The Crystal City - (Alvin Maker) by Orson Scott Card (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

The Tales of Alvin Maker continue in The Crystal City, the sixth book in the historical fantasy series from the Hugo and Nebula award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Ender's Game.

Using the lore and the folk-magic of the men and women who settled North America, Orson Scott Card has created an alternate world where magic works, and where that magic has colored the entire history of the colonies. Charms and beseechings, hexes and potions, all have a place in the lives of the people of this world. Dowsers find water, the second sight warns of dangers to come, and a torch can read a person's future--or their heart.

In this world where "knacks" abound, Alvin, the seventh son of a seventh son, is a very special man indeed. He's a Maker; he has the knack of understanding how things are put together, how to create them, repair them, keep them whole, or tear them down. He can heal hearts as well as bones, he build a house, he can calm the waters or blow up a storm. And he can teach his knack to others, to the measure of their own talent.

Alvin has been trying to avert the terrible war that his wife, Peggy, a torch of extraordinary power, has seen down the life-lines of every American. Now she has sent him down the Mizzippy to the city of New Orleans, or Nueva Barcelona as they call it under Spanish occupation. Alvin doesn't know exactly why he's there, but when he and his brother-in-law, Arthur Stuart, find lodgings with a family of abolitionists who know Peggy, he suspects he'll find out soon.

But Nueva Barcelona is about to experience a plague, and Alvin's efforts to protect his friends by keeping them healthy will create more danger than he could ever have suspected. And in saving the poor people of the city, Alvin will be put to the greatest test of his life--a test that will draw on all his power. For the time has come for him to turn to his old friend Tenskwa-Tawa, the Red Prophet who controls the lands to the west of the Mizzippy.

Now Alvin must take the first steps on the road to the Crystal City that was shown to him in a vision so long ago.

The Tales of Alvin Maker series
Seventh Son
Red Prophet
Prentice Alvin
Alvin Journeyman
Heartfire
The Crystal City
Master Alvin

Review Quotes

"One of the greats of contemporary science fiction and fantasy." --The Wall Street Journal

"Orson Scott Card is as fine a writer as we have." --The Los Angeles Times

"[Orson Scott] Card is a writer of compassion." --The Washington Post

"Card is a master storyteller." --The Seattle Times

"Card creates a solid episode in what is perhaps his most interesting ongoing series." --Bookpage on The Crystal City

"By mixing real settings, people, and situations with his own brand of characterization and biblical metaphor, the author has created an early America as it might have been if magic had played a part in its development." --Rocky Mountain News on The Crystal City

About the Author

Born in Richland, Washington in 1951, Orson Scott Card grew up in California, Arizona, and Utah. He lived in Brazil for two years as an unpaid missionary for the Mormon Church and received degrees from Brigham Young University (1975) and the University of Utah (1981). The author of numerous books, Card was the first writer to receive both the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel two years in a row, first for Ender's Game and then for the sequel Speaker for the Dead. He lives with his wife and children in North Carolina.