Reviews for Prentice Alvin (Alvin Maker Series #3)

The average rating for Prentice Alvin (Alvin Maker Series #3) based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-08-11 00:00:00 Andy Mackie Question: How is reading a sequel to a book you loved similar to a restroom visit after "Spicy Night" at the Taco Emporium? Answer:...Both require you to manage your expectations and BE PREPARED. Well, stupid toss-pot that I am, I broke the cardinal rule of sequels and went hopscotching headlong into this book with my mental gas mask safely stowed up on the top shelf behind the untouched can of "use your brain" spray. And it happened... ...I got a stinging, gut-twisting case of "the sequels"...for which I was idiotically unprepared!! Man, was I pissed right off. I mean anyone, anyone with half a neuron firing in their thought factory could see it coming a kill-me-now-o-meter away...anyone except for me, Senor Asshatio. So there I was...staring into the bowels of a stinky, painful, cramp-causing, sweat-inducing case of the quels...and watching my overly optimistic, unmanaged expectations shatter like glass goblin. The most embarrassing part for me is that this was not my first sequel rodeo. I've been down the highway of broken dreams and dashed hopes before and thought I had sufficient trained myself to avoid such bright-eyed optimism. I mean I'd cried myself through Star Wars I, II and III (I still hate you George Lucas), Chapterhouse: Dune, The Exorcist II, Dead and Alive and Star Trek III through ??? (God Bless you J.J. Abrams for saving the franchise). Anyway, I'll cease ranting and move on to the book. So after really enjoying the first two books in the Alvin Maker series, Seventh Son and Red Prophet, my romance with this series has come to an abrupt and, as mentioned above, painful end. The writing was fine and even fairly polished. However, I found the plot so excruciatingly boring that I actually felt my will to live begin to wane. I just wanted it to be over and that is no way to think while your reading. As for the plot itself, I will assume you know the "alternate 19th Century America" background and basic premise of the series if you are up to book 3. So young Alvin continues on his way to becoming a superhero, learning the ways of the force or the Ninja or the secret of the Matrix....some magical crap like that. His nemesis is the Unmaker (just think Satan + Darth Meanie + Cruella de Vil and you got it). The Unmaker's current scheme is convincing Mr. Horny White Slave Owner to change his name to Sir Hump-A-Lot and get busy, busy, busy with ALL of the black female slaves so he can spread his seed far and wide and create a new race of people....apparently in contemplation of a new Sith army or something like that. In addition, you have some good people, some bad people, quite a few dumb people, way too many boring people, a Torch, a Blacksmith and....A Magical Plow made of Living Gold (I am not kidding about that...Magical...Plow....Living....Gold!!! That was enough for me!!! 2.0 Stars and a request for a permanent separation from this series.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-04-30 00:00:00 William Frashet 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3. This has to be one of the oddest fantasy series that I have ever read. O.S. Card gives early American history his own strange, imaginative torque. Cross Pilgrim's Progress with the Belgariad, add in a dash of chemistry, alchemy, and magic, and you get this weird combination of the chosen one quest tale and religious allegory. Alvin is definitely a "chosen one" with characteristics of Jesus and Joseph Smith both. His quest is to become a Maker, kind of an apprentice creator to God. Like the protagonists in most quest tales, he must learn to control himself as well as to control his talent. He is up against the Unmaker, the Satan stand-in for this series, which reminds me strongly of Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry series. The last volume dealt with race relations between settlers and Native Americans, which leaned heavily on the Noble Savage concept of the 19th century. This volume explores the relationship between white owners and black slaves. Both of these volumes leave me wondering what exactly Card is trying to accomplish in this regard'whatever it is, I didn't get it. Book 255 in my Science Fiction and Fantasy reading project.