Sunday 9 October 2011

Pathfinder by Orson Scott Card (Pathfinder #1)

Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Sci-fi, Adventure 
My Rating: 4 out of 5

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A powerful secret. A dangerous path.

Rigg is well trained at keeping secrets. Only his father knows the truth about Rigg's strange talent for seeing the paths of people's pasts. But when his father dies, Rigg is stunned to learn just how many secrets Father had kept from him--secrets about Rigg's own past, his identity, and his destiny. And when Rigg discovers that he has the power not only to see the past, but also to change it, his future suddenly becomes anything but certain.

Rigg’s birthright sets him on a path that leaves him caught between two factions, one that wants him crowned and one that wants him dead. He will be forced to question everything he thinks he knows, choose who to trust, and push the limits of his talent…or forfeit control of his destiny.

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Wow, that was a lot to take in. I could hardly wrap my mind around it. I cant imagine a lot of young adults who could keep up with it, except the very intelligent and very ambitious. I would most definitely not categorize this as YA, even if the author himself does, he must have a much higher opinion of young adults. It contains very complicated theories on time travel and space travel, a young protagonist who is almost as genius and difficult to understand as Ender himself, and such a large and complicated story and world of characters and ideas that I cant even begin to explain it.

Whenever I read a book I try to imagine it as a movie. What kind of audience would it attract, what movies it could be compared to, a possible cast, etc. But I cant really imagine this as a movie. If it was, it would most certainly not be a children's movie, or even a teen movie. It is so ambitious and confusing that I would dare to say it would most likely attract the same audience as Inception.

It reminds me of Ender's Game, as I already mentioned, but also of The Worthing Saga, one of Orson Scott Card's earliest works, which had some similar topics and gave me a similar sense of confusion. Basically, they both give you very little information, a little bit at a time, that you have to slowly piece together as you read, before you can even figure out something as basic as the setting of the story. If you've read The Worthing Saga, then you probably know what I mean. Not that there are any plot holes or inconsistencies. Not that I could detect. It just keeps your brain really revving the whole time, trying to keep up. This book is not what you want to read when you are looking for some down time.

I gave this a 4 star rating because of the great accomplishment which was writing it, and I am a great fan of the genre, but it was perhaps a bit slow, or perhaps I should say, steady. I am curious to find out what happens next, but its a bit dramatic, some adventure mixed in there, but really no action. At no point was my heart racing, which can actually happen quite easily for me. But it had a great group of characters I really enjoyed. I look forward to reading more.

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