The Gate Thief

Mithermages, Book 2

By: Orson Scott Card

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Emily Rankin

Length: 12 hrs

Publisher's summary

In this sequel to The Lost Gate, best-selling author Orson Scott Card continues his fantastic tale of the mages of Westil, who live in exile on Earth.

Here on Earth, Danny North is still in high school, yet he holds in his heart and mind all the stolen outselves of 13 centuries of gatemages. The Families still want to kill him if they can’t control him - and they can’t control him; he is far too powerful.

On Westil, Wad is now nearly powerless - he lost everything to Danny in their struggle. Even if he can survive the revenge of his enemies, he must still somehow make peace with the Gatemage Daniel North, for when Danny took that power from Loki, he also took responsibility for the Great Gates. And when he comes face-to-face with the mages who call themselves Bel and Ishtoreth, he will understand just why Loki closed the gates all those centuries ago.

©2013 Orson Scott Card (P)2013 Blackstone Audio, Inc

Critic reviews

"Card weaves another in a chain of satisfying, teenager-pleasing fantasies…. Card has a grand old time romping around in the fields of comparative religion while letting a feud worthy of the Hatfields and the McCoys unfold, with much tongue-in-cheek humor but a touch of gore, too." (Kirkus Reviews)

"Familiarity with The Lost Gate is useful, but not essential, as Card gives readers enough background to have at least a partial understanding of the world he’s created….Defined characters and a highly imaginative story. For the author’s fans, a must-read." (Booklist)

twisted

love the unexpected. the duel narrative. the mix of ages n back stories of the characters. on to next book.

Looking Forward to More

The team of Orson Scott Card and Stephan Rudnicki blasts another one out of the park with _The Gate Thief_. A richly layered world, an even richer background of history/myth/legend, and a tie-in with the real world that left my spine shivering. Card's ability to create realistic, believable characters is surpassed only by his ability to craft an exquisite story and world into which his characters can come to life and thrive. In this second installment into his Mithermages series, we learn more about the incredibly detailed mythos he has populated his story with: gate mages, man mages, demons, gods, and the one person who stands between them all: a sixteen year old boy who strives to be a good man, but faces the trials of any other adolescent kid, along with having to save two worlds AND deal with an overbearing family. Poor guy really can't catch a break. Let me also take a moment to say, I really like Danny's adherence to a moral code, despite the pressures of society, his own hormones, and several willing and attractive young women. Such strength is rarely found in fiction, and ought to be applauded.

Also surprisingly, for me, one of the best parts of the book was the afterword, read by the author. He speaks of the difficulties inherent in crafting stories, especially stories with broad, sweeping arcs to them, and in speaking of his own troubles with this book (written and released late due to his need to extensively revise it), it gives amateur writers several key hints as to how to go about making the best novel possible. I'm looking forward with great anticipation to his next release.

Decent story but kind of getting boring with book

Before anything the reader is great but I am pretty sure this is the same reader for all of Card's books. I won't bore with a long review but I will simply say the pace slowed and was filled with too much filler that does nothing to advance the story. I felt you can ignore half the book and still get the point of how the story is advancing.

I am not sure I will download the 3rd book. I do know it won't be downloaded any time soon if I do download it.

ok

overall quite a fun read. however, the incessant preaching in favor of abstinence is grating.

Great unexpected story from Card

I love the foreword and afterword from the author. Plus the story between is very entertaining.

Gate Thief

This book is very well written and very well performed. I have read repeatedly.

Flashes of Great, Ok, and Bad. Overall: Meh.

What I liked:

Card manages to put together a fairly interesting structure of magic and how that creates the major conflict that drives the story. His exploration of the way magic works and the way that the characters discover it is quite interesting. His take on ancient pantheons as magic-wielding aliens come to earth is also insightful, forcing the reader to completely shift her thinking. The reader encounters plenty of unexpected actions and circumstances and that is all to the good. The book is unpredictable and that is enough to keep you listening.

The Ok:

The main character, Danny, is a retooling of the "super-powered teenager trying to lead a normal life" (as in My Secret Identity, Smallville, etc.) genre. Which goes ok, maybe even a little bit better than average with Danny's well-developed intellect, but complete ignorance of actual teenage interaction making for very appropriate awkwardness. Unfortunately, the high school friends he interacts with feel like they're made of cardboard. They seem developed only just enough that the story can move forward.

Also Wad's story line of protecting his world from incoming mages and looking for a way to get revenge on his former lover is not bad. Not great, but not bad; interesting, but haphazard. It's one notch above only existing to be the reflection of Danny's own magical discovery.

If the following things bother you, steer clear:

Rudniki should not be narrating this book. He has a less than versatile deep bass voice. This isn't particularly ideal for a coming of age novel where many of the characters are youths. Not to say that his voice is not pleasant, he just doesn't have the range to characterize teenagers and women. Rankin has a better range, but doesn't make bold characterizations.

This book bogs down around the various characters' banter. It is not witty, insightful, or entertaining. It will make you want to skip portions.

Some of the book's portrayal of teenagers is dissonant. I am not an expert on teenagers, and maybe some do think and talk the way they do in the book, but there are some things I think are a bit too out there. A teenage girl being loaded up on hormones, emotional and desirous of sex, I get. But one that needs her boyfriend's seed in her uterus and expresses it to him in those terms? The girls in the book are generally focused on procreation. Every time it comes up (often enough) you think, "seriously?"

A Solid Read

I'm a little surprised to see so many lukewarm reviews of this book. I found it to be an enjoyable read, though I'd characterize it more as a "solid" read than an exciting one. If you are looking for a book jam-packed with action, this is probably not for you. However, I found it to be absorbing enough that I'll be watching for the next book in the series. The book did seem to end rather abruptly, since there is no clear "climax" scene. My biggest complaint would be that there seems to be perhaps a little too much of the craft of writing here, and not enough of the art. There is a slight scent of "middle-book-info-dump" in the air.

A Building Block. Sets up well for Book 3.

What did you like best about The Gate Thief? What did you like least?

So I loved the first book in this series - it was full of action, was set in a really interesting world, and the plotline moved at a quick clip - which is perhaps why I was so disappointed as I read this one. The plot just moved so... slow. And so much of it felt like artificial setup for something that happens later in the book, but that just didn't feel like it had the crescendo that the first book had.

To be fair, after listening to the post-book message by Orson Scott Card himself, I fully understand WHY he wrote this book the way that he did - he's setting up for an epic Book 3 where all of the setup will pay off. I fully intend to pick up that book, but that still doesn't make me like this one any more. The teenage angst, sexual frustration, and laggard pace almost turned me to deleting the book from my phone... but plow through it, as I think we'll all rewarded in the next book of this series.

Strangely disappointed

Would you try another book from Orson Scott Card and/or Stefan Rudnicki and Emily Rankin ?

I don't like the tone and overall feeling i get from Danny's world... I dislike the interactions and it feels forced and over sexualized at times. I will not read any more from this author!

Would you ever listen to anything by Orson Scott Card again?

NO! (spoiler) I was hooked to find out more about Lowkey and the man in the tree. but I was personally offended by the death of the toddler after the book spoke of such promise. I do not see why she would do that when the death of Lowkey would have hidden the truth about the child's true father. I know the writer was attempting to bring a heartless feeling to the readers but an attempted murder would have been just to for fill that. But again, was not human and felt forced. Why kill the boy after she talked about his potential greatness, and how her true husband was a weak mage.

How could the performance have been better?

Better Dialog and Danny's personality seemed to changed mattering on where the writer wanted to go with the story. I felt like I strongly disliked Danny, soon after he found his way to "our realm" for more than half of the book series, hard to see him as a main character, but then I grew to like him only to hate him again.. trickster I understand but his personality flipped in a very disliked manor.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

perhaps

Any additional comments?

great thoughts and story base, poor execution