Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: A very good friend recommended 'Harts Hope' to me years ago. It was my introduction to Orson Scott Card and it shattered my concept of fantasy.I have yet to this day found another novel that has stuck with me so completely. I became engrossed in the story from the first paragraph and enraptured by the end. The words flowed through you like liquid poetry. I found myself stopping many times to re-read paragraphs that stunned me with the beauty of their flow and imagery. I have purchased this book for many friends who have come back to it as many times as I have. I recommend it highly!
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: A very good friend recommended `Harts Hope' to me years ago. It was my introduction to Orson Scott Card and it shattered my concept of fantasy. I have yet to this day found another novel that has stuck with me so completely. I became engrossed in the story from the first paragraph and enraptured by the end. The words flowed through you like liquid poetry. I found myself stopping many times to re-read paragraphs that stunned me with the beauty of their flow and imagery. I have purchased this book for many friends who have come back to it as many times as I have. I recommend it highly!
Rating:
Summary: read it
Review: a wonderfull book that will take you back to the fairytails of your childhood yet keep you engaged as a adult.
Rating:
Summary: High tragedy...
Review: Card makes one of his rare forays into fantasy here, and it's quite successful. It's also very probably the saddest book he's ever written--I was depressed as hell after reading the ending, but then, that Card's capable of evoking that emotion in me is a testament to his prowess. The narrative style's a bit weird, but you quickly get used to it. And what's this about it being out of print? I demand that somebody rerelease it!
Rating:
Summary: read it
Review: Full of cruelty, brutality, pain, and anguish. The strange way of telling little stories within the larger one threw me at first. I was expecting this to be a device only in the prologue. After reading for a while, I got into the flow of the story telling. I easily became enraptured of this tale and read it vigorously throughout the day and night. The style of the book seems biblical, with the names and the little titles throughout each chapter remincent of biblical names/titles. His new ideas were sharp and refreshing, in other words not a fantasy novel I had read before. The basic fantasy constructs are there: Nobles, witches, wizards, and magic. The plot has epic proportions, but has Card's brevity and simplicity of description. The worst and best part of the novel is the ending. The reader is left hanging at the end, but if you are able to come to the (almost) inevitable conclusion, then you will be satisfied. (Otherwise it leaves you pulling your hair.) The villianess of the story is evil yet abused in such a way that she should be pitied for her situation, but still justly delt with in the end. Great and powerful, abused and flawed. The debate over her abuse makes this book less black and white, and more shades of gray.
Rating:
Summary: A strange fantasy novel, very well written
Review: Full of cruelty, brutality, pain, and anguish. The strange way of telling little stories within the larger one threw me at first. I was expecting this to be a device only in the prologue. After reading for a while, I got into the flow of the story telling. I easily became enraptured of this tale and read it vigorously throughout the day and night. The style of the book seems biblical, with the names and the little titles throughout each chapter remincent of biblical names/titles. His new ideas were sharp and refreshing, in other words not a fantasy novel I had read before. The basic fantasy constructs are there: Nobles, witches, wizards, and magic. The plot has epic proportions, but has Card's brevity and simplicity of description. The worst and best part of the novel is the ending. The reader is left hanging at the end, but if you are able to come to the (almost) inevitable conclusion, then you will be satisfied. (Otherwise it leaves you pulling your hair.) The villianess of the story is evil yet abused in such a way that she should be pitied for her situation, but still justly delt with in the end. Great and powerful, abused and flawed. The debate over her abuse makes this book less black and white, and more shades of gray.
Rating:
Summary: Deeply sad, unsettling story of destiny
Review: Hart's Hope has to be one of the saddest books I've ever read. As usual, Card attacks a weighty issue from many angles, and leaves us with a non-answer to the central question the book raises. In the meantime, one grows with a character only to see his life irreparably altered by a destiny he didn't choose. I had such a hollow, empty feeling after reading this book that I couldn't stop thinking about it for days afterward. The story is told in a fantasy style that is as richly developed as the main tragic character. One of Card's best
Rating: 
Summary: Decent early Card
Review: Hart's Hope is an enjoyable read and contains themes of Card's later works. Hart's Hope is the story of a young man who comes to a medieval city, full of mostly bad magic, and discovers that he too has a magical talent that he decides to use for good. Overall, the book moves right along and doesn't waste your time. I suppose you could try to extract deep themes out of this book; Lord knows you can from some of Card's other work, such as "Wyrms" or "Xenocide." But this book, although rich in symbolism and even in allegory, is not sufficiently internally consistent or focused to be able to draw out anything other than fairly trite or commonplace insights. Probably the sole important theme that deserves reflection is that conventional morality in extraordinary circumstances may lead to a greater folly (a theme explored obliquely in Card's short story "A Plague of Butterflies").
Rating:
Summary: Decent early Card
Review: Hart's Hope is an enjoyable read and contains themes of Card's later works. Hart's Hope is the story of a young man who comes to a medieval city, full of mostly bad magic, and discovers that he too has a magical talent that he decides to use for good. Overall, the book moves right along and doesn't waste your time. I suppose you could try to extract deep themes out of this book; Lord knows you can from some of Card's other work, such as "Wyrms" or "Xenocide." But this book, although rich in symbolism and even in allegory, is not sufficiently internally consistent or focused to be able to draw out anything other than fairly trite or commonplace insights. Probably the sole important theme that deserves reflection is that conventional morality in extraordinary circumstances may lead to a greater folly (a theme explored obliquely in Card's short story "A Plague of Butterflies").
Rating: 
Summary: Different
Review: Hart's Hope isn't your typical Card novel. He keeps the philosophy to a minimum, choosing instead to tell a story. It's not a great story. It's decent. It's all a little weird.
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