Red Prophet (Tales of Alvin Maker, #2) in Building a SciFi/Fantasy Library

Apr 16, 2022 Harold Ogle rated it really liked it

Shelves: magic, historical-fiction, mercenaries, ensemble, alternate-universe, orphan, supernatural, folklore, santa-clara-county-library

Recommendation: Well-crafted with a lot of supernatural world-building that is almost not connected to the first book, Red Prophet will appeal to fans of the supernatural or alternative history in general or Stephen King fans in particular.

Critique: One of the more interesting and also frustrating things about this book is how little it continues the themes of the first book. While Alvin Maker appears in this book and plays a pivotal role, the book is not ABOUT him, nor is it about the primary t Recommendation: Well-crafted with a lot of supernatural world-building that is almost not connected to the first book, Red Prophet will appeal to fans of the supernatural or alternative history in general or Stephen King fans in particular.

Critique: One of the more interesting and also frustrating things about this book is how little it continues the themes of the first book. While Alvin Maker appears in this book and plays a pivotal role, the book is not ABOUT him, nor is it about the primary tension established in Seventh Son: the conflict between creation and destruction, the Maker and the Unmaker. Instead, it is a chronicle of the struggle of Native Americans and the land itself against the foreign (mostly white) invaders, who have no connection to the land and who deaden the land by their very presence. This is interesting in that it is a bold move by the author to effectively abandon the primary conflict and make us care about another, separate supernatural struggle, but of course it's irritating if you as a reader were invested in that first conflict. It's really a strange choice.

It's engagingly written, and by the end I certainly cared about the characters and exulted at the comeuppance of the villainous William Harrison character. It has some cool ideas regarding magic - that there is power in blood that connects natives to the land, and that settlers who have no connection to the land perforce cannot help but destroy the land by their very presence - and it's cool to see more of the alternative version of our world presented. We find out more about the colonies and free lands, and a bunch of alternative French historical figures also appear: Napoleon and Lafayette among them. Card's concern that we might get offended at portraying Harrison as a villain - the book begins with an "Author's Note" to explicitly make clear to us that the real-world William Harrison was not the blackguard he is in this novel - is a little weird, given that we're reading a book so clearly not actual history. Maybe some descendant of the real-world analog of one of Card's fictional characters got very publicly offended in the past, so he felt the need to explicitly state that "Hey, this is NOT your great-great-great-great-great-great grandpa," perhaps? It only occurs to me now that he doesn't provide such a disclaimer about Andrew Jackson. I wonder why that is...?

The book is a celebration of Native Americans as well as early US history, and presents the indigenous people as completely sympathetic, in opposition to various groups of foreign settlers with varying degrees of villainy. But it also presents Tenskwa-Tawa, the Red Prophet of the title, foretelling the major events of the book. Prophecy is always difficult in fiction, particularly when it is presented so clearly and explicitly as it is here. We know what is going to happen because Tenskwa-Tawa foretells it. So a lot of the tension is removed for us as the reader: we never feel like "Oh, how is it going to turn out in the end?" Instead, it is like a Shakespearean or Sophoclean play that tells us what is going to happen in the very beginning, and our tension as viewers is watching the characters tragically play out what we know will occur, despite all their efforts to change or avert their fate.

I really liked the sympathy for the natives in this book and the ultimate resolution was satisfyingly cathartic despite the horror, but I didn't care for how it abandoned the conflict of the first book. I was really engaged with the characters of Tenskwa-Tawa and his brother Ta-Kumsaw, and so for most of the book I wasn't bothered by this divesting of the first book's conflict, but Card is not content to just have Alvin present as an observer (I expect - and hope! - that what Alvin witnesses in this book will show up later as a foundational aspect of his character), but jars us with an occasional reference to the previous conflict, without developing it at all. He's almost rubbing our noses in the fact that he's not doing anything with the first conflict. The way he mentions the Unmaker without it having any effect or role to play in the entire novel is thus more irritating than satisfying. It would've been far more preferable for Card to omit any mention of the first book's supernatural antagonist than to name-drop off-hand references like he did. It's one of the few sour notes in the novel for me.

La Fayette is an amazing character with a fascinatingly cunning mind and an inspiringly tragic sacrifice. His is a really compelling side-plot, which reminded me of most of the plots from A Song of Ice and Fire, where the reader is horrified and enthralled at the struggles of the characters in schemes and machinations that ultimately don't matter because they ignore the giant problem that somehow they've overlooked. With his intentional sacrifice for his higher goal, I expect that we will not see La Fayette again, though we *might* see Napoleon again.

A final note: the massacre at Tippi-Canoe feels like the climactic event of the main plot to me. In writing the review summarizing the events, I initially got the order wrong, because it felt right to have the massacres at Tippi-Canoe and the battle for Detroit happening at roughly the same time. The massacre and the curse at the Mizzipy feels like the emotional peak of the story, so I was surprised to realize I was remembering it wrong: the massacre and the curse happens months before the other battle. I think a big part of that is that Harrison is built up throughout the novel as a traditional, almost melodramatic, villain in direct opposition to the main characters. So his defeat feels like the climax; the other conflicts, though they are important and engaging, don't have the same emotional weight for me.

Review: There's a lot here. Don't click if you don't want to read the book's plot. (view spoiler)[William Harrison is a rat bastard who oppresses the native americans he despises by forcing whisky addiction upon them. We meet two brothers, Ta-Kumsaw, who has a strong connection with the land and impresses everyone with his fierce nobility, and Lolla-Wossiky, whose connection with the land is off the charts but who experienced such hideous trauma when his father was murdered in front of his eyes that he forever attempts to dull his senses with alcohol. But when Alvin is born, Lolla-Wossiky begins to feel a call to head north. Eventually he steals a tun of liquor and heads north to Vigor. He has a spiritual experience and is reborn as Tenskwa-Tawa, and it is Tenskwa-Tawa who visits Alvin when he uses his power to entice roaches to torment his siblings (a foundational scene in Seventh Son). Tenskwa-Tawa begins to preach to an ever-growing number of natives who gain a mystical sobriety from alcohol and settle just across the river from Vigor. Harrison gets more and more furious, because his native workforce has dwindled and he has to make up for it by hiring white thugs, vagabonds, criminals, and other lowlifes. He schemes and schemes how to get his slaves back and/or exterminate the natives to appease his bruised ego. Most of his ire is directed at Ta-Kumsaw, an uppity Red who has been seen to escort natives out of their slums and north toward Vigor (that he's doing this as Tenskwa-Tawa's lieutenant is lost on Harrison).

Meanwhile, in Canada, the famous general Napoleon Bonaparte has been sent from France, both to lead the Canadian forces as the army commander fop De Maurepas' second-in-command and to get him out of France where his popularity was starting to scare the powers-that-be. The governor of Detroit, La Fayette, sees in Napoleon two things: a brilliant strategist who has a knack for making people love him, and a hope for the democratic future of France free from the tyranny of Kings. La Fayette has a talisman that was sent to him by the Cardinal of France that blocks Napoleon's power. While the unprotected De Maurepas falls under Napoleon's spell, La Fayette hatches a plan for the best hope for France.

In parallel, Tenskwa-Tawa and Ta-Kumsaw develop plans of their own to restore the land from the depredations of the mostly white invaders, and have a falling out because they cannot agree on which is the correct course. Ta-Kumsaw believes in uniting all the tribes into one nation that can crush the collected military might of the settlers, after which they can force all the aliens to leave the continent. Tenskwa-Tawa doesn't think this will work; he has had visions of all the different ways the conflict between natives and settlers can play out, and he prophesies that the best possible outcome - which will be very difficult to accomplish - will be to split the continent between them, with the natives all moving across the Mizzipy River to the West, leaving all of the East to the invaders. Most other outcomes lead to the extinction of the native tribes, through war, disease, and relegation to reservations.

Livid and more than a little fearful that the natives are going to destroy him, Harrison hatches a plan of his own. He hires some alcoholic native mercenary criminals to frame Ta-Kumsaw to stoke settler paranoia/xenophobia against their neighbors, which will give him an excuse to move in his troops in the name of "protection" but really to preemptively massacre the nascent native nation. It is unclear how much of this Tenskwa-Tawa has actually planned, and how much he has just foreseen. This is where the narrative of this book arrives at the end of Seventh Son: Alvin, escorted by his brother Measure, is leaving for his apprenticeship when they are the ones captured by the mercenaries. The mercs plant a bunch of evidence that wouldn't stand up to any scrutiny or skepticism, but is enough to enflame the prejudices of the Vigor populace. They are convinced that Ta-Kumsaw has stolen the boys to torture and/or kill them. A huge search party is formed.

Miles and miles away, the mercenaries are preparing to torture and vivisect Alvin and Measure, but Alvin uses his powers to dull their captors' blades and also to loosen the ropes binding them. This delays their captors long enough that they are found by Ta-Kumsaw. Tenskwa-Tawa charges Ta-Kumsaw with looking after Alvin, which Ta-Kumsaw really doesn't want to do. But he begrudgingly acknowledges Tenskwa-Tawa's wisdom and accepts his authority. Tenskwa-Tawa knows that the boys need to be not found so that Harrison's forces will be called, which will result in tragedy, but it needs to happen so that the least terrible of all the possible futures will come to pass. Ta-Kumsaw takes Alvin with him as his sidekick. Alvin gradually learns some of Ta-Kumsaw's native lore, and begins to experience the union of man and land that comes naturally to nearly all of the natives.

In their distress to find the boys and frustration that their leader Armor of God isn't doing more (he urges caution and consideration but is ignored), Alvin's family and their neighbors in Vigor send to Harrison for help. Harrison arrives and quickly turns Vigor into a military camp. They make a show of searching for the boys while actually searching for Ta-Kumsaw and stoking the xenophobia and anti-native feelings. The longer Harrison remains in Vigor, the more he asserts martial law in the region.

Far away, Tenskwa-Tawa joins Ta-Kumsaw and Alvin at the Great Lakes, and the prophet uses his blood to still the waters so that he and Alvin can walk out on the waters and summon a twister that bears them aloft. There, suspended in the sky, Tenskwa-Tawa shows Alvin how he sees his visions. They each have their own visions, and then return to earth. Tenskwa-Tawa follows his vision back to Prophet Town for the completion of his plan.

Harrison, having raised all the settlers and his mercenaries to a fever pitch of hatred, mobilizes everyone in Vigor to massacre all the peaceful natives in Prophet Town. Measure, who has been racing across country to testify that Ta-Kumsaw didn't kidnap them and hopefully thus prevent the massacre, arrives just too late. The mercenaries - with the help of almost all the men of Vigor - have already turned their cannon on the thousands of native families who stand defenseless on the shores of the Mizzipy River at Tippi-Canoe. The natives are mown down like wheat, and Tenskwa-Tawa works a great curse using all their blood: everyone who participated in the slaughter will permanently have blood leaking from their hands until they tell honestly how they murdered tens of thousands of innocent, unresisting people to anyone in the vicinity who has not already heard the story from their mouths. Harrison has a further geas: every day he must find someone who has not heard the story of his murderous obsession and its eventual outcome, and then he must tell it to them completely and truthfully. Then Tenskwa-Tawa uses the blood to turn the water solid. The few hundred survivors are joined by all the corpses who animate and all walk across the river. Forevermore, the power of their blood will prevent any non-natives from crossing the Mizzipy.

Ta-Kumsaw, filled with even more righteous wrath at the news of Tippi-Canoe, roves the continent with Alvin at his side, recruiting different tribes for a vast army with his inspiring vision of a land completely free of any foreigners. The dove did not work, so time for the sword! The various nations of settlers catch wind of this, and they, wary of any threat to their homelands, begin to build up a huge army of their own, led by Andrew Jackson. The plan Ta-Kumsaw has hatched is to build up the native tribes into such a vast force that they must be matched in kind by a vast army of settlers. Then he will use the united tribes in a climactic battle against the white men, breaking the strength and thus the will of the white settlers: showing them that they can be defeated, so that they, demoralized, undefended, will pull up their roots and leave for other lands, recognizing that they're not welcome here and that it would mean death to stay. Instumental to that plan is an alliance with Napoleon, the brilliant strategist, whose French forces will serve as the anvil upon which Ta-Kumsaw's vast native army will hammer the American army into nothingness.

Alvin's vision draws him to the Eight-Sided Mound, an ancient sacred site for the natives that is a gate to a space between worlds. Ta-Kumsaw reluctantly takes Alvin there, where they are met by Talespinner, the sort of mountain man character from the first book whose job is to chronicle all the stories. Alvin easily climbs the Eight-Sided Mound, but the way is impassable for Ta-Kumsaw until he hugs Talespinner and they walk three-legged up the Mound. Alvin has a vision of the imminent betrayal and bloodbath that the native army will suffer at the hands of the American army, and he and Ta-Kumsaw rush off to prevent it.

Finally it is time for La Fayette to complete his plan. He must have Napoleon return to France in disgrace, so that Napoleon's patriotism will reject the authority of the King and he can lead a popular rebellion to overthrow the monarchy. But for that to happen, Napoleon must be sabotaged. La Fayette prays, and then forges a number of letters to De Maurepas, including the magic talisman. La Fayette, no longer protected, falls under Napoleon's charm, but De Maurepas in his vanity is filled with wrathful spite that he was manipulated by Napoleon - a commoner! - and so he relieves Napoleon of his command and ships him (and La Fayette) back to France as traitors. When the battle comes, the French troops, without Napoleon's leadership, fail to hold their ground against Jackson's American army, which breaks through their lines and sacks Detroit. When Ta-Kumsaw's native army arrives, they find a strong fortress manned by their enemies armed with many cannon. The native army is massacred. Ta-Kumsaw survives only because Alvin is using all his power to instantly heal all of his mortal wounds, and in the end they escape capture by dint of Alvin concealing the two of them from detection. They leave once Alvin recovers enough strength to heal Ta-Kumsaw completely, and they part ways.

So the book ends with the continent divided and Alvin returning home to Vigor, the only male free of the curse. (hide spoiler)]

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May 17, 2010 TRXTRMXTR rated it really liked it

The second installment of this series takes us far away from the Miller family and Alvin to show us background on the two American Indian characters who play a central role. Brothers, one is steeped in liquor - destined to become the Red Prophet. The other watches silently and waits for the time when the land will tell him to lead. I found this sidetrack a little less than interesting, but once we meet back up with Alvin and his family, the story plunges ahead into some really amazing moments. I ...more

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May 06, 2010 Bryan457 rated it it was ok

Shelves: do-not-reread, fantasy, alternative-history

A slow read with some interesting historical people. Alvin learns about the Indians magic and ethics/world view. Alvin's powers develop a little bit more. ...more

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