I really enjoyed this whole series. Orson Scott Card is one of my favorite writers today! I fell in love with his writing with the Ender sci-fi series, but I also enjoy reading his fantasy works, as well. He is able to pull me into his stories immediately. I don't want to put his books down, having to know what is going to happen to my favorite characters.

I love, love, love Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker series, but he is just pushing it now. It's time to let it go man! This book isn't a complete waste of time, but it's not something I would read instead of say, doing laundry. It's just not that good.

At the end of HEARTFIRE, the fifth book in the Alvin Maker series, I asked myself if the subsequent book(s) could possibly be worse. The answer is a definitive "YES".

This book follows Alvin as he leads a group of runaway slaves to freedom and Calvin and Arthur Stuart on a foray into Mexico. The narrative is ham-handed and preachy, and the introduction of potentially interesting characters, like Abe Lincoln, is handled very badly. The main characters are not developed any further, and subplots and arcs which may have turned interesting are abruptly dropped or fade away.

Alvin's brother Calvin was set up as the villain in the last couple of books, but this subplot is allowed to fizzle out and Calvin fades away into the background. A hero is only as good as the villain is bad, so this shows that Alvin is no hero at all. In fact, as in the last book, Alvin is downright annoying.

Don't even get me started on the golden plow.... "THAT'S IT??!!" is the nicest thing I can say. If there is a seventh book in the series, I will not waste my time.

Card's `Alvin Maker' series takes us down an alternate timeline to a pre-industrial America where folk magic competes with religion and science as the path to success. If you haven't read the first two volumes: `Seventh Son' and `Red Prophet' leave this page now and go check them out. Not only will further installments make little sense without that background, but they're nowhere near as good, and once again, this one is certainly no exception. The bottom line on the series is this - if you liked Volume 3, `Alvin Journeyman', where the drop in quality first began, you'll probably like the rest, too, although it seems to this reviewer as though each new addition is just a little weaker than the previous one.

In this volume, Alvin brings his people - the outcasts, the enslaved, and the downtrodden - across the great river to the site where he will build his long-awaited Crystal City. Hallelujah! At last something is happening in this series. Unfortunately, what's happening is not very exciting, and it's taken us yet another complete volume to get there. On the plus side, Card's prose is always easy reading, and fans of the series will probably get through this tome pretty quickly. But if Card plans to continue with this series (and it would be a serious mistake if he didn't since the end of this installment is pretty weak) he needs a payoff that makes all this buildup seem worthwhile.

I think Orson could have done more to finish such an excellent series, the ending felt flat. Sorry.