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Mither Mages #3
Gatefather
In Gatefather, the third installment in the Mither Mages series, New York Times bestselling author Orson Scott Card continues his fantastic tale of the Mages of Westil who live in exile on Earth.
Danny North is the first Gate Mage to be born on Earth in nearly 2000 years, or at least the first to survive to claim his power. Families of Westil in exile on Earth have had a treaty that required the death of any suspected Gate Mage. The wars between the Families had been terrible, until at last they realized it was their own survival in question. But a Gate Mage, one who could build a Great Gate back to Westil, would give his own Family a terrible advantage over all the others, and reignite the wars. So they all had to die. And if the Families didn't kill them, the Gate Thief would-that mysterious Mage who destroyed every Great Gate, and the Gate Mage, before it could be opened between Earth and Westil.
But Danny survived. And Danny battled the Gate Thief, and won.
What he didn't know at the time was that the Gate Thief had a very good reason for closing the Great Gates-and Danny has now fallen into the power of that great enemy of both Earth and Westil.
Danny North is the first Gate Mage to be born on Earth in nearly 2000 years, or at least the first to survive to claim his power. Families of Westil in exile on Earth have had a treaty that required the death of any suspected Gate Mage. The wars between the Families had been terrible, until at last they realized it was their own survival in question. But a Gate Mage, one who could build a Great Gate back to Westil, would give his own Family a terrible advantage over all the others, and reignite the wars. So they all had to die. And if the Families didn't kill them, the Gate Thief would-that mysterious Mage who destroyed every Great Gate, and the Gate Mage, before it could be opened between Earth and Westil.
But Danny survived. And Danny battled the Gate Thief, and won.
What he didn't know at the time was that the Gate Thief had a very good reason for closing the Great Gates-and Danny has now fallen into the power of that great enemy of both Earth and Westil.
384 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 22, 2015
339 people are currently reading
3473 people want to read
About the author
Orson Scott Card
891 books20.7k followersOrson Scott Card is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is (as of 2023) the only person to have won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for his novel Ender's Game (1985) and its sequel Speaker for the Dead (1986). A feature film adaptation of Ender's Game, which Card co-produced, was released in 2013. Card also wrote the Locus Fantasy Award-winning series The Tales of Alvin Maker (1987–2003).
Card's fiction often features characters with exceptional gifts who make difficult choices with high stakes. Card has also written political, religious, and social commentary in his columns and other writing; his opposition to homosexuality has provoked public criticism.
Card, who is a great-great-grandson of Brigham Young, was born in Richland, Washington, and grew up in Utah and California. While he was a student at Brigham Young University (BYU), his plays were performed on stage. He served in Brazil as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and headed a community theater for two summers. Card had 27 short stories published between 1978 and 1979, and he won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 1978. He earned a master's degree in English from the University of Utah in 1981 and wrote novels in science fiction, fantasy, non-fiction, and historical fiction genres starting in 1979. Card continued to write prolifically, and he has published over 50 novels and 45 short stories.
Card teaches English at Southern Virginia University; he has written two books on creative writing and serves as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest. He has taught many successful writers at his "literary boot camps". He remains a practicing member of the LDS Church and Mormon fiction writers Stephenie Meyer, Brandon Sanderson, and Dave Wolverton have cited his works as a major influence.
Card's fiction often features characters with exceptional gifts who make difficult choices with high stakes. Card has also written political, religious, and social commentary in his columns and other writing; his opposition to homosexuality has provoked public criticism.
Card, who is a great-great-grandson of Brigham Young, was born in Richland, Washington, and grew up in Utah and California. While he was a student at Brigham Young University (BYU), his plays were performed on stage. He served in Brazil as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and headed a community theater for two summers. Card had 27 short stories published between 1978 and 1979, and he won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 1978. He earned a master's degree in English from the University of Utah in 1981 and wrote novels in science fiction, fantasy, non-fiction, and historical fiction genres starting in 1979. Card continued to write prolifically, and he has published over 50 novels and 45 short stories.
Card teaches English at Southern Virginia University; he has written two books on creative writing and serves as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest. He has taught many successful writers at his "literary boot camps". He remains a practicing member of the LDS Church and Mormon fiction writers Stephenie Meyer, Brandon Sanderson, and Dave Wolverton have cited his works as a major influence.
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October 26, 2015I am hereby refusing to finish books that I do not like.
And I do NOT like this book. I LOVED the first in this series, and had very lukewarm feelings for the second, and this one just continues the trend, by being so awful I couldn't get 50 pages in.
Orson Scott Card has made no secret of being a homophobic misogynist, but normally I can gloss over the bits where his politics bleed into his writing. This is not the case with this series.
Danny has amazing gate making ability and apparently that means that all of the silly human girls he's surrounded himself with are dying to have his babies. Want to have his babies. NEED to have his babies. Because, you know, what 16 year old girl doesn't automatically think, you have superpowers, lets make super babies.
Or not.
Alas, I will never finish this series. I'm alright with that, as I can comfort myself with real fantasy books by the likes of Sanderson, Goodkind, and Tolkein.
And I do NOT like this book. I LOVED the first in this series, and had very lukewarm feelings for the second, and this one just continues the trend, by being so awful I couldn't get 50 pages in.
Orson Scott Card has made no secret of being a homophobic misogynist, but normally I can gloss over the bits where his politics bleed into his writing. This is not the case with this series.
Danny has amazing gate making ability and apparently that means that all of the silly human girls he's surrounded himself with are dying to have his babies. Want to have his babies. NEED to have his babies. Because, you know, what 16 year old girl doesn't automatically think, you have superpowers, lets make super babies.
Or not.
Alas, I will never finish this series. I'm alright with that, as I can comfort myself with real fantasy books by the likes of Sanderson, Goodkind, and Tolkein.
January 18, 2016
Meh. I loved book 1, liked book 2, and had to just push through book 3....but that's how all of OSC's series read to me. I loved Ender, Ender's Shadow, and Speaker for the Dead...the rest, meh. I loved the first two of the Pathfinder series...the rest, meh.
If you've been through the first 2 of these, you might as well finish the story.
To be fair, Ender put the expectations for Card on a home run level, and I know that everything can't be that good. Still, the Mither Mage series was set up so well in book 1 and, for me anyway, got lost on books 2, and 3.
If you've been through the first 2 of these, you might as well finish the story.
To be fair, Ender put the expectations for Card on a home run level, and I know that everything can't be that good. Still, the Mither Mage series was set up so well in book 1 and, for me anyway, got lost on books 2, and 3.
August 31, 2017
I wanted to like this more. I'm not saying I didn't like it because I actually did.
I just wanted to like it more.
So what was good?
The ideas! The direction the magic took was rather cool and I would have loved to play in this world for a lot longer, but the focus came down rather heavily upon individual choices and Danny's godlike power. Not that this couldn't be a good thing, mind you, even in the face of a setup that could bring down war between worlds and numerous new uber-powers laying waste by both accident and intent, but in the end, we were left with very little actual action. Good story paths, yes, and the idea carries everything better than you might expect, but that leads me to the bad.
The bad: Reader expectations.
I'm not going to sit here and say we're all bad people because we're used to and enjoy anti-heroes and we now hate christ-like imageries because we've seen such things overdone to the point of absurdity. I'm also not going to complain that what was a much gentler touch in the first two novels then gets to be a bit hammer-like in the third.
What I will say is that if you go into reading this knowing that you'll be dealing with a genuinely heroic and moral MC, perhaps something like Ender or Alvin Maker, but without their obvious failings, then you might start thinking that he might be rather single-dimensional. And you'd be right. At least in the previous novels, he was mooning people or knocking up chicks. In this one, he just plays host to Seth and never needs to worry about anything because he's amazingly powerful.
And then we get the morality play. Don't get me wrong! I like a good morality play that's done well. I don't even care if it's heavy as long as it's also clever as hell. This novel's writing is crystal clear and I still enjoyed a lot of the characters and it was very much a YA, but the very insistent focus that most girls (mind you, not women) will always be attracted to the truly powerful, got a bit gruesome.
That being said, there was still a rather big mix between the extra-juvenile (to be expected, considering their ages,) and some rather cool but out of place philosophical moments, (which also might be expected, considering their ages.) However, somewhere along the line, these didn't gel for me and it fell flat. Maybe that's just me and I'm being a bit more harsh on this novel than I usually am because I've read and loved so much of OSC's works. I particularly loved the philosophical moments in the others, even.
This one felt a bit rushed. Like it needed another pass and tone up, perhaps a different main focus or at least one that brought out the peril a bit more. I found myself thinking the novel was about to wrap up half-way through and wondered where it could go. The actual end was... okay, but just okay.
I wanted to have more happen. We did get something big, but we didn't have to work for it. I just feel a bit cheated.
I just wanted to like it more.
So what was good?
The ideas! The direction the magic took was rather cool and I would have loved to play in this world for a lot longer, but the focus came down rather heavily upon individual choices and Danny's godlike power. Not that this couldn't be a good thing, mind you, even in the face of a setup that could bring down war between worlds and numerous new uber-powers laying waste by both accident and intent, but in the end, we were left with very little actual action. Good story paths, yes, and the idea carries everything better than you might expect, but that leads me to the bad.
The bad: Reader expectations.
I'm not going to sit here and say we're all bad people because we're used to and enjoy anti-heroes and we now hate christ-like imageries because we've seen such things overdone to the point of absurdity. I'm also not going to complain that what was a much gentler touch in the first two novels then gets to be a bit hammer-like in the third.
What I will say is that if you go into reading this knowing that you'll be dealing with a genuinely heroic and moral MC, perhaps something like Ender or Alvin Maker, but without their obvious failings, then you might start thinking that he might be rather single-dimensional. And you'd be right. At least in the previous novels, he was mooning people or knocking up chicks. In this one, he just plays host to Seth and never needs to worry about anything because he's amazingly powerful.
And then we get the morality play. Don't get me wrong! I like a good morality play that's done well. I don't even care if it's heavy as long as it's also clever as hell. This novel's writing is crystal clear and I still enjoyed a lot of the characters and it was very much a YA, but the very insistent focus that most girls (mind you, not women) will always be attracted to the truly powerful, got a bit gruesome.
That being said, there was still a rather big mix between the extra-juvenile (to be expected, considering their ages,) and some rather cool but out of place philosophical moments, (which also might be expected, considering their ages.) However, somewhere along the line, these didn't gel for me and it fell flat. Maybe that's just me and I'm being a bit more harsh on this novel than I usually am because I've read and loved so much of OSC's works. I particularly loved the philosophical moments in the others, even.
This one felt a bit rushed. Like it needed another pass and tone up, perhaps a different main focus or at least one that brought out the peril a bit more. I found myself thinking the novel was about to wrap up half-way through and wondered where it could go. The actual end was... okay, but just okay.
I wanted to have more happen. We did get something big, but we didn't have to work for it. I just feel a bit cheated.
November 4, 2015
I'm so glad this trilogy is over. I think I have to stop reading OSC books. Like the Pathfinder trilogy, this one started on an amazing note and got worse with each page thereafter. Now that I am trying to write a review, I am not even sure anything happened.
Danny has Set inside of him and he is trying to keep him imprisoned. Danny is in love with Pat (yawn), but because of Set, he impregnates another girl. He never spends any time with the girl or the baby for the rest of their lives. He simply watched from afar. Boo.
The girl he loves miraculously turns out to be a Mage (of course). With their 17 year old wisdom, they tell everyone else what to do and use their powers to prove they are better than everyone else.
Hermia and Loki have their own ideas and wisdom, but Danny's ideas trump them all.
At the end, mages end up back on Westil where they started, people with gates are not making them anymore, and Danny and Pat live happily ever after with their kids which they have after marrying at 18 so they can have sex (groan)
Danny has Set inside of him and he is trying to keep him imprisoned. Danny is in love with Pat (yawn), but because of Set, he impregnates another girl. He never spends any time with the girl or the baby for the rest of their lives. He simply watched from afar. Boo.
The girl he loves miraculously turns out to be a Mage (of course). With their 17 year old wisdom, they tell everyone else what to do and use their powers to prove they are better than everyone else.
Hermia and Loki have their own ideas and wisdom, but Danny's ideas trump them all.
At the end, mages end up back on Westil where they started, people with gates are not making them anymore, and Danny and Pat live happily ever after with their kids which they have after marrying at 18 so they can have sex (groan)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 17, 2015
Genuinely depressing. The second straight time I've had to fight to finish an awful series from a writer that I've loved (Pathfinder series is even worse). I have read every novel and short story that Card has published. The sharp decline in quality over the last several years is unbelievable. I don't know if he's stopped listening to editors, or was forced for contractual reasons to publish something that wasn't ready, or is simply no longer capable of telling a coherent story.
The characters are nonsense, the dialog is awful, plot threads are picked up and set down at random. The magic system that was in the original novel is changed on every page as the plot requires.
The series is truly awful, and like the pathfinder series, I would recommend to no one. Card wrote a lot of great stuff, go read that instead.
The characters are nonsense, the dialog is awful, plot threads are picked up and set down at random. The magic system that was in the original novel is changed on every page as the plot requires.
The series is truly awful, and like the pathfinder series, I would recommend to no one. Card wrote a lot of great stuff, go read that instead.
January 8, 2016
I hate this book with the burning passion of a thousand suns. I'd give the entire series two stars but this one only gets one.
Ender's Game is one of my favorite books ever...probably in my top 3. So of course I've thought I should check out more of Card's books. But they've all been a disappointment.
Card doesn't know how to end a story. Ender's Game was phenomonal...but then he dragged it out with book after book and each one was worse than the one before until I just quit reading in the middle of the 4th book. I almost never leave a book unfinished. Next I read the Alvin Maker series. Loved the first book but again, he didn't seem to have a plan for the tale so he just kept writing until he got sick of it. The ending was random and anticlimactic. I couldn't even summarize the series because there was no clear plot, no clear beginning, middle, and end. And this series suffered from the same problem.
This last book specifically suffered from a lack of direction. Nothing happened. it was just a compilation of extremely drawn out conversations. Card must think his readers are morons because the convos were literally 4 times longer than necessary. He didn't just over-explain a little; he did it massively. And all the stuff that was being built up never happened. He seemed to be building up to this great war but then just decided he was sick of the series and made it all a happy ending in a few simple pages and wiped his hands of it. It was so weird!
The worst thing about this series was the characters. They were extremely shallow. Every single female was catty. And they even talked about being catty like it was something all women are. In Danny's group of friends there are 4 girls and I couldn't tell a difference from one to the next. Then he finds insta-love with one of them. Out of the blue. There was no build up to that at all. All of a sudden they were having a conversation and just admitted their love to one another. I thought I'd missed a chapter or something. But even worse is that apparently women's only goal in life is to have kids. High schoolers were striving to have babies! And when they talk about life goals, it never goes beyond getting married and having kids. Are you f*****g kidding me? What year was this written? 2015? Could have fooled me. I lost a lot of respect for Card with his portrayal of women in this series. But the men were no better. I could never tell who was speaking because they all speak in the same voice. There is zero difference in their characters. It made me not care at all about anyone. I didn't care when someone died or when someone was in love. I've never been in such a hurry to finish a book.
Ender's Game is one of my favorite books ever...probably in my top 3. So of course I've thought I should check out more of Card's books. But they've all been a disappointment.
Card doesn't know how to end a story. Ender's Game was phenomonal...but then he dragged it out with book after book and each one was worse than the one before until I just quit reading in the middle of the 4th book. I almost never leave a book unfinished. Next I read the Alvin Maker series. Loved the first book but again, he didn't seem to have a plan for the tale so he just kept writing until he got sick of it. The ending was random and anticlimactic. I couldn't even summarize the series because there was no clear plot, no clear beginning, middle, and end. And this series suffered from the same problem.
This last book specifically suffered from a lack of direction. Nothing happened. it was just a compilation of extremely drawn out conversations. Card must think his readers are morons because the convos were literally 4 times longer than necessary. He didn't just over-explain a little; he did it massively. And all the stuff that was being built up never happened. He seemed to be building up to this great war but then just decided he was sick of the series and made it all a happy ending in a few simple pages and wiped his hands of it. It was so weird!
The worst thing about this series was the characters. They were extremely shallow. Every single female was catty. And they even talked about being catty like it was something all women are. In Danny's group of friends there are 4 girls and I couldn't tell a difference from one to the next. Then he finds insta-love with one of them. Out of the blue. There was no build up to that at all. All of a sudden they were having a conversation and just admitted their love to one another. I thought I'd missed a chapter or something. But even worse is that apparently women's only goal in life is to have kids. High schoolers were striving to have babies! And when they talk about life goals, it never goes beyond getting married and having kids. Are you f*****g kidding me? What year was this written? 2015? Could have fooled me. I lost a lot of respect for Card with his portrayal of women in this series. But the men were no better. I could never tell who was speaking because they all speak in the same voice. There is zero difference in their characters. It made me not care at all about anyone. I didn't care when someone died or when someone was in love. I've never been in such a hurry to finish a book.
April 8, 2019
Well, this is a sad day for me. This book sealed the deal. I will no longer be reading any new series by Orson Scott Card. I could barely endure the last book of his Pathfinder series (that one put me off from buying his books) & this one was just slightly better in that I could follow the plot. You have to understand that Card's book Ender's Game was my all-time favorite book for *years.* But now, his books are filled with characters that all sound the same, are unlikable know-it-all adolescents who don't actually speak like teenagers. These are juniors in high school and all the girls keep wanting the main character to either have sex with them or specifically 'put a baby in them.' They seem obsessed with it. It's bizarre & gross. Yet Card can't bring himself to make them curse. They make jokes about "poo" and say "rat's patootie." Seriously? I can't even. The main character is capable of rape (he was possessed, so it's "ok" ) but you draw the line at "ass"? Also, your misogyny is showing, Card. Any time one of the female characters is logical or intelligent, someone comments that they're a "smart girl." Screw you, Card. I'm done.
June 1, 2016
I enjoyed the first two books and was really looking forward to this one. The families all got their superpowers, Danny got possessed and gives his gates to Wad, Bexoi gets possessed...I was looking forward to some real action.
And what a disappointment! The pace of the story is terribly slow. The formula OSC follows seems to be this: OSC writes extensively about technical aspects/rules of the magical framework of the Mithermages world (sometimes in dialogue format, and other times in an internal monologue), and then something small happens. Then we're back to further explaining of rules. And then something else happens. I finished the book thinking I could probably count the actual events on one hand.
What a slog.
And what a disappointment! The pace of the story is terribly slow. The formula OSC follows seems to be this: OSC writes extensively about technical aspects/rules of the magical framework of the Mithermages world (sometimes in dialogue format, and other times in an internal monologue), and then something small happens. Then we're back to further explaining of rules. And then something else happens. I finished the book thinking I could probably count the actual events on one hand.
What a slog.
February 13, 2017
I wanted to like it, I liked the others in the series but there were too many parts of the book that drove me nuts. There were these long pointless conversations between some of the characters that really stalled the story and made it much longer than it needed to be, and bored me to tears.
January 15, 2016
Having grown up on OSC, I've been surprised by the last few novels of his that I've read.
For those who don't know much about the Mither Mage series, this is the third and final book in a trilogy about brilliant kids, (it is an OSC novel afterall), Norse gods living on earth, magery, including some innovative ideas about transporting oneself or others through "gates" as well as elemental magic, a separate world called Westil which is connected to this world through gates, politics (again it's OSC), and some obnoxiously immature dialogue.
There are some amazing ideas in this series, and this third installment has no shortage of them. Unfortunately the execution was a bit of a mess. Card falls into a trap with many of his novels of having his characters become "talking heads." Nothing really happens, characters just get together and "talk" through the plot and what they are learning or think they should be doing. Its tedious and, for an author as prolific as Card, something I might expect more from a beginner novelist. The fact that his characters speak exactly what they're feeling is another issue I have.
But these are far from my biggest complaint about this novel.
The biggest issues I had was that there was NO CONFLICT.
None.
Whatsoever.
Danny North is possessed by "the devil" in the end of the 2nd series, setting up a world of possibilities for this third installment, but none of them are explored. Instead, Danny as the devil just wants to have sex with girls and is ruder than normal. Sigh. They need to figure out how to keep this devil from overtaking them, and they do. They need to pass beyond this life into death and figure out a way to return. They do. They need to help a child who has lost his inner self in his brother's outer self. And they do. They need to save a crucial character who died but who's outer self was trapped in the character who killed her. And, of course, they do.
When obstacles are so easily overcome, it leads to a suspense-less read, one that dragged. A lot. If I hadn't have purchased this as an audiobook and been stuck on a long road trip, this is one I wouldn't have finished. Kudos to Card for some great ideas that were woven into this novel, ideas that would make for some amazing stories. Unfortunately they were just never explored to any of their potential.
Final Verdict: Read the first book in the series, but stop there.
For those who don't know much about the Mither Mage series, this is the third and final book in a trilogy about brilliant kids, (it is an OSC novel afterall), Norse gods living on earth, magery, including some innovative ideas about transporting oneself or others through "gates" as well as elemental magic, a separate world called Westil which is connected to this world through gates, politics (again it's OSC), and some obnoxiously immature dialogue.
There are some amazing ideas in this series, and this third installment has no shortage of them. Unfortunately the execution was a bit of a mess. Card falls into a trap with many of his novels of having his characters become "talking heads." Nothing really happens, characters just get together and "talk" through the plot and what they are learning or think they should be doing. Its tedious and, for an author as prolific as Card, something I might expect more from a beginner novelist. The fact that his characters speak exactly what they're feeling is another issue I have.
But these are far from my biggest complaint about this novel.
The biggest issues I had was that there was NO CONFLICT.
None.
Whatsoever.
Danny North is possessed by "the devil" in the end of the 2nd series, setting up a world of possibilities for this third installment, but none of them are explored. Instead, Danny as the devil just wants to have sex with girls and is ruder than normal. Sigh. They need to figure out how to keep this devil from overtaking them, and they do. They need to pass beyond this life into death and figure out a way to return. They do. They need to help a child who has lost his inner self in his brother's outer self. And they do. They need to save a crucial character who died but who's outer self was trapped in the character who killed her. And, of course, they do.
When obstacles are so easily overcome, it leads to a suspense-less read, one that dragged. A lot. If I hadn't have purchased this as an audiobook and been stuck on a long road trip, this is one I wouldn't have finished. Kudos to Card for some great ideas that were woven into this novel, ideas that would make for some amazing stories. Unfortunately they were just never explored to any of their potential.
Final Verdict: Read the first book in the series, but stop there.
February 2, 2016
I think this is the lowest score I have ever given to OSC. in the reading book one I thought this would be a good series, but it has steadily declined through book two and then to three. The book dragged on, with endless discussions. So much more could have been done if the characters were given more to work with.
May 16, 2021
This was not a bad series by Orson Scott Card. I enjoyed reading them and found the plot entertaining. I felt Card did a good job of interweaving the fantasy element, mythological/historical element, and the modern real-world to create his story. He even manages to use contemporary ideas (Walmart, YouTube, modern high school, etc.) effectively in the story. Card keeps this story fantasy and I would not consider it LDS fiction by any means.
If you didn't know, Orson Scott Card is a devout Latter-day Saint (LDS) and most, if not all of his books, have LDS-inspired tract somewhere in his stories. Again I was able to see various LDS theological concepts throughout the trilogy like exaltation to godhood, law of enteral progression, and temple sealing and eternal marriage. I am not LDS but I am very familiar with LDS doctrine and Church teachings.
This series was decent and unique in my opinion. I would recommend them if you want to try something different. If you're looking for something more blatant LDS rhetoric, look in to his Folk on The Fringe book. Thanks!
If you didn't know, Orson Scott Card is a devout Latter-day Saint (LDS) and most, if not all of his books, have LDS-inspired tract somewhere in his stories. Again I was able to see various LDS theological concepts throughout the trilogy like exaltation to godhood, law of enteral progression, and temple sealing and eternal marriage. I am not LDS but I am very familiar with LDS doctrine and Church teachings.
This series was decent and unique in my opinion. I would recommend them if you want to try something different. If you're looking for something more blatant LDS rhetoric, look in to his Folk on The Fringe book. Thanks!
November 14, 2015
WARNING: DIATRIBE AHEAD. One of my greatest delights about reading is that unlike television and movies, books remain fairly free of product placement and commercial endorsements. Imagine my surprise when over 2/3 of the way through this timeless book I found an entire page devoted to the relatively new television series, Scorpion. Why? Why disrupt the story needlessly with this page of speculation about who is most like which character? I’m so disappointed to find this odd passage inserted into an Orson Scott Card book. Did he or his publishers get paid to include it? Why else include something so disjointed and specific in relation to the general status of everything else?
Go ahead and read this book—it’s fairly standard Orson Scott Card. But realize the dark forces of commercialism and consumption may very well be lurking within the pages.
Go ahead and read this book—it’s fairly standard Orson Scott Card. But realize the dark forces of commercialism and consumption may very well be lurking within the pages.
November 17, 2017
This is one of the worst books I've ever read. I'm so disappointed with the turn this series took, and the disgusting changes made to the female characters. The 3 girls went from being badass teenagers, following around this demigod, and doing amazing things, to an entire chapter talking about how they want to have sex with him and have his babies. The smartest one of the bunch even admits to herself she would give up everything to have his child. This isn't how teenage girls think! This isn't how teenage girls talk with one another. Boys aren't the center of their universe. I've refunded my Kindle version of this book, because I can't force myself to continue to read this sexist bullshit.
June 27, 2016
Orson Scott Card is an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and as such, all his writing is suffused with his faith. In some stories—his Tales of Alvin Maker series, the Memory of Earth series—this influence is more obvious and direct than in others, but all his stories reflect his LDS beliefs to some degree.
Gatefather is the third book in the Mithermages series. As such, it wraps up the story threads of the first two books nicely, but some readers might find it unsatisfying because there is a paucity of action and an abundance of exposition on the spiritual cosmology of the universe. And while it may not look like it, this cosmology is Mormon to its core. As a practicing Mormon myself, I found Card’s ideas and presentation intriguing, and I had fun spotting the chunks of lightly-disguised LDS doctrine in Card’s narrative. But many non-LDS readers would not necessarily pick up on these influences (when I was first exposed to Card’s writing in Seventh Son, I was not a member of the LDS Church, and so the parallels between Alvin Maker and Joseph Smith, Jr. went right over my head) and readers who are not aware might not appreciate all the pages with characters standing around talking about How Things Are.
Gatefather is not a religious tract or piece of Mormon propaganda. In fact, in this series of powerful other-world “mages” disguised as pantheistic Indo-European gods and goddesses, Card goes out of his way to eschew direct references to Christianity, and his protagonist, Danny North, seems less like a Christ figure and more like a monomythic hero figure out of Joseph Campbell’s Hero with a Thousand Faces. But Card’s strangely static plot is uncharacteristic of a writer who has shown time and time again just how well he understands good storytelling—at times he hardly sounds like the same writer who penned Ender’s Game. I wonder if Card just wanted to wrap up this particular series because he has so many other story irons in the fire (come on, Orson, finish Master Alvin already!). Or perhaps he indulged himself a bit in Gatefather and relegated his usual story values to a lesser priority in order to express in a science fiction context spiritual concepts that are close to his heart and such a fundamental part of him.
Gatefather is the third book in the Mithermages series. As such, it wraps up the story threads of the first two books nicely, but some readers might find it unsatisfying because there is a paucity of action and an abundance of exposition on the spiritual cosmology of the universe. And while it may not look like it, this cosmology is Mormon to its core. As a practicing Mormon myself, I found Card’s ideas and presentation intriguing, and I had fun spotting the chunks of lightly-disguised LDS doctrine in Card’s narrative. But many non-LDS readers would not necessarily pick up on these influences (when I was first exposed to Card’s writing in Seventh Son, I was not a member of the LDS Church, and so the parallels between Alvin Maker and Joseph Smith, Jr. went right over my head) and readers who are not aware might not appreciate all the pages with characters standing around talking about How Things Are.
Gatefather is not a religious tract or piece of Mormon propaganda. In fact, in this series of powerful other-world “mages” disguised as pantheistic Indo-European gods and goddesses, Card goes out of his way to eschew direct references to Christianity, and his protagonist, Danny North, seems less like a Christ figure and more like a monomythic hero figure out of Joseph Campbell’s Hero with a Thousand Faces. But Card’s strangely static plot is uncharacteristic of a writer who has shown time and time again just how well he understands good storytelling—at times he hardly sounds like the same writer who penned Ender’s Game. I wonder if Card just wanted to wrap up this particular series because he has so many other story irons in the fire (come on, Orson, finish Master Alvin already!). Or perhaps he indulged himself a bit in Gatefather and relegated his usual story values to a lesser priority in order to express in a science fiction context spiritual concepts that are close to his heart and such a fundamental part of him.
May 10, 2016
This was the best book in the series. I loved the second book because it shocked me and gave struggles we weren't sure how the characters would overcome. This one went even further, but it took those things I was horrified by and gave them context and a human, relatable element. The ending was utterly satisfying to me. I was worried this would be one of those, "It ends like that?!" books, but I was very happy with all the resolutions.
There were some scenes where I wondered why the conversations would drag on, but we'd always learn something from them, and the character interactions (especially the silliness between Danny's friends) was realistic. I could picture a group of high schoolers talking exactly that way.
Overall, I'm very happy I continued with this series despite my disappointment with the first book. Also, I want to say that I was incredibly amused when I read the line where Danny says, "Now you're being silly. That's just sci-fi stuff, you can't actually do those things" because my all-time favorite Orson Scott Card series is all of the Ender's Game series. In my opinion, Card does sci-fi even better than he does fantasy, and this Mither Mages world was incredibly well thought out!
There were some scenes where I wondered why the conversations would drag on, but we'd always learn something from them, and the character interactions (especially the silliness between Danny's friends) was realistic. I could picture a group of high schoolers talking exactly that way.
Overall, I'm very happy I continued with this series despite my disappointment with the first book. Also, I want to say that I was incredibly amused when I read the line where Danny says, "Now you're being silly. That's just sci-fi stuff, you can't actually do those things" because my all-time favorite Orson Scott Card series is all of the Ender's Game series. In my opinion, Card does sci-fi even better than he does fantasy, and this Mither Mages world was incredibly well thought out!
May 14, 2025
2nd read in 2025: pretty much the same opinion. Lots of lore and very little conflict or stakes between the 10% and 50% mark that really slowed things down... not bad, but not great either.
Original review:
I loved books 1 and 2 so much that my expectations for book 3 were maybe a little too high.
It was pretty good - lots of good dialogue, smart and realistic characters, and a semi-believable conclusion to a story that seemed hopeless at the end of book 2. But there was a lot of weirdness to it, even for me: ka, ba, inself, outself, prets... like 1/3 of the book was devoted to developing a new explanation of how your true self is made of particles from another world and you can manipulate them to become even more super powerful than Danny already was.
There was also a pretty huge amount of sex-talk, compared to what I've seen from Card before.
Overall, I knew it would be hard to have a good story when lots of the characters are super-powerful and practically invincible, but this was a fun story anyway. It just wasn't as great as I was hoping.
Original review:
I loved books 1 and 2 so much that my expectations for book 3 were maybe a little too high.
It was pretty good - lots of good dialogue, smart and realistic characters, and a semi-believable conclusion to a story that seemed hopeless at the end of book 2. But there was a lot of weirdness to it, even for me: ka, ba, inself, outself, prets... like 1/3 of the book was devoted to developing a new explanation of how your true self is made of particles from another world and you can manipulate them to become even more super powerful than Danny already was.
There was also a pretty huge amount of sex-talk, compared to what I've seen from Card before.
Overall, I knew it would be hard to have a good story when lots of the characters are super-powerful and practically invincible, but this was a fun story anyway. It just wasn't as great as I was hoping.
November 7, 2015
Gatefather was everything I expected from a conclusion to the Mither Mages series. Some smaller characters get expanded into full-blown characters, all of the dangling plot threads are wrapped up, smart kids say smart things and solve problems in smart ways-par for the course in an OSC novel. I did feel like a certain plot development completely re-shuffles the rules of the game and it didn't seem telegraphed, established, or earned. I'd like for the solutions to come from established powers, abilities, and systems, not from newly invented elements that come from nowhere and make everything conveniently easy. Anyway, the book is satisfactory enough an end-point to the series, but I feel like it could have been better.
October 21, 2015
A fun conclusion to a very enjoyable series. Blending the postmodern mythology of American Gods, the superhero antics of Jumper, and the pure Orson Scott Card metaphysics and noble central figure, it weaves all the threats of the previous two novels together.
December 11, 2018
The first book started out promising, the second was bratty teenagers, and this one is philosophy.
June 29, 2015
What a fun series this is!
May 2, 2019
I really liked the story itself. I love mythology and fantasy and this book has magic and at least mentions many gods (especially love the Egyptian gods in the book!). My main problem with the book was the whole "I want to have your babies" thing, it was a tad awkward and imo unnecessary. The series was really good tho, I liked the first two better but at least the ending wasn't horrible!
March 29, 2016
When reading, I sometimes find there's a bit where authors write something and I just nod and kind of tune out until they're done with their religious revelation? Think to the big speech in The Fountainhead, or the ending of the movie Interstellar, or parts of Crime & Punishment. Or, heck, a lot of fantasy novels' dei ex machina endings.
Unfortunately, this book has them, and not just at the end. They're a constant interruption to the storyline -- they started very early on (I'm most of the way through the book, and am not sure if I'm going to finish it). The basic concepts are decent enough: most myths on Earth are actually about historical mages from another world; the passage from one world to the next gives mages a huge powerboost so they were as gods (and so got up to divine mischief). But millenia ago the gates all closed and gatemages lost their powers - until into this generation a new Chosen One is born, hallelujah hallelujah. Now in this book, some of the surviving mage families have gotten their powerboost and are getting ready to settle old grudges -- no matter what the cost. Oh, yeah, and Danny North (the aforementioned Chosen One/gatemage) has gotten possessed by a demon. (Most of the characters are kind of evil, there's some weird element where all the teenage girls in Danny's life want to have his babies, but that's just par for the course).
Fun little concept for a series, and it rolls with it -- when something is happening, Card shows off his experienced chops. But then the action keeps stopping so there can be a lecture on Free Will and the theology/metaphysics of this world (and it maps suspiciously close to some real world religions). The reading experience feels really jerky. And he totally pulls out the entire framework of magic that the previous two books had set up to bring in a more theologically-grounded approach.
Unfortunately, this book has them, and not just at the end. They're a constant interruption to the storyline -- they started very early on (I'm most of the way through the book, and am not sure if I'm going to finish it). The basic concepts are decent enough: most myths on Earth are actually about historical mages from another world; the passage from one world to the next gives mages a huge powerboost so they were as gods (and so got up to divine mischief). But millenia ago the gates all closed and gatemages lost their powers - until into this generation a new Chosen One is born, hallelujah hallelujah. Now in this book, some of the surviving mage families have gotten their powerboost and are getting ready to settle old grudges -- no matter what the cost. Oh, yeah, and Danny North (the aforementioned Chosen One/gatemage) has gotten possessed by a demon. (Most of the characters are kind of evil, there's some weird element where all the teenage girls in Danny's life want to have his babies, but that's just par for the course).
Fun little concept for a series, and it rolls with it -- when something is happening, Card shows off his experienced chops. But then the action keeps stopping so there can be a lecture on Free Will and the theology/metaphysics of this world (and it maps suspiciously close to some real world religions). The reading experience feels really jerky. And he totally pulls out the entire framework of magic that the previous two books had set up to bring in a more theologically-grounded approach.
June 30, 2017
Card had a fascinating magical system set up in the first book. He started to drift away from it in the second book. In the third he basically ignored it, and the established conflicts of the series, to rehash fantasy conceits he already did to death in previous, unrelated works. If you've read Treasure Box, Magic Street, and the later Ender books (Xenocide and CotM), just mash their weird ideas about demonic possession and soul-procession together and you've got Gatefather. It's frankly baffling how he managed to mess up such a promising start so badly. It's like the Matrix trilogy in terms of quality arcs: Awesome! Um, okay, not sure where . . . wait, what? Uck.
Yes, it's grossly misogynistic, and Card's strict adherence to Mormon notions of sexual norms (fairly prominent elsewhere) becomes flatly ridiculous here. Danny's treatment of Nikki Lieder is morally repulsive. And if you thought Danny was a bit overpowered in the first two books? Well, he's literally invincible now. As in, he could teleport himself directly into the sun and then reconstruct himself elsewhere. I'm at a loss to explain why Card thought this would make him, or anything else, more interesting.
Yes, it's grossly misogynistic, and Card's strict adherence to Mormon notions of sexual norms (fairly prominent elsewhere) becomes flatly ridiculous here. Danny's treatment of Nikki Lieder is morally repulsive. And if you thought Danny was a bit overpowered in the first two books? Well, he's literally invincible now. As in, he could teleport himself directly into the sun and then reconstruct himself elsewhere. I'm at a loss to explain why Card thought this would make him, or anything else, more interesting.
November 1, 2015
A weak continuance and closure of a compelling story line. The blatant rip-off of LDS theology as the core tenet with which the story begins and ultimately drives to resolution felt both forced and lazy. Danny North as the Christ stand-in with Set being Lucifer seemed very unoriginal and it was not the first time that Card has "borrowed" LDS themed ideas and built fictional stories based on them. The Homecoming saga is a blatant rip-off of the Book of Mormon storyline. Weak sauce Card, weak.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 6, 2019
DNF at 34%
Way too info dumpy and way WAY too slow
Way too info dumpy and way WAY too slow
February 11, 2022
An enjoyable modern-day fantasy trilogy. I actually liked the second book the most. When does that happen?
August 22, 2025
A masterfully told story, a well crafted world, a highly humanistic philosophy. total win.
November 7, 2016
One of the hardest jobs for a writer is coming up with a compelling, endearing and satisfying ending for a book, or in this case a trilogy. In my opinion, the longer the series the bigger the presser to end it well. Unfortunately many writers fall victim to the quick wrap up, with as few details as possible. they spend hundreds and hundreds of pages making us fall in love with some characters, hating others, but one way or another genuinely invested in their outcome. One thing I have come to realize is that if I am left in a state of mourning after a book is over, then the writer has done their job of wrapping up the plot nicely. I know what happened, I'm not wondering what could happen next in that story, but I know I will never "see" these characters again, so I miss them, and mourn their leaving. If I finish a book and I'm left feeling annoyed, bored or possibly angry, then I know that the ending left too much to be desired, too much to question.
Unfortunately, Orson Scott Card is no exception. The start of book #3 of the Mither Mages series started off strong, holding onto the beautifully painted visuals, descriptive moments that made Danny North, and his story what it was. It quickly slipped away from a moment to moment heartfelt story to a quick event to event ending.
Overall I was very satisfied with the story of Danny North and his coming to terms with him self, story. His character was not only lovable, but relate-able, obtainable and real. He was just larger then life enough to make me lose my self in his wonder, but real enough to feel at ease following him into battle.
I wish with all my heart that Danny and Pat had gotten the proper, well thought out ending they deserved; There will always be a part of me that wishes I knew what happened to them years down the road, but as for the overall story arc, I'm happy, and satisfied with the resolution of it all, and I look forward to seeing the Mither Mages of Earth and Westil in my dreams very soon.
To read more reviews visit my blog at:
https://www.tumblr.com/blog/thebookmo...
Unfortunately, Orson Scott Card is no exception. The start of book #3 of the Mither Mages series started off strong, holding onto the beautifully painted visuals, descriptive moments that made Danny North, and his story what it was. It quickly slipped away from a moment to moment heartfelt story to a quick event to event ending.
Overall I was very satisfied with the story of Danny North and his coming to terms with him self, story. His character was not only lovable, but relate-able, obtainable and real. He was just larger then life enough to make me lose my self in his wonder, but real enough to feel at ease following him into battle.
I wish with all my heart that Danny and Pat had gotten the proper, well thought out ending they deserved; There will always be a part of me that wishes I knew what happened to them years down the road, but as for the overall story arc, I'm happy, and satisfied with the resolution of it all, and I look forward to seeing the Mither Mages of Earth and Westil in my dreams very soon.
To read more reviews visit my blog at:
https://www.tumblr.com/blog/thebookmo...
April 26, 2017
When I first discovered the mithermages through "Stonefather" (in the anthology Wizards), I was happy to find a creative new magic system. When The Lost Gate showed up in my local library, I was thrilled to to learn even more about mithermages in a modern context. Though I did think that main character Danny North could get a bit obnoxious at times, which could apparently be chalked up to his being a gatemage, as such folk are apparently born to be hanged.
It was in The Gate Thief that things started to get a bit weird and while I'm willing to overlook abstinence and the probable existence of Satan, I thought these would be sidenotes.
Oh no. Gatefather is Orson Scott Card hammering his philosophies down the throats of his young adult readers. It became very obvious very quickly that Danny North is meant to be Jesus, that Set is the Devil of Christian lore, and that "good people" wait 'til they're married to have sex.
Now I have read a fair amount of Card's work, including Pastwatch, the Enderverse, and Homecoming, but this was the first time that I truly felt he was proselytizing to his readers. Being Jewish myself, I find that I tend to be overly sensitive to books that seem to be trying to convert me. I don't mind reading about other religions, including Christianity, and find it quite enlightening. But there's a thin, invisible line between showing a character's reasoning as influenced by their religion and trying to tell the reader that your religion is better than theirs. It's the difference between an enjoyable read despite symbolism and wishing that the book was over because I didn't pick it up to be preached at.
Overall, I think the mithermages had some interesting new concepts, but all of that was thrown out the door anyway in Gatefather. Kind of like Children of the Mind, but for young adults.
It was in The Gate Thief that things started to get a bit weird and while I'm willing to overlook abstinence and the probable existence of Satan, I thought these would be sidenotes.
Oh no. Gatefather is Orson Scott Card hammering his philosophies down the throats of his young adult readers. It became very obvious very quickly that Danny North is meant to be Jesus, that Set is the Devil of Christian lore, and that "good people" wait 'til they're married to have sex.
Now I have read a fair amount of Card's work, including Pastwatch, the Enderverse, and Homecoming, but this was the first time that I truly felt he was proselytizing to his readers. Being Jewish myself, I find that I tend to be overly sensitive to books that seem to be trying to convert me. I don't mind reading about other religions, including Christianity, and find it quite enlightening. But there's a thin, invisible line between showing a character's reasoning as influenced by their religion and trying to tell the reader that your religion is better than theirs. It's the difference between an enjoyable read despite symbolism and wishing that the book was over because I didn't pick it up to be preached at.
Overall, I think the mithermages had some interesting new concepts, but all of that was thrown out the door anyway in Gatefather. Kind of like Children of the Mind, but for young adults.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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