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A review by bohemianasl
The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card
3.0
I've read everything by OSC, so my critique is a bit pithy. OSC is getting lazy and it shows. There is no difference in the voices of the characters anymore and, indeed, no difference in his own voice in the afterword. His politics and beliefs so subtly pervade his stories in the most grating and irritating of ways. Women are always subservient. Men are always the saviors. I loved OSC when I was a teenager, but now I see him as just another misogynistic homophobic white guy and I want to run back to the stories of better authors with more interesting stories to tell where women are allowed to be human instead of objects, people of color exist, and the narrative tension rests as much on the intriguing characters as it does on good writing. Also, don't create magic systems that are so boring and require so MUCH exposition to learn. Get ON with the story already.
P.S. the unrelenting horror of trapping a woman and her children in solitary confinement inside of travel trunks for any length of time is absolutely HORRIFYING and it speaks so very much about the author that his character gives almost no pause to consider what he's done. As usual, women are objects meant only to illustrate the motivations of the men in the story and children are only interesting in their potential to become men and, therefore, "important" to the story. The sexism is relentless and exhausting.
P.S. the unrelenting horror of trapping a woman and her children in solitary confinement inside of travel trunks for any length of time is absolutely HORRIFYING and it speaks so very much about the author that his character gives almost no pause to consider what he's done. As usual, women are objects meant only to illustrate the motivations of the men in the story and children are only interesting in their potential to become men and, therefore, "important" to the story. The sexism is relentless and exhausting.