, Card decides to take a step back and make sure that we all know what’s all going on here. In fact, he decides to make sure that everyone in the book knows what’s going on as well. And for some reason, he does this by having the same basic conversation over and over again, with different characters involved in different places. He even introduces a brand new character that just happens to have an interest in mythological folklore just so the characters can sit down and talk about what needs to be done, and then never really mentions him again. All surprise and suspense was removed, all forward motion halted as the characters sit around having conversations about what they will be doing soon. Even potential plot twists are ruined as the characters involved are so self aware that they tell you what’s going to happen before you even have a chance to guess or wonder. It was like watching a magician that tells you how the trick is done before he even does it. It still might be fun to watch, but all the wonder, all the magic is gone. More frustrating because it started so well, I feel that Card unfortunately squandered an opportunity here. I wanted to like it; I did. But I didn’t. I really didn’t.

Bottom line: Magic Street is a dead end. Turn around and go back home.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no idea what to expect from this book. I hadn't read anything about it, but I saw it was from Card and so I listened to it on our way to and from California. I didn't even read the jacket cover since it was an audio book I downloaded. I won't say too much other than I really enjoyed it. I think saying too much other than that would ruin it for anyone.

[Greg · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful, forgettable - and thank god Queen Latifah never made the movie, as the author bragged at a signing event that she was going to. BTW, I facilitated that event and he was a genuine asshole - the bookstore could barely contain the size of his ego.

[Adam · Rating 1 out of 5]

The afterword is basically a great explanation of why this book gets one star. It's a white privileged Mormon writing about middle class black America. Although e tried hard, and according to his own explanation ran it by his black friends... It sort of has that "imagineered" quality to it. He also explains that the book basically grew out of a bunch of separate random ideas he twisted together. It reads like it.

I generally love card... Horrible personal views aside... But this one was forced and disjointed and I just didn't care about anyone or anything happening in the book.

[Adrián · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesante libro de fantasía pero que es algo flojo y se me hizo lento... El capítulo final sí me gustó y la historia general es interesante pero no he logrado conectar con los personajes. Por ahora el libro del autor que menos me ha gustado.

[John Stinebaugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic retelling of "A Midsummer Nights Dream". Love the modern fairytale!

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seems like a lot of people didn’t love this offering from Card. I am guessing because it is so different from most of Card’s other books. It’s been a while since I have read any books by this author and maybe that helped me enjoy this more. Regardless, I found this entertaining and thought provoking. And the afterword was a great addition to understanding how and why a white author wrote a book about a black neighborhood and had a black main character. The magic of the story and the allusion to A Midsummer Night’s Dream made this a fascinating, surreal, and often heart rending read.

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, reminded me of Peter S. Beagle, who is one of my favorite fantasy writers. This is a man against the gods type tale set not in ancient times but right now in the 21st century. Absolutely amazing - his imagination is incredible. He also is a very impressive writer - top of the field. I highly recommend.

[Fred Warren · Rating 2 out of 5]

A college professor picks up a derelict by the side of the road on his way home from work one day and quickly discovers that the homeless man isn’t what he appears to be–when he gets home, the professor finds his previously not-pregnant wife in the throes of delivering a baby, which the derelict collects and departs with. Nobody except the professor remembers the event afterward. Later, a teenage boy discovers the baby abandoned in a plastic bag at a local park. The child survives and is taken in by a neighborhood spinster. He’s given the name Mack Street, and as he grows up, it’s apparent that his oddness goes well beyond the circumstances of his birth. Mack Street can see other people’s dreams, and when some of those dreams begin to come true in horrific ways, Mack and his neighbors in the L.A. suburb of Baldwin Hills begin to realize that strange forces are at work in their community, and reality is a whole lot stranger than any of them expected. There’s a war going on that’s as old as time itself, and Mack Street is caught in the middle of it.

In Magic Street, Orson Scott Card has woven some difficult issues of modern American community and culture, and one of his favorite themes, the alien, messianic child, into a contemporary fairy tale that fleshes out an obscure reference in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

There will be some spoilers toward the end of this, so stop reading now if you don’t want to be spoiled.

Upward Mobility: Card wrestles with a tough, un-PC issue in contemporary American culture: the alienation of upwardly-mobile minorities. The good people of Baldwin Hills have escaped poverty and achieved a piece of the American Dream, despite many obstacles, but they feel uncomfortable about it, as if they’ve sold out or betrayed their fellow people of color in some fashion, losing touch with a shared culture of struggle against adversity that once defined them. He doesn’t offer any solutions other than the insight that being mistreated by society isn’t a good reason to cultivate hatred and pass that mistreatment on to others. As Dr. Seuss might say, a person’s a person, no matter how small (or what color, or how loud their street bike is at 3 am).

Street Cred: Card strives for authenticity in his depiction of Black characters, and mostly succeeds, I think, but sometimes it seems like he falls back on stereotype. C’mon, a “Yo mama’s so fat…” sparring session?

Titania is Not a “Hoochie Mama”: Authors and playwrights are continually trying to update Shakespeare, and it almost always fails. The characters feel awkward when taken out of their cultural context. Card’s concept is very creative–I liked the way he put the little fracas over the “changeling child” from Midsummer Night’s Dream into an accessible context, but in my opinion, it still didn’t have enough momentum to escape the gravity well created by putting Shakespearean characters in modern dress. Titania’s a queen, not Queen Latifah, though that’s an amusing mental image.

Some Editors Don’t Recognize Me, So I Carry the Orson Scott Card: Regardless of the quality of the writing, if a non-marquee author tried to pitch a fantasy story in which Shakespeare’s fairies interacted with the real world, I expect they’d get shot down because it’s already been done–a lot. OSC can get away with it because, well, he’s OSC. Yes, I’m whining, but it’s a complaint about the publishing world, not this book. Ah, well, it’s nice that somebody gets to take a fresh cut at a venerable trope.

If You Can’t Blind Them With Brilliance…: What caught my interest and kept me reading this story was the “What the Heck is Going On Here?” factor. Once Card gets past the initial strangeness and lets the reader into what’s happening, it’s a fairly conventional ride. Confused Messiah Kid and Sidekicks Save the World. I’ve been down this road so often I know how many telephone poles there are. The writing is masterful, but the story didn’t grip me. It was, frankly, hard for me to get too excited about or feel much sympathy for supernatural characters who were arbitrarily wanton and cruel. “The Devil made me do it” has never been a convincing defense, Puck’s charm and Oberon’s self-inflicted schizophrenia notwithstanding, and there are way too many real babies being set out with the trash these days. The image didn’t just shock, it shut me down. Card’s “All’s Well That Ends Well” finish doesn’t satisfy, either. If I were the folks in Baldwin Hills, I’d be surfing the Net for a good paranormal liability attorney, not basking in the afterglow of a rockin’ dance with the Faerie Queen. I’d have gladly left this entire Faerie court penned up in the underworld where they couldn't mess around with innocent people, who have enough problems without super-powered delinquents warping their reality. Get an eternal life, y’all.

Bottom Line: Magic Street is an entertaining, well-written story, but the central conceit of bored immortals using humans as playthings/pawns in their everlasting war wasn’t appealing to me. Explicitly drawing a parallel between Mack’s situation and the Incarnation didn’t help me, either–it’s not the same thing, not at all.

[Damián González · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una historia que me mantuvo entretenido pero, a medida que pasaban las páginas, tenía ganas de que se termine: no hacía más que empeorar ☹️

Algunos personajes resultaron carismáticos, con otros tuve una desconexión total, sin entender porqué hacían lo que hacían.

Creo que tiene que ver con que el libro plantea una relación muy cercana con “Sueño de una noche de verano” de Shakespeare, y me perdí muchas referencias.

Algunas escenas se me hicieron súper cinematográficas, sobre todo al final, pero lamentablemente a esa altura ya no me importaba mucho lo que iba a pasar.

[Althea Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

As with all of Card's books, this most recent of his is very well written.
It takes place in an upper-middle-class black american community. Card's afterword makes much of how he had his black friend vet it before sending it out - I think because he KNEW that he'd be taking a lot of criticism. The characters in this book don't just happen to be black, they make a Big Deal out of being black (or Card makes that deal). At times, his characterization works - but at other times I felt like saying, "Yo, you be Trying Too Hard, bro!"
Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the first half of this book. It's a riff on the classic stories of wishes gone wrong. An adopted foundling, Mack Street, grows up in a tight-knit community... but he has dreams of his neighbor's dearest wishes - dreams that begin to come true in horrific ways.
And one day he discovers he can slip sideways through a house no one else can see, and into Fairyland... he is, of course, a changeling, and is pulled into the ago-old drama involving Puck, Oberon and Titania...
However, the second half of the book becomes overtly religious. (As opposed to being a book about religious people, which is fine.) But it got extremely moralizing, and, probably because I don't agree with Card's religious views, the story and plot really just stopped working for me. Card, I felt, was trying to overlay a black-and-white duality over a story of beings who have always been amoral (and are here specified as still being amoral), and eh.... it didn't work. There is also a very weird segment where for some very vaguely explained reason, Mack has to have sex with the 'hot motorcycle hoochie mama' who is Titania. But he won't do it before getting married. rolleyes.gif So Titania says they can be married only in the eyes of God (? A fairy says this?) but not the law, so Titania Hypnotizes the preacher into doing a ceremony (dude, I don't think that counts!), but this makes sex OK! And then, even more oddly, Card makes some comment about this being like a gay marriage where partners are "married in the eyes of God but not the law." Just trying to figure out if Card has changed his stance on homosexuality and gay marriage here, or not??? Anyway, it was all pretty ridiculous.

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading Ender's Game and The Lost Gate, I was looking forward to reading yet another spectacular novel from Orson Scott Card...and was severely disappointed. The first half of the book is intriguing and just the right amount of disturbing (thoughts of killing the baby in his hands? A woman giving birth after only one hour of pregnancy, and the baby being taken away in a grocery bag?), though a lot of it does seem random. Other aspects are odd as well; namely, the extremely sassy black community, where Card again and again emphasizes the fact that they are black. Halfway through the book, however, the intriguing, promising world Card has woven becomes just...stupid. I hate to use that word, since I was so impressed with his writing before, but that's the only word that perfectly fits it. It seems so random and childish. One of my personal pet peeves is when the main character has been trying to unravel the mystery the plot circles around for the entirety of the book, and one character just appears and tells him, all at once, everything he needs to know. A much better angle would be for everything to piece together, not at once, but slowly, eventually leading to a revelation. But no; everything that made the plot interesting suddenly vanishes when one character enters and describes everything, repeatedly, as though Card is desperately trying to get his audience to believe and buy into the plot. After that, the book loses all of the mystery and intrigue that had kept me reading it, and delves into a world of fantasy that is utterly ridiculous. It is as though Card changed his mind halfway through and had to go back and rearrange some of the main points, making them all fit unnaturally with one another, and not lead up well to the next half at all.

All in all, it was a disappointment, and not worth reading. All geniuses fail at least once, however, and I guess this was his one fail.

[Dan Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Until this book, I was only familiar with Orson Scott Card through his science fiction, and a couple of articles. This is a modern fantasy set in a well-to-do black neighborhood of LA (Baldwin Hills). Some of the main characters, however, are taken directly from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

It's an interesting attempt at a modern fantasy. It does a pretty good job of blending a modern setting with historical, fantastic characters.

It took me a little while to get into the book. In the beginning, a lot of the dialogue felt artificial. At first, I thought that maybe I simply wasn't familiar enough with young African-American culture in LA. But then I thought that maybe an author who grew up in Mesa, AZ and Orem, UT wasn't familiar enough with young African-American culture in LA. Eventually, I realized that the artificial-sounding dialogue was probably intentional. The characters in this book weren't young black kids living in the 'hood. They were young black kids living in a nice neighborhood, who thought they were supposed to act like they were from the 'hood, because that's what they saw on TV. Unfortunately, it wasn't apparent that's what was going on at first.

The only other problem I had with this book was Yolanda White riding a Harley. A young, sexy woman who rides a motorcycle because "it's the closest I can get to flying" does not ride a Harley. When he described a sexy woman clad in black leather and a black helmet with a tinted visor sitting atop a motorcycle, I did not picture a Harley-Davidson. I'm thinking of "Dark Angel" or the first episode of "Dollhouse." She should have been on a Ninja, a Gixxer, a Ducati, or something along those lines. Oh well, it's a minor thing.

All in all, a generally enjoyable and interesting book.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

My dad often gives me Orson Scott Card books for Christmas. They're usually a fun read. This one, however, was less enjoyable than others.

Granted, it was a wholehearted attempt on Card's part to write a novel with African American leads at the request of one of his black friends who was complaining about the paucity of black heroes in American fiction.

But it just felt forced. Rather than featuring well-rounded characters in a upper-middle class black community, the people in this book felt like individuals who rehearsed with monotonous regularity common complaints, concerns, and feelings that non-black Americans hear are common among their black counterparts. So, I give Card credit for trying, but I just don't think he pulled off that component of the book.

As for the story itself, it's a pretty good idea--there is a portal into a fairy world that this one boy has access to, and the main fairies end up being Puck, etc. from Shakespeare plays. But for some reason, the story didn't jive for me either. I never really got into it or cared very much about it . . . I read it too long ago to be more analytical than that.

[Alison · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. I'm disappointed in this book. I had a hard time moving past the "white author depicting a black world" facet of this book, and so no matter how authentic Orson Scott Card managed to be (and how would I know?), that kept me from really settling in and enjoying the book. I do appreciate that authors try to explore experiences and viewpoints other than their own - if they didn't, there wouldn't be much fiction, would there? But when it comes to taking on a different race or gender, it is very rare that an author is able to make me forget that this isn't his or her own world, and Card didn't manage it here. (If I hadn't known that he is white, I might have felt differently, but he certainly wasn't able to make me forget that.)

Aside from that, the fantasy portions were haphazard: neither smoothly executed nor well explained. There were a few things that caught my attention, such as the roles of conscience and identity and the idea of people's deepest wishes coming true in the worst possible ways - which was the most intriguing part of the book - but they were not enough to bring the book together in a cohesive whole.

[Dan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Every once in a while, an author whom you know has talent is bound to fail you. Card was my favorite author as a teen and I devoured nearly all of his (many) works. Chances are, if you are even reading this, you've already read Ender's Game and/or others of the Ender series. Stick with them.

A lot of press has been devoted to saying how brave, insightful, or groundbreaking Card was to use a black character as his main protagonist. Unfortunately, this statement seems to say a lot more about our culture, or at least the sci-fi/fantasy genre than it does about Card. Unlike others of Card's protagonists who drive the story forward with their strength (Ender, Bean, Petra), Mack is just plain off. I don't need to be black to know that Mack is not a realistic character. This is because Mack is not a realistic character as any young adult in any culture. All of the other characters in the book have the distinction of being completely unbelievable too, which pretty much makes the book unreadable past a certain point.

[Grey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Orson Scott Card is a good writer, as one can tell from his "Ender's Game" and his advice on writing. But there are times when even an expert can do ... not so well. It has happened to better authors before and it's never a pretty sight. Modern fantasy is a genre that has a niche group of writers, (I see the Gaiman fans standing up...) and I can imagine Card doing much better in future books. Just not this one. To be fair, this isn't Stephen King's "Eyes Of The Dragon" bad, but it's still not good.
I actually enjoyed the first half of book, even though it felt more like his social experiment in writing about the Black community (with fairies thrown in and stirred slowly...)
But after the exposition in the middle about what was REALLY going on, the magic sort of goes away, (hell, yes, pun intended. Yay.) and we are left with a rather bland journey all the way to the end.
I wanted to give it 3 stars, but that's injustice to much better works like Ender And Alvin.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first 50 pages of this book are so awesome, that when the rest of the book didn't live up to it, I wanted to cry.

Pros:
-Awesome, diverse, and differentiated African-American characters.
-Super descriptions of Baldwin Hills and L.A. in general.
-Cuh-ray-zee cool mash-up of contemporary L.A. with Fairyland.
-Lots of awesome poetry and Shakespeare references.
-Interesting handling of religion, very unique for a fantasy book.

Cons:
-Too many characters eventually appear for them each to really get the attention they deserve. In fact, many of the characters I liked most become sidelined as Mack gets older. Only, because Mack is so perfect, he's less fun. I really wanted to see the struggles of his rescuer/babysitter/substitute big brother, of his real-life father, and of his step-mom. And Puck.
-The middle act really, really drags.
-None of the descriptions of magic as the book progresses are anywhere near as magical as the ones that appear in the first few chapters.

[Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok, this was as close to taking drugs as I have ever come to. Yeah . . . it was psychodelic.

Orson does his magic again by taking you into the lives of several black teenagers in a small cultisac that has some interesting secrets.

Have you ever run into the most beautiful woman on the face of the earth, she tries to tempt you, but you somehow unbelieveably have the power to resist her temptation. This is what happens to the main character in this book and he not only resists her, but slowly peels back all of the layers of magic surrounding the woman and the world in which she came from.

Shakespeare on Heroine. Amazing.

I give it 5/5 because it always keeps you on the edge of your seat reading more and more to finally realize that what you are readiing, takes you back to the beginning of where it all started.

Cheers!

[Susan Henn · Rating 2 out of 5]

1/2013 Card claims this is his favorite of all his books. In an interview he said that he was proud of the system of magic he developed for the story and of its progression in development. I don’t see what he sees in the story. It reminded me of the Greek system in college where Greek gods and stories are combined with Christian symbols and ideas making them all equally void of meaning. Card throws Shakespearean fairies in with God and the beast making a muddled mess. In the afterward he said he developed the black male heroes in the book because he was challenged to do so by a friend. He places them in an upper middle class neighborhood and has them speak an unrealistic ghetto type dialect. How could this have been the same author who wrote Ender’s Game, Speaker for the Dead, and Xenocide?

[Hallie · Rating 1 out of 5]

"What I learned from this book": Orson Scott Card should stick to science fiction, at which he does a consistently good job, and avoid the tricky genre of modern-day fantasy. This reads like a really, really bad Neil Gaiman wannabe, with inconsistent (not intentionally conflicted, just sloppily developed, IMHO) characters and a plot that tries unsuccessfully to be epic. I am all for myth/fairy tale retellings, but co-opting/subverting the cast of Midsummer Night's Dream and transplanting them to suburban L.A. came off as just bizarre, and not in a good, pushing-boundaries sort of way. Definitely don't read this as your introduction to Card, and even if you're a fan, probably don't read it anyway. Not worth it.

[Becki · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting use of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was quite original and clever. However, at times the narrative just did not ring true for me. I also didn't like some of the themes and ideas in the book - it made me feel very uncomfortable.

Personal Note: I am anti-homophobia, and as such I usually refuse to buy books by authors who express homphobic views - whether these are present in the book or not. As such, Orson Scott Card's views were something of a surprise. This did not effect my rating or the review above, as I had written them before I found this out.

[Kevin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ummm, no.

I'd given up buying Card books since he's become so free with his bizarre political and religious opinions, but I was rather hard up for a good read one day and grabbed this at the library, hoping, on the basis of the early Ender and Alvin books, that it would be worthwhile. Unfortunately, the story was plodding, the characters were two-dimensional (and frequently nonsensical and contradictory), and his attempts to portray African-American characters and dialogue were just cringe-worthy.

Couldn't bring myself to finish it.