Rating: 
Summary: Amazing. Orson Scott Card is now my favorite Author.
Review: I was first introduced to Orson Scott Card as I randomly searched through Amazon.com's sci-fi section for a book to buy with a ten dollar gift certificate. I ended up buying Ender's Game. I read it in two days(while attending high school and keeping up with all it's related hoopla). I went on to read the entire Ender Series and love it. I have read all the books in the Alvin Maker Series in about two weeks. They are entrancing. I stayed up until after four o' clock in the morning reading Alvin Journeyman, as I couldn't put it down. This book is just as good as any in the rest of the series, in my opinion. It is a superb work by an extraordinarily talented author.(I guess you could say his knack was writing ;-)
Rating: 
Summary: Alvin Maker is degenerating into a weekly TV show
Review: I've given up all hope of resolution. The epic story of Alvin Maker has become a series of side adventures that, while still entertaining, are rapidly losing their momentum.
Rating: 
Summary: Just tell me what happened!
Review: I've just finished reading this book. It took me only 2 nights to finish it, not because it was so good (like the first book of this series, along with many of Card's books), but because of my frustration. I had to endure several pages in order to know what happened next. How long do I have to wait until Alvin gets to the Crystal City? I remember that I had exactly the same feeling when I was reading "Children of the Mind". Still, I had my reward of joy when I finished the finale of Ender's saga. So I guess I have to keep reading the Alvin series until the end.
Rating: 
Summary: The Tales of Alvin Maker continues its downhill slide
Review: It has been said that any plot which depends on a dramatic courtroom trial is doomed to mediocrity. ALVIN JOURNEYMAN, unfortunately, is one of those plots. In this fourth installment of Orson Scott Card's alternate-history and Mormon allegory "The Tales of Alvin Maker", Alvin is put on trial for his life. We, the readers, spend half the book being dragged through courtroom melodrama with a protagonist the reader is having a hard time caring about anymore.At the end of PRENTICE ALVIN, Alvin finished his prentice stint with Makepeace Smith and had returned to his hometown of Vigor Church to teach Making. ALVIN JOURNEYMAN sees him return almost immediately to Hatrack River due to the slander of a young lady in love with him. Upon his arrival, however, he is arrested and put on trial for theft of the golden plow, and his young ward Arthur Stuart faces being taken back to slavery in Appalachee. Verily Cooper, a young English lawyer with a knack for binding things together, is brought to the United States by rumors of a Maker and defends Alvin. And while Alvin endures his hardships in Hatrack River, his malevolent brother Calvin heads for Europe to learn from Napoleon himself how to rule over others. Orson Scott Card wrote ALVIN JOURNEYMAN five years after the previous installment, and it is pretty evident that he has grown somewhat tired of the series and no longer sure of what direction it will take. Alvin teaches Making in Vigor Church, but how can you teach that, what exactly would you be teaching? Card can't come up with an answer either and thus he abandons the topic as soon as this installment begins. There are several blatant errors with geography (a judge refers to "the state of Kennituck" when Card had already said that Kennituck was a county of Appalachee). After fleeing from Vigor Church and wandering for a bit, Alvin and Arthur Stuart's return to Hatrack River seems forced. Why would Alvin return to a place where his enemies await him? A bit of the novel is dedicated to the comeback of White Murderer Harrison, but after he is elected, Card quickly dispatches him almost beneath the reader's notice. The ending resolves nothing and is little more than a Taleswapper cameo. The novel is also frustrating because it accomplishes little for the series. We see no progress towards the building of the Crystal City, and the only indication of where the series is headed are the occasional foreboding references to how Alvin should not visit Carthage City lest he die, just as the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, met a violent end in Carthage, Illinois. However, in ALVIN JOURNEYMAN Orson Scott Card does start to go off track with the formerly solid Mormon allegory. The trial of Alvin is obviously symbolic of the trials of Joseph Smith, but while Alvin is acquitted, the young Joseph Smith was found guilty of moneydigging. ALVIN JOURNEYMAN leaves the reader drifting, totally ignorant of what is going to happen next or, indeed, what the point of the series is anymore. The first two volumes of The Tales of Alvin Maker were quite entertaining and the third volume, while it had its moments, was a disappointment. It is becoming increasingly difficult to recommend the series.
Rating: 
Summary: Alvin Journeyman is one book too many
Review: Just like a great lawyer may lose an otherwise flawless case by asking one too many questions, or a great boxer may lose his place in history by fighting one too many fights, so too can a great writer ruin a great series by writing one too many books. The first three books in this series weaved a simple yet eloquently told fairytale compelling too all ages. The series should have ended there. Card bowed to the wishes of some of his fans or more likely to the pocketbook of his publisher when he wrote Alvin Journeyman. While I still consider the first three books in the series to be among the greatest science fiction I've ever read, this latest effort is childish and forced. Even that would not be so bad if it were'nt associated with a great body of work. I only completed Alvin Journeyman because of my respect for Card, but I won't be reading any more books in this series. Why, why, why do the great ones always have to write one too many?
Rating:
Summary: A good story, but the series is running a bit long
Review: Like its prequel ALVIN PRENTICE, this book has all the trademarks of a good Orson Scott Card tale. It's fast-paced and engaging, and the characters' offbeat dialects are just plain fun to read. They live in the 1800's (well sort of, its an alternate reality) and unlike many modern-day novels, they don't talk or act as if they grew up in the 1980's. They seem genuine, or as genuine as they can be in a world where magic and coincidence are equally common parts of life. At this point in the series, Card allows himself to have a little more fun, as the action criss-crosses the Atlantic, and we get to meet hilariously distorted versions of Napolean, Marquis de LaFayette, Benjamin Harris, and Daniel Webster. This book is much better than the low point of the series (RED PROPHET) because there is less hocus-pocus Indian magic and more character development. But it is not as fresh or inventive as the original (SEVENTH SON) partly because Alvin's naivete and innocence is much more believable in a ten-year old boy than a 25-year old adult. I look forward to the end of the series, but like many other reviewers, I wish it would come soon.
Rating:
Summary: A good story, but the series is running a bit long
Review: Like its prequel ALVIN PRENTICE, this book has all the trademarks of a good Orson Scott Card tale. It's fast-paced and engaging, and the characters' offbeat dialects are just plain fun to read. They live in the 1800's (well sort of, its an alternate reality) and unlike many modern-day novels, they don't talk or act as if they grew up in the 1980's. They seem genuine, or as genuine as they can be in a world where magic and coincidence are equally common parts of life. At this point in the series, Card allows himself to have a little more fun, as the action criss-crosses the Atlantic, and we get to meet hilariously distorted versions of Napolean, Marquis de LaFayette, Benjamin Harris, and Daniel Webster. This book is much better than the low point of the series (RED PROPHET) because there is less hocus-pocus Indian magic and more character development. But it is not as fresh or inventive as the original (SEVENTH SON) partly because Alvin's naivete and innocence is much more believable in a ten-year old boy than a 25-year old adult. I look forward to the end of the series, but like many other reviewers, I wish it would come soon.
Rating:
Summary: Boring ramble from a talented author
Review: Many other reviews here seem to be highly praising, but I found this fourth installment of Card's clever, original series a big disappointment. Nothing really happens except a lot of chatting and repitition. How many times do we have to hear the plot of "Red Prophet" and "Prentice Alvin" restated? The former was a bit preachy, the latter more exciting; I enjoyed both but didn't need to hear their stories repeated in almost every chapter, it seemed. Moreover, I kept waiting for the stupid trial to end so everyone could get on with the story and actually DO something but when the trial ended so did the book! The book wasn't terrible, however--Card always writes with skill and a unique voice (though he rambles in ways a beginning author could never get away with.) For some good points, Calvin in Europe was fun, and I liked the British attorney, and I loved learning what Taleswapper's true knack is. Yet Alvin and Peggy both seemed too old for their roles. The innocent spunk that made them such fun when they were younger is boring and stale a little strange in people in their late twenties. They finally get together, but it seemed anti-climactic. And Peggy's pregnant already? How divine. Most of all, though, is that I feel Card is badly misusing his alternate history. It's fun to see the twisted-around versions of real historical figures, but Card disappointed me with almost all of them. For example, William Henry Harrison was delightful as a cruel military man in "Red Prophet," but in this book he does just what he did in real history: become president and die after getting sick at his inaugural address. I guess Card was having fun with making events seem inevitable, but that seems a waste of a good alternate history. Similarly, it was hinted that the land is headed for war, with the slaveholders and royal colonies against the "United States,"
Appalachee, etc. That's just the American Revolution and the Civil War at the same time--as if those things were bound to happen in any version of history. And while Napoleon's empire is fun to hear about, I thought he was more interesting as a general exiled to Canada. Again, seems like Card isn't being as creative as he could be. And after four books, I wish I knew more about the places on that wonderful alternate map besides Hatrack River and Dekane. I wanted to see the Crown Colonies and New England. And I'd like some hints about what's happening in the rest of the alternate world, apart from Europe. The Unmaker was hardly in it at all! The magic that was so fresh and clever in "Seventh Son" has gotten pretty boring. Also I though it was pretty goofy that Mike Fink showed up eager for redemption as a devoted follower of Alvin. And there are very few interesting female characters. . .Why none of the historical women at that time? There were some! I'd like to see an alternate America where women could vote in the 1800's! All in all, very discouraging. I felt the same way about the Ender Series: Ender's Game blew away, it's one of the best books ever, but the rest of the series is boring and preachy. Card makes great, super-smart children but they grow up dull. Maybe Heartfire will be better.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent first book of a compelling fantasy, history series
Review: Mr Card is the best fantasy writer at this time. This series was the first books of his I read and I was immediately captivated by his plot development and superior characterizations. His version of the early history of the US and our interaction with rhe Native Americans is fascinating. At the same time, I found myself quickly caught up in the lives of his characters
Rating:
Summary: A great read by fantasy's greatest author.
Review: Orson Scott Card has weaved has creative magic throughout the Alvin Maker series, and he has done so again with a book that is not only a fine story, but fine literature as well.
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