Friday, April 16, 2010

Red Prophet: Tales of Alvin Maker, Book 2

The Red Prophet could almost be described as historical fiction. William Henry Harrison, Tecumsa and Napolean play active rolls in the book. Andrew Jackson makes a cameo appearance, and many other key players in American history are referenced. However, the historical situation is not America of history, but an alternate version.

The "red men" are given a prime role in this book. They are seen as being one with nature, having the ability to summon animals to die for food, as well as performing a variety of other "supernatural" events. The "red men" suffer two great massacres on the battlefield. However, the victory that the "white men" obtain is hollow.

Some of the events in the first book are told as flashbacks, or from different viewpoints in this book. While reading the first book first would help with the understanding, its probably not required.

In this book, Alvin comes to a greater understanding of his role as a "maker" and the battle against the "unmaker". We still don't understand clearly what the unmaker is. However, we see that he does lots of unmaking.

We also see characters develop more fully. Alvin's family show that they have faults just like other people. Meanwhile, Alvin's brother-in-law goes full-circle, nearly destroying Alvin, but later being the one man working hard to prevent an Indian massacre.

William Henry Harrison is one of the true villains in the story. In this "alternate history" he has one man killed to obtain his whiskey barge. He later incites an Indian war to build himself up. He has Alvin's brother tortured and left for bed to further his war. However, in the end he suffers the greatest "cursing" and the virtual end of his political career.

The book uses elements similar to many other Card novels. A young boy is the hero, and he has "super powers" to always do what is right. Other people "go stupid" when they try to do things that will hurt the hero; along with a large amount of scientifically-explained "magic" and "true dreams".

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