Rating: 
Summary: Very readable Card
Review: ...Card explores human relationships against a background of Mormon issues and I think does a first-rate job of bringing characters to life in a short story context, which is no easy achievement.I found his "Author's Note" to be a little intimidating, to find out that he and these stories have been critiqued by some of the best writers, so who am I to criticize his writing? Actually, I'll tell you: I'm someone that actually pays money for his books, that's who. Anyhow, let me run down the plots of each of the stories and give you my rating of them, in true U.S. Navy fashion, of Outstanding, Excellent, Good, Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory. "West." The plot: In a post-nuclear exchange, a group of Mormons fleeing persecution travels from North Carolina to Utah; along the way, they meet up with a guide who helps them; the guide has his own emotional problems, which the Mormons help heal. The storyline reminds me of Stephan King's "The Stand," but the characters are pure Card. One of the most enduring themes of the Mormon culture is the idea of persecution, and Card feasts on this idea like a vulture on carrion. Along the way he creates a fairly believable 20th/21st century re-creation of the flight from Nauvoo and persecution of 160 years prior. Rating: Excellent. "Salvage." The plot: in post-nuclear exchange Utah, the Mormon temple has become flooded; a non-Mormon dives to find supposed buried treasure hidden within, but instead only finds written prayers on metal that Mormons have dropped inside. I'm ambivalent about this story. On the one hand, it is heavy-handed in its juxtaposition of spiritual and physical treasure. On another level, it's very appealing to see a simple written expression of faith (what Brazilians call a "voto") from people who have suffered to keep that faith alive. Rating: Excellent. "The Fringe." The plot: in post-nuclear exchange Utah, a teacher suffering from ALS discovers that the spiritual leader of his small town/commune is stealing vital foodstuffs; he reports this to the authorities and is almost killed as a result. I liked this story much more than probably anyone without a Mormon background. Mormons are in general very politically conservative, and were reliably anti-communist during the Cold War. Yet they also lived, for a couple of decades after fleeing to Utah, the "United Order," which was close to pure communism. Card tries to reconcile the past by setting it in the post-nuclear exchange future, an interesting plot device. The story itself is very entertaining and internally consistent. Rating: Excellent. "Pageant Wagon." The plot: in post-nuclear exchange Utah, the state's seeming sole non-Mormon falls in with a dysfunctional family of itinerant pageant performers. Character development in the story was good, but I couldn't really relate to the underlying story of pageant performers. In his "Author's Note," Card admitted he was drawing on his own experience with itinerant pageant production back in the 70s, and it just is not something to which I can really relate. Sorry. Rating: Satisfactory. "America." The plot: in the pre-nuclear exchange era, an American boy in Brazil falls into the company of an older Native American prophetess; years later, after the nuclear war, their son becomes the leader of an America that has been taken from the control of the white race ("Europeans") and returned to the Indians. The story is a really marvelous blend of religious allegory, magic realism and science fiction. An exposition of this story is found in Michael Colling's "Afterword" to the book that does justice to its different aspects. However, one thing that Mr. Colling does not point out is that Quetzalcoatl, the new American messiah, is himself a mestizo, and that redemption for the people of the Americas comes through neither one race or the other, but through both. As a "European" married to a Brazilian of indigenous descent, I find this aspect of the story to be particularly relevant and appealing. But maybe I'm just reading my own biases into the story. Read for yourself and decide. Rating: Outstanding.
Rating: 
Summary: A delightful read
Review: America as we know it has been destroyed by a combination of nuclear and biological weapons. However, the final death is caused by a collective cultural lack of belief in anything non material. Amidst this manifest destiny of death and destruction remains a few oasis of civilization when a fringe survivor group forges a society along the expanded shores of The Great Salt Lake. With this background, awesome award winning Orson Scott Card provides five interrelated tales about the efforts of these few to reconstruct civilization anchored by religion. Each story is well written and paints an optimistic future on top of a gloomy present and a dead past. The cast seems genuine adding to the reality of a doomed future America. Fans need to understand that this fabulous anthology is not a story a night collection because the theme makes the short stories seem more like chapters of a fantastic science fiction novel though each entry can stand alone. Mr. Card once again proves he is the ace of genre writers. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Threw it away
Review: By the time he started talking about how much this guy's prostrate burned when he urinated and about a black girl getting raped, I decided to throw this one away...
Rating: 
Summary: Bad book. Avoid even if you are an OSC fan!
Review: Folk of the Fringe is simply a disappointment. I am a fan of Orson Scott Card and have read most of his books. This is probably one of the worst. The book is a collection of 5 inter-connected short stories, set in a post-apocalyptic world. Nuclear and biological warfare lead to the collapse of the US and chaos prevails in most of the country. However, an independent Mormon state, Deseret, is founded in and around present day Utah. Using everyday life for the survivors as a backdrop, most of the stories focus on the life of non-Mormons within this Mormon community. While this is not an easy subject to write about, in my opinion OSC's treatment of the subject amounts to little more than Mormon propaganda. Most of the stories were simply boring and in some cases I even found this blatant propaganda mildly offensive. The best story in the book is "West" - set in the early days following the collapse, the story describes the journey of a group of Mormons from the East Coast to Utah, aided by a lone stranger. This is the first story in the book and is reminiscent of "The Postman" with some religious overtones. The book goes downhill from there. The remaining stories fail to engage and I found the characters to be flat, uninteresting and soap opera like - particularly in the fourth story - "Pageant Wagon". In summary, don't bother reading this book, instead try one of the following books that are almost guaranteed to please: "Ender's Game"; "The Worthing Saga"; "Lovelock".
Rating: 
Summary: Good but not Great
Review: Folks of the Fringe is more quilt then a solid story. The book encompasses several generations of people, Mormons for the most part, in their post-apocalyptic struggles. This is not one of my favorite Card novels, which is somewhat suprising. I love short stories and I love post-apocalyptic thrillers. You would think that I would greatly enjoy Folk of the Fringe. I enjoyed the book, don't get me wrong, I just did not enjoy it nearly as much as I should have. I found the characters interesting but not fully developed and the movement of time too rapid to really get to know the situation or characters enough to become attached and truly care. Overall a good book. I would recommend reading this book but I am not sure about purchasing it. This book is out of print quite frequently and is probably not worth the money or effort to pay big bucks to get but might be worth while to buy as a used book store for a buck or two. A decent Card book but not near his best.
Rating:
Summary: Another solid effort for OSC, but not commercially viable
Review: I am not surprised by the lukewarm reviews this book has received. Unfortunately, Card's best works are often overlooked in favor of his more commercial, action-oriented fantasy franchises, such as the Ender Wiggen novels and the Tales of Alvin Maker. This book features five interrelated stories in a post-apocalypse America, character-driven pieces that deal with 'fitting in' on the edge of society. These are not the kind of subjects that appeal to sci-fi's ready-made fan base of teenage boys, but the mileu will turn away readers who do not like science fiction. The characters are mostly Mormons, a fringe group themselves, who are portrayed as long-suffering people persecuted at the hands of mainstream Christians. But underneath the exterior premise, Card displays some very strong writing. "The Fringe" contains the best depiction I've ever read of the struggle and rage of a handicapped character. In "Pageant Wagon," Card creates some very complex family relationships, and writes a stirring ode to the possibilities of theater, all within a few short pages. On the whole, this is Card doing what he does best - exploring how human relationships operate and survive under extreme conditions.
Rating:
Summary: If only I had known ...
Review: I loved the Ender saga. I loved the Alvin books. I absolutely love apocalyptic fiction. If only I had read the epilogue, in which OSC describes this novel as LDS-fiction. Latter Day Saints fiction, in my book no more read-worthy than Christian fiction. Unfortunately, I was 40 pages into the novel and getting disgusted by the Saint this, Brother that, Lord and baptism this, before I scanned ahead to see if this was just current-character characterization. Nope. This is a religious book, not a very good one at that, and I doubt I'll bother reading the rest.
Rating:
Summary: If only I had known ...
Review: I loved the Ender saga. I loved the Alvin books. I absolutely love apocalyptic fiction. If only I had read the epilogue, in which OSC describes this novel as LDS-fiction. Latter Day Saints fiction, in my book no more read-worthy than Christian fiction. Unfortunately, I was 40 pages into the novel and getting disgusted by the Saint this, Brother that, Lord and baptism this, before I scanned ahead to see if this was just current-character characterization. Nope. This is a religious book, not a very good one at that, and I doubt I'll bother reading the rest.
Rating:
Summary: A tale of disaster and triumph
Review: In a world when the US has been destroyed, the few that are left try to start again and back an American ideal. Card has brought together a colection of Short Stories that deal with the human spirirt, and as usaul he has done it perfectly. He brings the idea of only the Mid-West surviving belivible, and though it is mainly about mormons, a person of any religion can also understand it. It is not about Mormons suceeding, it is about people recreating America, there hardships, there sucess. It is about starting anew, of a man with a dark past being forgivin. From this book we can learn from humanitys spirirt, of what we keep sacred, and of everything else that is important to us
Rating:
Summary: Well-written Mormon propoganda
Review: In this collection of five interrelated short stories, Orson Scott Card tells the tales of the society that rises out of the ashes of a wasted America. Card is clearly a great storyteller, and has mastered the art of developing characters with realistic dialogue and motives. Still, this book suffers from a suspicious background that is equal parts Mormon propoganda and New Age dreaming with a touch of "The Road Warrior" thrown in for good measure. The premise of the five stories is believable enough: America has been decimated by Atomic and biological attacks, and law and order has broken down. In tough times like these, who you gonna call? Card thinks the answer is his people, the Mormons. This sect, apparently, is the only group of "European Americans" who can hold it together. While other whites... descend into killing, rape, and highway robbery, the Mormons rally to their Utah stronghold and proceed to create a green utopia in the desert. For extra feel-good points, Card makes sure a few of the mormons are black, and at the end gives the land back to the Indians. I would recommend this book for serious Card fans, Mormons, and fans of "The Postman." For newcomers to Card's work, try "The Worthing Saga" or "Ender's Game" first.
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