This is the fifth novel in Orson Scott Card's popular Alvin the Maker series, based on an alternate America where some people are born with knacks, which resemble magical abilities. The protagonist of the series, Alvin, is a maker who not only can fix things (such as restoring a wounded bird to health with his doodlebug) but is also something of a natural leader. Alvin and his small band of followers are on a quest to build the Crystal City, a place where those who have knacks can live in safety from the people who sometimes burn them as witches. While Alvin visits the nearly holy province of New England to find out just how cities work, his wife Margaret, traveling under the name Peggy, journeys to the kingdom of Camelot, which was formerly known as Charleston, South Carolina. There she hopes to persuade the exiled King Arthur to help her abolish the practice of slavery. Heartfire is an excellent midseries novel that's sure to delight fans of Alvin. --Craig E. Engler


From Publishers Weekly
Fifth in Hugo and Nebula winner Card's immensely popular Tales of Alvin Maker, this installment of alternative American history centers around two grievous social wrongs. Arthur Stuart, exiled King of England, reigns in Camelot (Charleston), capital of the slaveholding southern Crown Colonies; in New England, meanwhile, "witchers" connive to execute anyone with the "knack," the ability to connect to the powers of the universe. Just before civil war erupts, telekinetic Alvin and his historical friends, such as John James Audubon, and legendary ones, such as riverman Mike Fink, set about to abolish New England's antiwitch laws, while Alvin's wife and mentor, Margaret, uses her ability to read human souls to offer the hope of freedom to the Colonies' slaves and to heal Alvin's malevolent brother before he can kill her husband. Card's antebellum settings, dialogue and historical figures seem authentic and thoroughly researched, and, as always, he offers excellent differentiation of characters. However, Card is as occasionally windy and preachy as ever, and the plethora of lengthy philosophical and/or psychological digressions make for considerably less fictional sizzle than fizzle. Consider this a good bet for fans of the series, but not for a wider readership. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
While Alvin Smith, blessed with the magical knack of Making, travels to the Puritan-controlled lands of New England in search of a way to realize his vision of a Crystal City, his wife, Peggy, seeks to use her own knack of seeing into the hearts of others to promote the abolition of slavery in the Crown Colonies of the South. The fifth installment of Card's popular "Tales of Alvin Maker" series exhibits the same homespun charm of its predecessors and belongs in most fantasy collections. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Devotees of Card's Alvin Maker series will rejoice that the fifth book quickly follows the fourth and that it further demonstrates the historical and folkloric scholarship, insight into the religious impulse, ethical concern, and lucid prose that distinguish its historical fantasy predecessors. Alvin is with Mike Fink and other companions in New England to fight against the laws that make witchcraft a capital offense. He is condemned and imprisoned under them, but, helped by a local girl and old--but still hard-nosed in pursuit of justice--John Adams, he triumphs. Wife Margaret, meanwhile, though pregnant with their daughter, travels to the southern colonies to persuade them to abolish slavery. There she discovers that the slaves are being made passive by Denmark Vesey and a shamanistic partner, who are stealing their aggression. The release of all this aggression bodes a bloody slave rebellion that Alvin averts in the knick of time. The pace is brisker this time, although Card's attempt to tell two stories in one compact book may make some feel that something has been left out or that Alvin's increasing powers diminish suspense. Most who have come this far with Alvin will find this an exceedingly well told, satisfying continuation of a major fantasy saga. Roland Green


From Kirkus Reviews
Another in Card's superior fantasy series about Alvin Smith (Alvin Journeymen, 1995, etc.), set in an alternate world where magic workspeople are born with ``knacks''and America is divided among a tiny Union, various European colonies, and inviolable Red territory west of the Mizzipy River. Alvin, a Makerhis magic is creative, holistic, and used only for goodhas married his boyhood sweetheart, Margaret, and adopted the former slave boy Arthur Stuart. Margarether knack is to read a person's heartfire, and thus glimpse their futurewill travel south to meet the exiled king of England, Arthur Stuart, in his court at Camelot and attempt to persuade him to end slavery in the Crown Colonies (any alternative, so Margaret has foreseen, will be a dreadful slaughter). Alvin, meanwhile, journeys north to New England, where he will deploy both magic and legal wizardry to overthrow the corrupt and oppressive system of justice that declares those who have knacks to be evil witches. That mission accomplished, Alvin will raise his brother Calvin from the dead after Calvin will have been killed helping Margaret in her crusade against slavery. Alvin continues to mature and gain confidence, although neither accomplishment here brings him any closer to discovering how to use the living gold plow he has crafted, or to an understanding of the vision of the Crystal City shown him years ago by the Red Prophet. One more absorbing entry in this brilliantly conceived and fetchingly rendered series. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
"With delicacy and insight, incorporating folk tales and folk magic with mountain lore and other authentic details, Orson Scott Card has evoked a vision of America as it might have been."-Greensboro Tribune-Review



Review
"With delicacy and insight, incorporating folk tales and folk magic with mountain lore and other authentic details, Orson Scott Card has evoked a vision of America as it might have been."-Greensboro Tribune-Review



Book Description
Peggy is a Torch, able to see the fire burning in each person's heart. She can follow the paths of each person's future, and know each person's most intimate secrets. From the moment of Alvin Maker's birth, when the Unmaker first strove to kill him, she has protected him.

Now they are married, and Peggy is a part of Alvin's heart as well as his life.

But Alvin's destiny has taken them on separate journeys. Alvin has gone north into New England, where knacks are considered witchcraft, and their use is punished with death.

Peggy has been drawn south, to the British Crown Colonies and the court of King Arthur Stuart in exile. For she has seen a terrible future bloom in the heartfires of every person in America, a future of war and destruction. One slender path exists that leads through the bloodshed, and it is Peggy's quest to set the world on the path to peace.



From the Back Cover
"With delicacy and insight, incorporating folk tales and folk magic with mountain lore and other authentic details, Orson Scott Card has evoked a vision of America as it might have been."-Greensboro Tribune-Review

Peggy is a Torch, able to see the fire burning in each person's heart. She can follow the paths of each person's future, and know each person's most intimate secrets. From the moment of Alvin Maker's birth, when the Unmaker first strove to kill him, she has protected him.

Now they are married, and Peggy is a part of Alvin's heart as well as his life.

But Alvin's destiny has taken them on separate journeys. Alvin has gone north into New England, where knacks are considered witchcraft, and their use is punished with death.

Peggy has been drawn south, to the British Crown Colonies and the court of King Arthur Stuart in exile. For she has seen a terrible future bloom in the heartfires of every person in America, a future of war and destruction. One slender path exists that leads through the bloodshed, and it is Peggy's quest to set the world on the path to peace.



About the Author
Born in Richland, Washington in 1951, Orson Scott Card grew up in California, Arizona, and Utah. He lived in Brazil for two years as an unpaid missionary for the Mormon Church and received degrees from Brigham Young University (1975) and the University of Utah (1981). The author of numerous books, Card was the first writer to receive both the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel two years in a row, first for Ender's Game and then for the sequel Speaker for the Dead. He lives with his wife and children in North Carolina.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Peggy is a Torch, able to see the fire burning in each person's heart. She can follow the paths of each person's future, and know each person's most intimate secrets. From the moment of Alvin Maker's birth, when the Unmaker first strove to kill him, she has protected him.

Now they are married, and Peggy is a part of Alvin's heart as well as his life.

But Alvin's destiny has taken them on separate journeys. Alvin has gone north into New England, where knacks are considered witchcraft, and their use is punished with death.

Peggy has been drawn south, to the British Crown Colonies and the court of King Arthur Stuart in exile. For she has seen a terrible future bloom in the heartfires of every person in America, a future of war and destruction. One slender path exists that leads through the bloodshed, and it is Peggy's quest to set the world on the path to peace.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Fifth in Hugo and Nebula winner Card's immensely popular Tales of Alvin Maker, this installment of alternative American history centers around two grievous social wrongs. Arthur Stuart, exiled King of England, reigns in Camelot (Charleston), capital of the slaveholding southern Crown Colonies; in New England, meanwhile, "witchers" connive to execute anyone with the "knack," the ability to connect to the powers of the universe. Just before civil war erupts, telekinetic Alvin and his historical friends, such as John James Audubon, and legendary ones, such as riverman Mike Fink, set about to abolish New England's antiwitch laws, while Alvin's wife and mentor, Margaret, uses her ability to read human souls to offer the hope of freedom to the Colonies' slaves and to heal Alvin's malevolent brother before he can kill her husband. Card's antebellum settings, dialogue and historical figures seem authentic and thoroughly researched, and, as always, he offers excellent differentiation of characters. However, Card is as occasionally windy and preachy as ever, and the plethora of lengthy philosophical and/or psychological digressions make for considerably less fictional sizzle than fizzle. Consider this a good bet for fans of the series, but not for a wider readership. (Aug.)

VOYA - Rachelle Bilz

Card introduced readers to an alternative pioneer America where magic is an integral part of everyday life in Seventh Son (Tor, 1987). "Reds" powers are tied to the power of nature, "Blacks" can make powerful artifacts; "Whites" have "knacks" such as dowsing and second sight. Alvin Smith, the seventh son of a seventh son, possesses the most powerful magic of all. He is a Maker, able to manipulate the elements, heal the sick, and fight against the Unmaker, the blackness that can undo the world. Above all, Alvin can make a better future for America. Heartfire, the fifth book in The Tales of Alvin Maker series, finds Alvin and his traveling companions in Philadelphia on a quest to learn more about his vision of the Crystal City. Alvin's wife Peggy is in Camelot (Charleston) to effect peaceful negotiations between slavery and anti-slavery areas in America. Peggy is a torch; she can see peoples' heartfires (souls or life force) thus revealing their intentions, motives, and possible futures. Alvin and Peggy's adventures are set against an intriguing backdrop of what America might have been. Whites and Reds sit together in Congress, Blacks are on the brink of rebellion, and an exiled king rules the Crown Colonies. Historical figures such as John Adams, John Audubon, and Honor￯﾿ﾽ de Balzac appear, lending credibility to the tale. Card is a consummate storyteller able to create a believable world peopled with strong, solid characters. Heartfire will be most enjoyed by those familiar with the rest of the series. VOYA Codes: 4Q 2P J S (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses, For the YA with a special interest in the subject, Junior High-defined as grades 7 to 9 and Senior High-defined as grades 10 to 12).

Library Journal

While Alvin Smith, blessed with the magical knack of Making, travels to the Puritan-controlled lands of New England in search of a way to realize his vision of a Crystal City, his wife, Peggy, seeks to use her own knack of seeing into the hearts of others to promote the abolition of slavery in the Crown Colonies of the South. The fifth installment of Card's popular "Tales of Alvin Maker" series exhibits the same homespun charm of its predecessors and belongs in most fantasy collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 4/15/98.]

Library Journal

This best-selling sf writer is back with a sequel to the "Tales of Alvin Maker" series.

Kirkus Reviews

Another in Card's superior fantasy series about Alvin Smith (Alvin Journeymen, 1995, etc.), set in an alternate world where magic worksþpeople are born with "knacks"þand America is divided among a tiny Union, various European colonies, and inviolable Red territory west of the Mizzipy River. Alvin, a Makerþhis magic is creative, holistic, and used only for goodþhas married his boyhood sweetheart, Margaret, and adopted the former slave boy Arthur Stuart. Margaretþher knack is to read a person's heartfire, and thus glimpse their futureþwill travel south to meet the exiled king of England, Arthur Stuart, in his court at Camelot and attempt to persuade him to end slavery in the Crown Colonies (any alternative, so Margaret has foreseen, will be a dreadful slaughter). Alvin, meanwhile, journeys north to New England, where he will deploy both magic and legal wizardry to overthrow the corrupt and oppressive system of justice that declares those who have knacks to be evil witches. That mission accomplished, Alvin will raise his brother Calvin from the dead after Calvin will have been killed helping Margaret in her crusade against slavery. Alvin continues to mature and gain confidence, although neither accomplishment here brings him any closer to discovering how to use the living gold plow he has crafted, or to an understanding of the vision of the Crystal City shown him years ago by the Red Prophet. One more absorbing entry in this brilliantly conceived and fetchingly rendered series.