Pathfinder

Pathfinder, Book 1

By: Orson Scott Card

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Kirby Heyborne, Don Leslie, Kristoffer Tabori, Scott Brick

Length: 17 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

Rigg is well trained at keeping secrets. Only his father knows the truth about Rigg’s strange talent for seeing the paths of people’s pasts. But when his father dies, Rigg is stunned to learn just how many secrets Father had kept from him - secrets about Rigg’s own past, his identity, and his destiny. And when Rigg discovers that he has the power not only to see the past, but also to change it, his future suddenly becomes anything but certain.

Rigg’s birthright sets him on a path that leaves him caught between two factions, one that wants him crowned and one that wants him dead. He will be forced to question everything he thinks he knows, choose who to trust, and push the limits of his talent... or forfeit control of his destiny.

©2010 Orson Scott Card (P)2010 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"The implications of the boys' power to manipulate the past unfold cleverly…, feeding into the Machiavellian political intrigue for a pulse-pounding climax….Card's many fans will be thrilled by this return to his literary roots.” ( Kirkus)

Don't be Deterred by the Terrible Loaf Narrator

If you're a fan of Orson Scott Card's other work, you'll probably like the Pathfinder series as well. You may see some reviews talk disparagingly about the narration - don't be deterred by this! The narration is almost entirely very very good. There's just one part, when suddenly a chapter from one of the character's perspectives was narrated by someone brand new and just absolutely terrible. He was completely over the top, a bit how a very outgoing storyteller may exaggeratedly read aloud to extremely young children. However...this chapter isn't highly integral to the story, it's brief, it's the ONLY one narrated by that guy, and it's well worth trudging through it to return to the rest of the story, which is all narrated beautifully. The whole series is nearly 50 hours, and his part was probably 20 minutes. If you judge it based on that tiny snippet, you'll be missing out on an otherwise terrific series!

Great story, good narration except...

Would you listen to Pathfinder again? Why?

Yes, may be it will be more reveling next time.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Pathfinder?

It will be spoiler if I say, so I would rather not say it.

What three words best describe the narrators’s performance?

Thank you narrators.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Slowing know the secrete chapter by chapter.

Any additional comments?

Chapter 10 must be re-recorded without dramatic voice. It kills all the continuity.

Perfect

Perfect this book is the best ever or at least that is what I think
The best book in the world

a great read and thought provoking

Definitely worth a read, especially if you've read other books by Scott Card.
I would read anthing he writes, and this is the beginning of a series which makes it even better as it means the fun lasts longer..

Interesting Concept, 1 Bad Narrator

Where does Pathfinder rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Pathfinder was enjoyable. It ranks high my list of Orson Scott Card favorites and I am looking forward to the rest of the series. I found the time travel concept interesting if a tad hard to wrap my head around. The characters were likable and I found that though the dialog could be tedious it also served to make the characters more relatable.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

I've listened to many of OSC's books on audio and by now, many of the narrators are old friends. However, there was a new narrator that I was NOT pleased with: Kristoffer Tabori. I've listened to some samples of his other work, and they don't seem so bad but this particular reading was unpleasant (to say the least). I found that his over-exaggerated tone was off putting and out of place with the other more level tones of Stefan Rudnicki, Don Leslie, Kirby Heyborne and Scott Brick. At times his 'characterization' made it hard to understand what he was saying. Luckily he only read for one chapter (19).The other Narrators did, as always a wonderful job.

Card has created another great world but...

While I was reading this book I kept thinking that Card had made another great series. His character development and story creation are as good as it always has been. I've read a couple of his other series and have enjoyed reading all of them. However, As I progress through the multitude of books he's written I get the impression that he really does not like humans as a species. In this series as in others it seems as if the only good people in his books are the main characters, everyone else is only out for themselves. There is not a single character in the story, aside from the main characters that could possibly be considered a good person.
Another thing I've noticed about Card's stories is his desire to have kids be the main characters. While in general I like this and it is always fun to watch as they continuously out-think the antagonists, it gets a bit repetitive. His protagonists are never truly in any danger they always have thought one step ahead and know exactly what to do to fix everything immediately.
Also his thing with children gets a bit illogical, children are not smarter than adults in the real world and having them be in Card's takes away from the realism of his stories. In their heads the readers know that, in the real world, it would be the adults who are in charge rather than the children despite whatever gifts the children might have.
In general however, all the problems I've mentioned have been ones that I only notice after the book was done, while I was reading I enjoyed all the different aspects of the book and liked how much detail he went into in terms of the paradoxes involved in time-travel. Card is clearly a very good writer who can create worlds that no one else has thought of.

Never knew what was coming next

What made the experience of listening to Pathfinder the most enjoyable?

Orson loves the coming of age books, and he is a master of making our race better.... Smarter, giving us hope that yes we can make it out of our own weaknesses.

What did you like best about this story?

I enjoyed the two stories converging into one, and I like that he took all the rules of time travel, and threw them out the window.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

Iliked all the narrators except for the one portraying loaf's character's point of view thank good it was only one chapter.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

At the beginning of each chapter was a highly theoretical discussion about space travel, I though that was very interesting.

Narration 1/5 inconsistent/distracting. Story 5/5

Narration 1/5 is inconsistent and distracting. At least 3 different narrators in sections, not by character.
Story 5/5 is an outstanding OSC classic, and possibly worth enduring the very bad performances.

Terrible female characters

Almost done with the trilogy. It was enjoyable for the most part—a lot of philosophy (as expected of Card) and a bit convoluted at times, but that’s understandable when you have several characters with different time abilities.
What really got on my nerves is that almost every female character is portrayed as heartless, incompetent, irrational, irritating, or downright insane. The ratio of M:F characters is already about 5:1 so when NONE of the girls/women are likable, it is glaring.
I really enjoy a lot of OSC’s work and try to put aside his personal beliefs as I don’t subscribe to them, but when such blatant sexism is thrown in my face it is hard to stomach.
Had to stop the 3rd book after another such character was introduced; will likely finish but I definitely need a break.

My head hurts

The ending left me feeling incomplete and disappointed, but it was an interesting read