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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I am a huge fan of Orson Scott Card. Although I don't know that any of his books will match up to Ender's Game, this book was really good.
2.5
"The Lost Gate" is a book which starts off strong but gets mired by unimportant storylines, some cringe-worthy moments, and Card's own limitations.
The beginning of "The Lost Gate" kept me involved. It has an interesting premise with the old gods (Loki, Odin, Thor, Zeus, Mercury, Hermes, etc.) really being a group of people with powers who were able to cross over to another world. However, all the gates got closed, so the people are stuck in the modern world, mostly living in small, secretive groups. It was interesting to see what powers the characters had, and to see Danny learn about his own abilities. However, the story dragged once Danny left the compound. A lot of page time is spent on Danny's adventures in thievery. Some of this is necessary -- Danny continues to learn about his powers and meets a character who is a plot device to introduce him to other important characters-- but a lot of it is just filler. The plot picks up a bit when Danny meets the Stones, but once again sags with the unneeded Danny-goes-to-school segment. Entwined with the Danny storyline is another with a character named Wad. Wad is freed from a tree, then goes on to have a turbulent relationship with the queen of the land. For a long time the reader isn't sure of the relationship between the Wad and Danny timelines -- are they contemporary, or is one of them from the past or future ? -- but they finally end up coming together. It is obvious that Card knew he was getting a series, and "The Lost Gate" suffers for it with all the filler padding the book until the cliff-hanger ending.
The book also has some moments that are cringe-worthy or unnecessary. At one point Danny is almost molested by an adult woman. This prompts the "Danny goes to school" section because he decides he wants a girlfriend. On his first day of school Danny continuously talks about a classmates' cleavage to her face. No one thinks it is creepy or weird. There are also multiple instances in which, confronted by police or security guards, Danny, unprompted, pulls down his pants and "spreads his buttcheeks." These are little moments, but they are persistent and so unnecessary.
Another obstacle for the book is Card's seemingly limited abilities. I think I would have liked "The Lost Gate" better had I not read other OSC books because Danny is pretty much child Ender in the modern world. Their personalities, backstories, and ways of speaking and thinking are exactly the same; child prodigies born to genius parents who are addressed as "mother" and "father." They are both smarter and physically superior to all those around them, and have the same fights with peers and authority figures. This makes it seem like Card can do little more than the stoic boy character who likely expresses Card's own thoughts.
I'll look for the next Mither Mages book at the library, however, I hope it spends more time on the actual storyline, and that Card can develop a unique voice for Danny.
"The Lost Gate" is a book which starts off strong but gets mired by unimportant storylines, some cringe-worthy moments, and Card's own limitations.
The beginning of "The Lost Gate" kept me involved. It has an interesting premise with the old gods (Loki, Odin, Thor, Zeus, Mercury, Hermes, etc.) really being a group of people with powers who were able to cross over to another world. However, all the gates got closed, so the people are stuck in the modern world, mostly living in small, secretive groups. It was interesting to see what powers the characters had, and to see Danny learn about his own abilities. However, the story dragged once Danny left the compound. A lot of page time is spent on Danny's adventures in thievery. Some of this is necessary -- Danny continues to learn about his powers and meets a character who is a plot device to introduce him to other important characters-- but a lot of it is just filler. The plot picks up a bit when Danny meets the Stones, but once again sags with the unneeded Danny-goes-to-school segment. Entwined with the Danny storyline is another with a character named Wad. Wad is freed from a tree, then goes on to have a turbulent relationship with the queen of the land. For a long time the reader isn't sure of the relationship between the Wad and Danny timelines -- are they contemporary, or is one of them from the past or future ? -- but they finally end up coming together. It is obvious that Card knew he was getting a series, and "The Lost Gate" suffers for it with all the filler padding the book until the cliff-hanger ending.
The book also has some moments that are cringe-worthy or unnecessary. At one point Danny is almost molested by an adult woman. This prompts the "Danny goes to school" section because he decides he wants a girlfriend. On his first day of school Danny continuously talks about a classmates' cleavage to her face. No one thinks it is creepy or weird. There are also multiple instances in which, confronted by police or security guards, Danny, unprompted, pulls down his pants and "spreads his buttcheeks." These are little moments, but they are persistent and so unnecessary.
Another obstacle for the book is Card's seemingly limited abilities. I think I would have liked "The Lost Gate" better had I not read other OSC books because Danny is pretty much child Ender in the modern world. Their personalities, backstories, and ways of speaking and thinking are exactly the same; child prodigies born to genius parents who are addressed as "mother" and "father." They are both smarter and physically superior to all those around them, and have the same fights with peers and authority figures. This makes it seem like Card can do little more than the stoic boy character who likely expresses Card's own thoughts.
I'll look for the next Mither Mages book at the library, however, I hope it spends more time on the actual storyline, and that Card can develop a unique voice for Danny.
Audio book review.
I was surprised by my own reaction to this book. Meaning no disrespect to the autjor, but for most of my time reading, I thought I was incredibly bored, yet I would glance up and two hours would have passed. I just flew right through it!
I love the character of Danny, his innocence and his intelligence, and the unique way he interacts with the world. I also really enjoyed learning about the magic system and how the story focused less of how the world viewed this magic system and more on how one boy discovered gradually how to make his magic work for him.
I'm not sure the two halves of this story fit together so smoothly, but I appreciate the author's afterward sort of explaining how the two original ideas came together. There is a lot going on, but somehow it still works. Although I did enjoy the book, I didn't find it interesting enough to continue on with the rest of the series.
I was surprised by my own reaction to this book. Meaning no disrespect to the autjor, but for most of my time reading, I thought I was incredibly bored, yet I would glance up and two hours would have passed. I just flew right through it!
I love the character of Danny, his innocence and his intelligence, and the unique way he interacts with the world. I also really enjoyed learning about the magic system and how the story focused less of how the world viewed this magic system and more on how one boy discovered gradually how to make his magic work for him.
I'm not sure the two halves of this story fit together so smoothly, but I appreciate the author's afterward sort of explaining how the two original ideas came together. There is a lot going on, but somehow it still works. Although I did enjoy the book, I didn't find it interesting enough to continue on with the rest of the series.
What if the Norse Gods were real, and they lived among us? This is the premise of The Lost Gate. All the other families of Gods are real too - the Sumerians, the Greeks, etc. They are all suspicious of one another, and all are on guard against the possibility of a new gate mage coming in to the world. Young Danny North, who has lived his entire life believing he has no magery gifts, is one such person.
When Danny discovers his hidden talent of creating gates through the fabric of time/space, and his ability to travel pretty much anywhere in the world instantaneously, this story really begins. Now that his power is known, Danny is wanted dead, not alive, by every member of "The Families," including his own.
There is also the connecting story of a secretive young man named Wad, who lives in a parallel universe, in a place called Westil. These two stories will come together in a way that makes perfect sense, and will be explored more thoroughly in the second book of this series.
This is a fun book. Danny is a thoroughly believable and likeable hero. Though he has earth-shattering power, he is at heart a good kid and wants to do right by those he meets. His innocence is very appealing. Good as a stand-alone, but the second book (The Gate Thief) is enjoyable too. There will almost certainly be a third book whenever Card gets around to it.
When Danny discovers his hidden talent of creating gates through the fabric of time/space, and his ability to travel pretty much anywhere in the world instantaneously, this story really begins. Now that his power is known, Danny is wanted dead, not alive, by every member of "The Families," including his own.
There is also the connecting story of a secretive young man named Wad, who lives in a parallel universe, in a place called Westil. These two stories will come together in a way that makes perfect sense, and will be explored more thoroughly in the second book of this series.
This is a fun book. Danny is a thoroughly believable and likeable hero. Though he has earth-shattering power, he is at heart a good kid and wants to do right by those he meets. His innocence is very appealing. Good as a stand-alone, but the second book (The Gate Thief) is enjoyable too. There will almost certainly be a third book whenever Card gets around to it.
This is more of a 2.5 stars for me, but I rounded up on this one because it wasn't so bad as to be completely 2. The problem that I had with this book was that I just didn't like the protagonist. Or perhaps I should say that I had a love/hate relationship with him that never really got resolved until more toward the end of the book when he started to become somewhat more likeable. This book centers around two characters, really. The first we meet is Danny, a boy born into a family of mages and shows no sign of any magic talent himself. His family are descended from the gods of myth, specifically the Norse gods, which is probably why they are the "North" family. Danny's family don't care much for him because of his lack of talent. He lives on a large compound with basically everyone who lays claim to North blood. The children are all home schooled, learning the history of their people, ancient languages, and, of course, how to perform elements of magery. Danny discovers fairly early on in the book that he does have a magical talent, however, it is not one that his family expects. In fact, this talent could get him killed. Danny is a gatemage. As the title implies, Danny can make gates.
Along the way we learn that about 1400 years ago, mages could travel between earth and Westil and that they would become stronger after each trip and also miraculously healed if they were injured prior to entering the gate. The Westilians brought their power to earth where humans mistook them for gods and worshipped them. So, of course, all the powerful Westilian families began to war amongst each other here on earth until the master trickster, Loki, locked and hid all the gates. Now the families that were left on earth became less and less powerful with each generation and, in an effort to prevent future wars that would result in a diminished family population, all families agreed to kill any gatemages born to their families. This was to prevent any one family having exclusive access to a Great Gate back to Westil and huge amounts of otherworldly power and strength... Seems legit...
Pretty interesting stuff until that point. Then Danny is suddenly on the run from his family and just becomes EXTREMELY annoying. As in, I-really-wanted-to-smack-him annoying. And he maintains this hair-pulling personality until the last few chapters of the book where he FINALLY gets some sense and actually does something worthwhile.
If Danny bothered me this much, why did I keep reading the book? Because the other character this book focuses on was way more interesting and endearing. This character is Wad. As a character, he basically has it all. He's mysterious, he's the smart and silent type, and he has a romance. His story has intrigue...and he redeems the whole thing. If you've just begun this journey and are feeling slightly underwhelmed over the whole thing, trust me, Wad will be there to answer all your hopes. And he's basically the driving force for me to go on to the next book in the series, which I am fervently hoping is better than this one.
Along the way we learn that about 1400 years ago, mages could travel between earth and Westil and that they would become stronger after each trip and also miraculously healed if they were injured prior to entering the gate. The Westilians brought their power to earth where humans mistook them for gods and worshipped them. So, of course, all the powerful Westilian families began to war amongst each other here on earth until the master trickster, Loki, locked and hid all the gates. Now the families that were left on earth became less and less powerful with each generation and, in an effort to prevent future wars that would result in a diminished family population, all families agreed to kill any gatemages born to their families. This was to prevent any one family having exclusive access to a Great Gate back to Westil and huge amounts of otherworldly power and strength... Seems legit...
Pretty interesting stuff until that point. Then Danny is suddenly on the run from his family and just becomes EXTREMELY annoying. As in, I-really-wanted-to-smack-him annoying. And he maintains this hair-pulling personality until the last few chapters of the book where he FINALLY gets some sense and actually does something worthwhile.
If Danny bothered me this much, why did I keep reading the book? Because the other character this book focuses on was way more interesting and endearing. This character is Wad. As a character, he basically has it all. He's mysterious, he's the smart and silent type, and he has a romance. His story has intrigue...and he redeems the whole thing. If you've just begun this journey and are feeling slightly underwhelmed over the whole thing, trust me, Wad will be there to answer all your hopes. And he's basically the driving force for me to go on to the next book in the series, which I am fervently hoping is better than this one.
Just once, JUST ONCE, I would like to read an engrossing fantasy novel that is something other than a set up for a series. I enjoyed this about 5/6ths of the way through, until it became clear that the questions raised were not going to be resolved within the book. We all know that fans of the fantasy genre like to read series. Heck, even I like a good series. But I would also really enjoy a book that manages to answer the (intriguing! thrilling! Mind-boggling!) questions and plot points raised within the novel that raises them.
Now that the rant is over...
I picked this up after my husband praised it to the skies. It was interesting to me that it coincided so nicely with the Percy Jackson YA work that I've been reading. Another twist on the children of the gods theme, with a little of the flavor or Neil Gaiman's American Gods, this is a really nice entry into the gods-in-modern-life mini-genre. While I confess that I was lost a bit on the explanations of making a gate, which is why I generally prefer fantasy to sci-fi, Danny's slow realization and exploration of his powers really resonated. The concepts and characters were believable and incredibly intriguing, though I did find the main character of Danny to be flattest of them all. He is described as a trickster, and does perform many trickster-like moves, but his point-of-view narration is straightforward and undercuts the personality Card tries to build. That, and the abrupt ending that solves nothing, were what kept it from five stars for me.
Now that the rant is over...
I picked this up after my husband praised it to the skies. It was interesting to me that it coincided so nicely with the Percy Jackson YA work that I've been reading. Another twist on the children of the gods theme, with a little of the flavor or Neil Gaiman's American Gods, this is a really nice entry into the gods-in-modern-life mini-genre. While I confess that I was lost a bit on the explanations of making a gate, which is why I generally prefer fantasy to sci-fi, Danny's slow realization and exploration of his powers really resonated. The concepts and characters were believable and incredibly intriguing, though I did find the main character of Danny to be flattest of them all. He is described as a trickster, and does perform many trickster-like moves, but his point-of-view narration is straightforward and undercuts the personality Card tries to build. That, and the abrupt ending that solves nothing, were what kept it from five stars for me.
This is the second time I've read this. But it was like reading for the first time. It's a good story. I don't like that it's more than one. View point.
The Lost Gate was a really fun book to read. It made me remember why I like Orson Scott Card's books so much.
I can't wait for the next installment of the story.
I can't wait for the next installment of the story.
Definitely a new favorite book. It seemed like The Lost Gate was written especially for me. It has smart/snarky modern characters not overly obsessed with love, characters who actually die, Norse mythology, intellectual debate on travel through space/time, moral/ethical dilemas that cross from the magical world to the real world, a great complex story based in an amazing magical system, with a large dollop of a coming of age story ...What can I say, I'm in love. A book that has a character reading YA novels as a lesson in anthropology, so he can know how to act in a drowther (muggle) high school... you had me at YA novels. Orson Scott Card started conceiving this magical system in 1977, with the actual book being published in 2011 - He knew he was onto something special he wanted to get it right.
Sometimes other folks say exactly what I was thinking...
"This is one of those books that is hard to pigeonhole into genre boundaries. Adult? Probably, despite the fact that the main character starts out as a thirteen-year-old boy, both his mindset and his experiences are pretty grown up. Fantasy? Sure, THE LOST GATE mentions gods and goddesses speaking to animals and making plants grow, fantastic abilities that any kid would want. However, Card also includes detailed mechanics that make this “magic” feel more like a tantalizing science, something to discover and understand alongside Danny." - Excerpt from a review on All Things Urban Fantasy http://allthingsurbanfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/01/early-5bat-review-lost-gate-by-orson.html
Sometimes other folks say exactly what I was thinking...
"This is one of those books that is hard to pigeonhole into genre boundaries. Adult? Probably, despite the fact that the main character starts out as a thirteen-year-old boy, both his mindset and his experiences are pretty grown up. Fantasy? Sure, THE LOST GATE mentions gods and goddesses speaking to animals and making plants grow, fantastic abilities that any kid would want. However, Card also includes detailed mechanics that make this “magic” feel more like a tantalizing science, something to discover and understand alongside Danny." - Excerpt from a review on All Things Urban Fantasy http://allthingsurbanfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/01/early-5bat-review-lost-gate-by-orson.html