Alvin Journeyman: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Book Four

Not as good as the first three, in my humble opinion; not half so much happens. Where we left off, Alvin was returned home to Vigor Church, a Journeyman blacksmith and unofficial Journeyman Maker, and has decided to try to teach Making. He’s teaching the wrong things, I think; at any rate the teaching goes slowly, and only Measure and Eleanor, two of his own siblings, learn much. Calvin, Alvin’s younger brother, has basically gone sour with jealousy, and, although being the seventh living son of a seventh son and thus having the most natural Making ability, cannot learn from Alvin. So, he leaves Vigor Church, hoping to learn more than Alvin elsewhere. Also, Alvin goes back to Hatrack River, and the fraudulent claims of his former teacher, Makepeace Smith, on Alvin’s living golden plough, and the adopted black boy Arthur Stuart’s freedom, are resolved in court. White Murderer Harrison, an evil, scheming slimeball who has it in for Reds and Blacks both, is elected president, and is somehow tied in with the same people who hired a laywer to oppose Alvin, and some ruffians to kill him afterwards. Safely escaped from Hatrack River, Alvin leaves with two additions to his posse in tow: Whats-His-Name Cooper, an English lawyer come to America to learn more about his knack, which was seen as witchery back in Europe, and Mike Fink, a river rat who Alvin once fought and laid low, for whom the experience was a turning point. Also, there are wedding bells. ^_^ As much as I want to keep reading, I shall be quite depressed to finish the last of Orson Scott Card’s series, and have only a few stand-alone novels left. Anyone know what he’s working on currently, while I’m brooding on the subject?

Card delivers another great addition to the Alvin maker series.