Ruins

Pathfinder, Book 2

By: Orson Scott Card

Narrated by: Orson Scott Card, Stefan Rudnicki, Kirby Heyborne, Emily Janice Card

Length: 14 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

Features a new exclusive introduction read by author Orson Scott Card.

From the author of Ender’s Game, the major motion picture!

A complex fate. A deadly path. Book two in the New York Times bestselling series Publishers Weekly calls “an epic in the best sense.”

When Rigg and his friends crossed the Wall between the only world they knew and a world they could not imagine, he hoped he was leading them to safety. But the dangers in this new wallfold are more difficult to see. Rigg, Umbo, and Param know that they cannot trust the expendable, Vadesh - a machine shaped like a human, created to deceive - but they are no longer certain that they can even trust one another. But they will have little choice. Because although Rigg can decipher the paths of the past, he can’t yet see the horror that lies ahead: A destructive force with deadly intentions is hurtling toward Garden. If Rigg, Umbo, and Param can’t work together to alter the past, there will be no future.

The adventure, suspense, and time travel continue in this second installment in the critically acclaimed New York Times and Publishers Weekly bestselling Pathfinder series.

©2012 Orson Scott Card (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Excellent

A fantastic book! Pathfinder, the first in the series is good, but I agree with the author that Ruins is even better. Fun sci-fi concepts done in a very approachable way along with great characters. I highly recommend it.

not as good as the first, but still great

There were points during it that I wish that I was closer to the end. I enjoyed it overall though.

I'm not sure if I want to read the third one or not. I might try it out just to see if it is as good as this one or the first.

I liked "Ruins" , however it never ends.

I enjoyed "Ruins" and realized that with all of the - shifters - with all different opinions that there could never be an ending...

A good story nevertheless!
Thank you Mr. Card!!!

Good book

I quite enjoyed the first book in the series, and this book just continued my enjoyment. Got me through a long road trip

Huge Card fan left slightly disappointed.

I'll start this by saying I'm a huge Card fan. Ender's Game is my favorite book, and I loved Pathfinder. I counted down the days until this was published, but now I'm left disappointed.

Card's usual depth and complexity are there in the story, and I cannot deny it isn't well written. But he significantly faulted, in my judgement anyways, by making the drama in this book all about the characters and their inabilities to trust each other.

A little bit of resentment towards each others is one thing, but there were whole chapters where the characters would argue or fight or just plain whine the whole time. It was distracting, removed me from the story, and even made me stop listening for chunks at a time. Honestly, it was so bad I wanted to slap the characters. It didn't really feel "real" considering what we'd known about them from the last book.

He's all set up for a climactic book three in which there will hopefully be real drama and conflict. This one felt forced, as though in order to justify a book two he forced out character drama that didn't need to exist and borderline overwhelmed the rest of the story.

I cannot wait for book three and I put my hopes on that one. This one felt as if half of it was unneeded, and downright annoying.

Groundhog Day Meets SciFi Armageddon

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I enjoyed listening to the book, but there's lots of filler consisting of characters bickering that added nothing to the story and was actually painful at times. Real conflict is part of great story-telling, but filling pages with characters making the same old hackneyed jabs at each other is the author padding.

The positives of the book are a variety of interesting characters and a world of wonder and confusion where you don't know who, what, or when to trust. We have time travel, misbehaving human-like robots, dangerous computers, water-people, tree-people, perception-enhancing parasites, and mysterious mice. Somehow the novel combines a quest with the complexities of cold-wars and cast systems. This second book is much more ambitious than the first.

Are preemptive strikes justified? Where is the line between human and non-human drawn. How can you establish trust? Do the ends justify the means? In the end, our heroes find out just how difficult it can be to stop people from killing you when you don't even know why they want you dead. While the book has an exciting ending, it's hard to say whether the ending is a frustrating cliffhanger, or a reasonable tease for the next book in the series.

Finally!

If you could sum up Ruins in three words, what would they be?

Jump right in.

What other book might you compare Ruins to and why?

Pathfinder

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

Everything. Classic Rudnicki

Any additional comments?

The book is great, but like many an OSC book in a series, there is absolutely no way you could follow this one and have a complete understanding of the story without reading the first book. As a reader, I get the distinct impression that OSC writes the story first, and then chops them up into separate books to make them more easily digestible. This one is no different; it begins as if you just sat the first book down to grab a drink and you're picking up where you left off. It's is great, but I I highly recommend listening to the the first book,or at least the last few chapters, to get a sense of the story first. It took me a while to remember all the details.At any rate, still great. Waiting for the next Mithermages series installment!

Preview of Raising Pre-Teens

The story has me hooked. I already found the bickering annoying in the first book, but wow... It really does comprise of 40-60% of this book. I suppose its a tool to develop legitimately young characters but it becomes the same conversation in closed loop with different characters rotating in and out... I want to know what happens but I'm not sure I'll make it through any more of the constant accusations and bickering. I'm pretty sure this is what parent of pre-teens and teens feel like!

Fun new plot line seamless performance

I love the time paradox elements of the story and how the author resolved them. the three narrators performance was seemless and excelent.

Not as good as the first but still enjoyable

Any additional comments?

I ended up reading this because I had already gotten through the first book and really wanted to find out more about what happened. I have very mixed feelings about this book because I really did enjoy the plot twists and sci-fi elements of it. However, there was so much time wasted on “character development,” a.k.a. the young people are immature and insecure except for Rigg who is unassailably perfect. I was left feeling, “eh… I might read the next one if I have nothing else to read,” but I certainly would not reread it.