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)

The ending is very disappointing and very sad

Definitely wouldn’t have ended that way I hope the next book recaps because if it doesn’t, it’ll be very sad

Awesome story

I love the story and how much the author invested himself in making it the best!

VERY MIXED FEELINGS

Any additional comments?

The book is generally good but the thing i didn't like about it is the constant talk of 16yr olds wanting babies put their stomach or wanting to avoid babies put in their stomach. It comes across as very weird and disconcerting. The other thing is that there are a few tasteless descriptions eg someone says to another you look hungrier than a Jew in a concentration camp... really?? Because this book isn't meant to be a 'dark' book some conversations between charecters are in poor taste. Other than those two complaints, the book is really easy to follow and has an exciting storyline that will keep you hooked.

Good sequel

This is the middle book of a planned trilogy. Many authors have had trouble with the middle of their trilogies; think of the Lord of the Rings. I liked the first book in this series better than this one, but I definitely plan to buy the next one.

I liked much about this book (and its predecessor). I like the double fantasy: Part of the action takes place here on Earth in the present and part of the action takes place on another planet which is more like your typical sword and sorcery fantasy world (Medieval setting; kings and peasants; swords and mages, etc.) I like the world-building. Card’s novels always show that he puts in considerable thought into how the science or fantasy work in his worlds. He really thinks about the background stuff. I like the two narrators. One, a man, narrates everything that takes place on Earth; and the other, a woman, narrates everything that takes place on the other planet. This makes it easy to follow the switches in location. I liked the explanation that different mythologies actually reflect families of mages who lived in particular parts of the world: One family lived in Scandinavia, so they are known in mythology as Odin, Thor, Loki, etc. Another family lived in Greece and were known in mythology as Zeus, Mercury, etc. I liked the unfolding of the plot. In the first book, the story is mostly about Danny trying to survive and trying to figure out how to use his powers without any living tutor to mentor him. But in this book, a deeper problem unfolds.

Now to the things I didn’t like. I didn’t like the amount of time spent on discussions of sex. Danny is an adolescent boy; this means he’s horny all the time. I get it. But it doesn’t interest me. I also didn’t like the portrayal of virtually every girl in the book (not the women; just the girls). It seemed that every single adolescent girl in the book was just as obsessed as Danny with sex, and they one-and-all come on to him. I have read other young adult books in which adolescent horniness reared its head and I didn’t mind it, but in this book I found it unpleasant. In fact, I didn’t care for most of the repartee among Danny and his high school friends. I didn’t feel that it contributed to the story, either. Maybe it will become more apparent in the third book why Card felt it necessary to add these kids.

Now I’d like to comment on the woman from North Carolina who says she can never read another Card book because Jesus is mentioned once in this book. She reminds me of those fanatic Christians who wouldn’t let their children read the Harry Potter books. (I had a 13 or 14-year-old student who was reading an adult romance novel that had quite a lot of pretty explicit sex, and that was okay with her mother, but she wasn’t allowed to read the Harry Potter books, because magic comes from the devil.) Don’t they understand the concept: FICTION? And in fact, I thought the question of whether Jesus was one of the mages in these families was left very much up in the air.

Okay, bottom line: I liked this book. As far as I can tell at this moment, I think the complete trilogy is going to be terrific. If you haven’t read the first book in this series, I would recommend that you do. Read them in order.

P.S. There is another story which Audible has which takes place on the second planet in this series and the magic system is the same. It is called “Stone Father” and it is novella-length. I liked it a lot.

Not Card's best work

I used to like OSC. Ender's game and the Apprentice Series == Great Reads, BUT...
The 1st book in this series was so-so. This was marginally better written, but I must be the wrong target audience. I've never seen an author try to recap, give away the twists and explain things soooooo much. There is a point when a story becomes an essay, and I don't like reading essays.

I wish Card reversed the gender of the characters as the physics/nature (bird & bees) may have made more sense.

I'm done with this series and probably Card for good.

Good enough to go for Book 3

Previous reviewers have done a good job at getting to the good/bad of this book and you and I both know that if you liked The Lost Gate, book 1 in this series, you will probably pick up Book 2 no matter what the reviews say. For what it is worth, I say "Go for it - Book 2 is good enough to expect that Book 3 could be great". It's not Ender, but what is? Poor Card will have to endure the comparison of all subsequent books to his masterpiece, but there are worse problems an author could have.

I love Card's Ender, Alvin Maker, and Homecoming series' and Mithermages does have a likable young male protagonist in common with those older series'. Sadly, Mithermages is lacking ANY great young female protagonist to balance the story. There are some interesting adult women in the mix, but Card has oddly chosen to make almost all of the teenage girls in The Gate Thief a strange bunch of groupies fighting for a chance to have Danny's baby. Card gives some explanation of that in the afterword but I don't buy it - those girls are not interesting characters and they just don't ring true with me. The teenager dialog is especially awkward (borderline offensive) and the book would have been better without it.

Both Stefan Rudnicki and Emily Rankin do a fine job with narration, but I had a distinct preference for Rankin and really wish she had just narrated the whole book.The narration is divided by location - Rudnicki reads the sections that take place on Earth; Rankin reads the sections set in Westil. As much as I enjoy Rudnicki, he has one of the deepest voices I've ever heard and although he does a game job of voicing women, children, and adolescents, he really only sounds natural speaking for an adult man. Strangely, the only adult men with any significant dialog in the novel do almost all their speaking while in Westil, Rankin's sections of the book.

I'm seeing more potential in the Mithermages series than the Pathfinder series so if you are jonesing for some OSC, you will probably get a decent fix from The Gate Thief.

Didn't live up to my expectations

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Yes and No, I recommended the first book in the series to a friend and they loved it as well. I still have hopes that the series will get back on track and be as good as what hooked me the firs time around.

What aspect of Stefan Rudnicki and Emily Rankin ’s performance would you have changed?

I think Stefan's voice is unusually deep and may not represent a young character like Danny North that well. His voice was sometimes monotone and I found myself thinknig of other things and not listening to the story.

Any additional comments?

It was good, but not great.

DESCRIPTIVE HEADLINE!!!

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Yes, I would change the ending and some over the character development decisions. Everything felt solid up until halfway in the book. It has good story and good twists, however I feel the development was all over the place after the middle. Many of the story lines suddenly were concluded quite abruptly, as if he changed his plan and edited them off.

There seems to be two controversial topics going on her, sex and religion. The sex seemed slightly out of place, a bit irrelevant. It felt quite similar to the world ending in the background and the writer concentrating on describing the process of picking chewing gum at the store.

The religion topic was well done, it tries to reconcile our world with the world of magic, but if you are a religious person, ask yourself if you can tolerate criticism to your beliefs. If you can't, I suggest you stay away from this book.

Would you be willing to try another book from Orson Scott Card? Why or why not?

Yes, I've read many and he does fine work.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Narration was quite good for me, however the changes on narrators for the same characters was off putting. I kept trying to associate the change of narrator with some event that made that character different.

Do you think The Gate Thief needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

A follow up is coming and its definitely needed. The story could be left here but after building such an intricate world and lore, it would be a shame to not expand it further.

Interesting Story, But Horrible Performance

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I would not have used two narrators. The woman (Emily) is incredibly over dramatic. It sounds like she is reading a dramatic play to a 5th grader. She reads with a sense of breathy wonder that is completely ridiculous. This coupled with the fact that the book is about a teenager makes the book feel unnecessarily juvenile.Stephan was better, but also overly dramatic.

Would you be willing to try another one of Stefan Rudnicki and Emily Rankin ’s performances?

No. The performances sort of ruined the books for me. I was interested in the story, but I had to keep convincing myself to keep listening despite the performances.

Was The Gate Thief worth the listening time?

Maybe. I have been doing a lot of driving, so it was a good enough way to pass the time, but Game of Thrones was much better.

Not as good as the first one...

Any additional comments?

I am a huge Orson Scott Card Fan and have been waiting eagerly for this book to come out - maybe that is why I was kind of disappointed.... It is still good, but the first one was better.