The Gate Thief

Mithermages, Book 2

De: Orson Scott Card

Narrado por: Stefan Rudnicki, Emily Rankin

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

Reseñas de la Crítica

"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)

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.

Where is the magic?

I grant that the first few minutes had my mouth watering to get back into this book. However, like the second book of Ruins I was left dissapointed. OSC books always have that teenage boy "moments of vulgarity." but they are usually easy to overlook. This one not so easy... I also felt like the plot really didn't go anywhere in the book, like you could skip to three and not miss much from two. OSC gives an interview at the end, talking about how hard it is to build the world and do the set up and have the plot move along at the same time. It almost felt like an apology for the book. Like I felt about Ruins, I'd probably wait to read this book until book three comes out and then read them together, for this alone didn't satisfy me like book one did.

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

Not bad, Not good

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

I listen on my way in to work in the morning, and my way home in the evening.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

As I'm listening through the book, I don't feel like there is a whole lot of character development within this book specifically. In the first book of the series, we got to spend a lot of time with the characters, and really get why and how they reacted to things. In The Gate Thief, I'm constantly feeling like people are doing random things against their character for no reason what so ever. OSC Keeps trying to portray Danny as this kid who wants to do the right thing and be a stand up guy, but then there are parts of the story where he acts like a little brat. Specifically the way Danny treated coach leader, and acted when joining the track team. I know leader's a jerk, but the mark of someone truly good, is their ability to respectfully handle a situation without making them self look like an ass. I would like to see reaffirmations of how the character behaves and interacts with people and let me be the judge of whether that person's choices were good choices or not. I felt like I was being Pushed and prodded towards Danny being a really stand up guy, but his actions that he took half the time felt the opposite.

Was The Gate Thief worth the listening time?

The book was rather short compared to other books I've listened to, and since the book was, in my mind mediocre, it about evened out.

Any additional comments?

I know that in most books your going to encounter periods of things you enjoy and things that bore you, etc. Because I often listen to audio books during my commute, I often can judge a book by how often I walk into my house and keep the audio book running on my phone. If I'm listening outside of my car, it often means that something interested me to the point that I really wanted to know more. That so far in this book has only happened once to me.

A Good Second Book

I listened to the first book only two weeks before this one and it flowed nicely from book to book. This is one of those book series that is one large story and not true series. The story line picks up where The Lost Gate left off and continues on nicely and end with me looking for the next part of the download.

If you liked The Lost Gate you will like this one too.

OSC 4-EVER

he has a way with words , keeps even me interested , best narrators!

what are mages

Good read. wanted more information about mage history and the duat. I really liked it though.

Dull

I loved Orson Scott Cards work but this series is just going downhill hoping for a strong finish but not expecting one. Amazing world and ideas brought down by terrible characters!