Rating: 
Summary: A good tale, I think it ended too soon, looking for sequel
Review: According to legend, the seventh son of a seventh son is a person of great power. The wife in a family migrating west into the Northwest territory of the Ohio river valley is carrying a male child who would be the seventh son of a seventh son. Suddenly, a seemingly tame river that they are attempting to cross engages in a flash flood in an apparent attempt to kill the mother. However, after great effort, they are rescued, although one of the male sons is swept away. However, he lives a few minutes beyond the birth of the baby, making the baby the seventh son of a seventh son. That child, Alvin Jr., has power over animals and naturally occurring raw materials, being capable of bending them to his will.
The story is an alternate history of the American frontier, as we hear mention of the names of Washington, Jefferson and Franklin. There is also the itinerant Taleswapper, whose purpose in life is to travel and trade stories with anyone with a good one to tell. The forces aligned against the boy are very powerful, influencing the minds of the neighbors into believing that he and his family are aligned with Satan. Alvin Sr. is an agnostic, which makes him even more suspect in the eyes of the religious community.
In this story we see the paranoid side of Christianity, as the boy clearly uses his powers for good in the world. Nevertheless, he faces a constant struggle to survive against a monstrous evil, some of which resides in the local pastor, that recognizes the threat that he poses. The book ends with Alvin Jr. about to travel away from his village to be an apprentice blacksmith. Clearly, this is not the end of the tale, as nothing is resolved, other than that the boy has lived to reach an age measured in double-digits.
Nana Visitor does an excellent job in reading the story, she uses inflections and changing tones well as the action is described. It is an interesting tale, which made the ending so frustrating. I yearned for more than what was available on the tapes.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book
Review: Well if English isn't your first langauge don't read this, as it uses a lot of english words spelled wrong, to get across a 1800's accent. Well on to the story, it is a great book, written by a great author. It's a fantasy story, in which you see a young child, try to avoid death, and being manipulated by bigger forces. Anyone who liked Ender's Game, is sure to like this book. I recommended The Red Prophet the next book in the series as well, and the complete Ender's Game Series.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Sci-Fi
Review: The book I am currently reading is called "Seventh Son". It is a science fiction book that was written by Orson Scott Card. This book is so amazing that I can say it is already one of my top ten favorite books. I have read many books, but it is always better when you are able to read a book of your own choosing. The book's setting is identical to the era of Benjamin Franklin, but Orson Scott Card uses the idea of magic to bring a new twist to history. I find that the best books are the ones that let people visualize a new idea or a different way of life from that of our every day lives. The characters in the book are also very unique partly due to their magical background, and also with the help of a fantastic author. Alvin right away started doing a calming on her--with his right hand, where she couldn't see him since if she saw him doing a spell on her, she'd break his arm, and that was one threat Alvin Junior truly believed(120). I find Orson Scott Card to be an imaginative author who uses vibrant imagery along with his enlightening diction to not only bring his characters to life, but to also bring the reader into the story. If you like science fiction books like "Ender's Game" or fantasy books like "Lord of the Rings", this is the best blend I have ever read.
Rating: 
Summary: The first book of The Tales of Alvin Maker, a slow opening
Review: The first book in Orson Scott Card's "Tales of Alvin Maker" series, SEVENTH SON introduces the reader to a remarkable alternate history in which early 19th-centrury America looks much different than our own and folk magic is real. The novel opens with the tumultuous birth of Alvin Miller, a seventh son of a seventh son, as his family moves through Ohio hoping to start a better life in frontier territory. Alvin's heritage means he'll have great powers, and even from the start it becomes apparent that some force is moving against him. Through this slim first novel, we are acquainted with Alvin's boyhood and the world in which he lives, where hexes and beseechings are commonplace and actually work. Card's alternate history is one in which the Restoration never happened in England, leaving the Puritans in power there and resulting in a very different America. The Stuart dynasty is in exile in the Southeast, New England is still run by fundamentalist Pilgrims, and the United States consists of only a few key states between. West of this, in what in our world would be Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, is the frontier where Alvin grows up. SEVENTH SON is a very light opening to The Tales of Alvin Maker, and the action begins really from the second book, RED PROPHET, in which Alvin's destiny is revealed. Card gives one just enough here to see if it's right for the reader. For myself, I found Card's setting so fascinating that I went on to the rest of the series. I give the book only three stars for two reasons. One was I didn't like the fact that he made the first book so insubstantial compared to the subsequent novels. The second is that while the series is very good, Card's strength is his ideas, not his writing. His prose is clunky, especially when he tries his "aw, shucks" narrative voice. While I would indeed recommend SEVENTH SON to those who like the concept of an alternate America, The Tales of Alvin Maker is not destined for great literature. Incidentally, The Tales of Alvin Maker is much like another series Card was working on at the same time, the Homecoming books. Both series include Mormon allegory, child protagonists, and the series even touch on one another with the same mystical dream figuring in both. I'd recommend that series if one enjoys The Tales of Alvin Maker.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent start
Review: Alvin is the seventh son of a seventh son, and the thirteenth child, with all the powers that brings him in this first book of a so-far open-ended fantasy series. Magic, of a sort, is in the world, though it's wielded only by people with a "knack". Some knacks are stronger than others. Alvin, being a young boy, hasn't yet got a handle on what he is. This book tells about him and his family in a way that left me looking for the second book. This is a very readable fantasy.
Rating:
Summary: Alvin Miller
Review: I read Seventh Son after reading the Ender series, and although they were a little bit too similar, it was still a great book. It takes place in "America" around the 1800's. However, instead of Indians and Pioneers, there were makers and torches. In this alternate America, folk magic and the church fight a bitter battle, and a family stands right in the middle. Alvin Miller has six daughters and six sons with a seventh son on the way. As the family tries to cross the Hatrack River the oldest son, Vigor, is swept downstream by a log as the rest of the family continues to a town where the torch lives. Her name is Peggy and as Alvin Junior is born, Peggy sees Vigor's spark die, therefore making Alvin the seventh son of a seventh son and possibly a maker. A maker is someone who sees things get destroyed and tries to make things to even everything out. A torch is someone who can see people's "sparks" which are in your heart, to see what you're thinking and if you're being honest or not. The birth of a seventh son was great enough, but the seventh son of a seventh son was one of the most powerful births that could happen. Because of this Alvin Junior is sought out to be killed by some outside force, and there's only one person that can help him. I liked this book a lot because it deals with things that I can relate to and tells a story that is original beyond the author's work.
Rating:
Summary: Great start to the series
Review: This first book of the "Maker" series provides the reader with entertaining characters and with only a light veneer of the mumbo-jumbo that bogs down "Red Prophet." Card takes the time to set out believable characters that interact normally -- nothing is forced. The storyline moves right along and provides a consistent stream of interesting developments. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: This is fantasy, not sci fi...
Review: Sci-fi lovers who like Card because of his Ender books may be a little frustrated by the change of pace here, but Card is a master story teller, and this book is one of his most intimate, beautiful works. It's a story about a boy named Alvin Maker, who has extraordinary, perhaps even religious, capabilities. The saga of Alvin Maker is uplifting and powerful, set in a far different America in the time of cowboys and Indians. In some ways, Alvin (surprise) resembles Ender Wiggin. Definitely a must for Card fans and lovers of fantasy fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Slow start, nice finish
Review: After reading the Enders saga, which had its falts but yet was very enjoyable I wanted to read more Card books. I looked forward to this series and was dissapointed with it for the first 100 pages. After the initial shock of a new style of writing I began to enjoy it, with the help of some different charecters. It is worth the time to read it, barely.
Rating:
Summary: Great begining, totally adsorbing.
Review: This fantasy set in an alternate American history, is yet another adsobing character book from Card. The story is about a young boy with special magical powers, who is constantly under attack from an unseen enemy, and always protected by an unseen gaurdian. While the story is written as a loose allegory on the life of Josheph Smith (founder of the Mormon church), this does nothing to take away from the magic of the story telling, or make the ideas less relavent to people such as myself who know little or nothing about him. This book has Card doing what he does best. Having very real and adsobing characters, act out on real and mostly unseen enemies. Most of the action in this book takes place within the minds and speech of the characters. The battles that take place are subtle and magical, more battles of will than battles of physical prowess. Rarely have I been more caught up in story, or with it's unnervingly real characters than I was with this book. My only concern with this series is that I am not sure where it is going. This series has a lot of promise, and I hope that the rest of this series lives up to this book.
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