Seventh Son

Tales of Alvin Maker, Book 1

By: Orson Scott Card

Narrated by: Scott Brick, Gabrielle de Cuir, Stephen Hoye

Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

From the author of the award-winning Ender's Game comes the unforgettable story of young Alvin Maker, the seventh son of a seventh son.

Born into an alternative frontier America, where life is hard and folk magic is real, Alvin is gifted with power, but he must learn to use his gift wisely. Dark forces are arrayed against Alvin, and only a young girl with second sight can protect him.

Don't miss the sequel to this book, Red Prophet.

©1987 Orson Scott Card (P)2007 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

• Locus Award, 1988

"A tribute to the art of storytelling, this is highly recommended." (Library Journal)
"Seventh Son begins what may be a significant recasting in fantasy terms of the tall tale of America." (Washington Post Book World)
"A consistently gripping tale featuring solid historical research and a keen understanding of religious experience. Another major effort by a world-class talent. Highly recommended." (Booklist)

The only word I can think of ... "Meh"

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

I would not recommend this book. I am a fan of Cards writing usually, but this time I felt like I wasn't so much listening to a completed story as listening to the writers notes instead. There was no flow to this story at all, everything felt choppy and disoriented - as tho card kept realizing he'd forgotten to add important elements into the tale and so just plopped them in whenever it came to mind.

Any additional comments?

I will say that the story had huge potential! Sadly I didn't enjoy it enough to bother moving on to the next book in the series... Perhaps it gets better. The narrators did a beautiful job of attempting to bring the characters to life.
Tho it's sad to say this story, tho not a complete waste of time, gave nothing to make it memorable.

Oddly simplistic, yet utterly charming

Characters are seemingly one-dimensional, the plot is obscenely one-directional, and yet I absolutely love this book.

Favorite Orson Scott Card series

I read this series years ago, and have always loves it! I was excited when I saw this come up in my suggestions. The narration is excellent. Highly recommend!

You’ll laugh until your sides hurt!

The actors are all great, and Alvin’s attitude is the best it could be. It’s all I could expect of a 10-year-oldWhen the world rests on his shoulders. Buyer beware, there is a bit of a spoiler at the end of Orson Scott card’s commentary at the end of the audiobook! But it was a good listen, overall.

Really enjoyable

Had such fun with this book. New, original, fascinating, thoughtful, I have my favorite characters and wish Card would not limit the tale. Let it take on it's own life

lots of religion but a great story

loved the multiple actors, they really captured my interest. the story was a bit religion heavy for me but i enjoyed the fantasy aspects of it.

what a different take on the old as time 7 of 7

I almost feel sorry for the priest. If you every want to wonder how much naively young priest can be that wants to believe. just give this a listen.

An American Fantasy Rooted in History

It started out realty slow, giving a whole new meaning to "character development." However, by the Fifth Chapter the intertwined plot lines began to develop, and I am looking forward to the next book in the series.

my favorite Orson Scott card book

While I realize that most Card fans prefer his speculations on the future, I find this alternate history of the past to have more humor than any of the card books that I have read. Some of the ideas like making/unmaking versus God/the devil hold interesting insights, for me at least, on faith and self-delusion. I have seen some criticism of the characters as poorly done, but I was irresistibly drawn to many of them. The Miller family interactions can be appealing, revealing, and/or smile inducing. Card's inserted, quick description of why the people from the 'middle colonies' have knacks (they were all shunted together by Puritans and roundheads) is both simplistic and believable. This is just a world that I enjoy delving into.

Original and emotional

Originally posted at FanLit.

"When you’re surrounded by light, how do you know whether it’s the glory of God, or the flames of Hell?"

Set in an alternate American frontier, Seventh Son is the first in Orson Scott Card’s THE TALES OF ALVIN MAKER. Alvin Miller is the seventh son of a seventh son which makes him special and potentially a very powerful healer, or “maker” — at least that’s what many who practice folk magic, believe. They know that many folk have “knacks” and they’ve seen the effects of curses and charms. It’s obvious that there’s a supernatural war going on around Alvin Miller. He’s almost been killed many times (usually by water), but it’s clear that some other force is protecting him. While his family expects greatness from Alvin, some of his neighbors think he may be “devil spawn.”
Reverend Thrower, the new Christian pastor who has just come over from Europe, finds all this folk magic to be rather creepy. He’s trying to dispel these superstitious notions while teaching his parish that any magic they think they see can be explained by scientific investigation. After interacting with Alvin’s family, he may be forced to reconsider his position. Is this folk magic superstitious nonsense, evil witchery, or a gift from God?

Seventh Son begins with an emotionally gripping scene as one child dies and another is born to the Miller family. These first few scenes make up the Hugo and Nebula nominated novella Hatrack River. The emotion doesn’t let up, the world-building and characterization are admirably complex, and there’s a nice touch of folksy humor — especially in the episodes of sibling rivalry.

I’ve heard it said that Seventh Son is loosely based on the life of Latter Day Saints prophet Joseph Smith, though I don’t know enough about Smith to notice the parallels. Orson Scott Card is known to be religious and conservative (and a member of the LDS church), but you wouldn’t know it from reading Seventh Son. Though religion is the dominant theme, Card’s religious characters are, at least on the surface, hard to sympathize with. For example, though Reverend Thrower’s intentions are good, his deeds are more evil than the deeds of the “immoral” people he opposes. It’s easy to see this from our perspective, but we can also see why Thrower thinks he’s doing the right thing. It’s a good parallel to some of the religious conflicts we see in our society today.

I’m intrigued by Card’s alternate America where familiar politics and personalities are slightly different from historical facts. This played an insignificant background role in Seventh Son, but will surely become more prominent in future volumes of THE TALES OF ALVIN MAKER. I look forward to that.

I listened to Blackstone Audio’s version of Seventh Son which was narrated by a full cast including Scott Brick, Gabrielle de Cuir, Stephen Hoye and Stefan Rudnicki. This is a superb cast who did a great job individually. The parts were split up by chapter rather than by role, so on a couple of occasions I was initially confused at the different accents used for the same character by different narrators. Included in the audiobook version is an afterword by Orson Scott Card which explains the origin of Hatrack River and Seventh Son.

Published in 1987, Seventh Son was nominated for the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards and won a Locus Award. It’s a beautifully written emotional story set in an original fantasy world.