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Summary
Summary
Rigg is a teenager who possesses a secret talent that allows him to see the paths of people's pasts. Rigg's only confidant is his father, whose sudden death leaves Rigg completely alone, aside from a sister he's never met. But a chance encounter with Umbo, another teen with a special talent, reveals a startling new aspect to Rigg's abilities, compelling him to reevaluate everything he's ever known.
Summary
Rigg is well trained at keeping secrets. Only his father knows the truth about Rigg's strange talent for seeing the paths of people's pasts. But when his father dies, Rigg is stunned to learn just how many secrets Father had kept from him--secrets about Rigg's own past, his identity, and his destiny. And when Rigg discovers that he has the power not only to see the past, but also to change it, his future suddenly becomes anything but certain.
Rigg's birthright sets him on a path that leaves him caught between two factions, one that wants him crowned and one that wants him dead. He will be forced to question everything he thinks he knows, choose who to trust, and push the limits of his talent...or forfeit control of his destiny.
Author Notes
Orson Scott Byron Walley Card, was born in 1951 and studied theater at Brigham Young University. He received his B.A. in 1975 and his M.A. in English in 1981. He wrote plays during that time, including Stone Tables (1973) and the musical, Father, Mother, Mother and Mom (1974).
A Mormon, Scott served a two-year mission in Brazil before starting work as a journalist in Utah. He also designed games at Lucas Film Games, 1989-92. He is best known for his science fiction novels, including the popular Ender series. Well known titles include A Planet Called Treason (1979), Treasure Box (1996), and Heartfire (1998). He has also written the guide called How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy (1990).
His novel Ender's Game and its sequel Speaker for the Dead, both won Hugo and Nebula awards, making Card the only author to win both prizes in consecutive years. His titles Shadows in Flight, Ruins and Ender's Game made The New York Times Best Seller List. He is also the author of The First Formic War Series, which includes the titles Earth Unaware, Earth Afire, and Earth Awakens.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Card entwines two stories in this fascinatingly complex series opener. In one, 13-year-old Rigg is living a contented life with his acerbic and intellectually challenging father as a backcountry trapper, using his magical ability to perceive paths that show the past movements of people and animals-anywhere from minutes to thousands of years earlier. Then his father dies suddenly, and Rigg becomes an outcast with his friend Umbo, after Rigg is wrongly blamed for Umbo's brother's death. Interwoven is the story of starship captain Ram Odin, whose interspatial jump toward a new colony world results in a bizarre paradox with far-reaching consequences. The result is an amalgamation of adventure, politics, and time travel that invokes issues of class and the right to control one's own life. Yet despite its complexity, the book is never less than page-turning. While Card delves deeply into his story's knotted twists and turns, readers should have no trouble following the philosophical and scientific mysteries, which the characters are parsing right along with them. An epic in the best sense, and not simply because the twin stories stretch across centuries. Ages 12-up. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Card, author of Ender's Game, here debuts a new YA science-fiction series. Thirteen-year-old Rigg can see the paths of every living thing in the past. When his father dies mysteriously, Rigg comes into possession of some highly valued jewels -- and the knowledge that his sister and mother are alive. Another boy from his village, Umbo, has the power to speed up time, and together they master the fundamentals of time travel as they journey from the backwoods to the Imperial capital, where they hope to find Rigg's family. Chapters are interspersed with the tale of another journey: Ram is leading a spaceship voyage to establish a human colony on a distant planet, but its success also hinges on time travel. Ram's unforeseen ability to wreak havoc on the time jump waylays their plans. As the intricate rules of time travel gradually come to light, so too does the connection between the two stories, setting the stage for the next book. Card, ever the master storyteller, employs many familiar conventions of science fiction and fantasy -- time travel, space journey, epic quest, court intrigue -- but weaves them together seamlessly and in startling ways. JONATHAN HUNT (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* The first in a series, Card's latest title has much in common with his Ender Wiggins books: precocious teens with complementary special talents, callously manipulative government authorities, endlessly creative worlds, and Card's refusal to dumb down a plot for a young audience. Here he takes the notions of folding space and time, embracing paradox, adopting a rule set in which . . . causality . . . controls reality, regardless of where it occurs on the timeline. Thirteen-year-old Rigg is a Pathfinder, one who sees the paths of others' pasts. Rigorously trained and thoroughly educated by his demanding father, Rigg is horrified when Father dies unexpectedly after a final order to find the sister he never knew he had. Rigg is accompanied on this journey by a small group of friends who have powers of bending and manipulating the flow of time. Card also skillfully twines a separate story line into the plot, featuring earth's colonization of distant planets, led by the idealistic young pilot Ram Odin. Fast paced and thoroughly engrossing, the 650-plus pages fly by, challenging readers to care about and grasp sophisticated, confusing, and captivating ideas. As in L'Engle's Time Quartet, science is secondary to the human need to connect with others, but Card does not shy away from full and fascinating discussions of the paradoxical worlds he has created.--Carton, Debbie Copyright 2010 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 8 Up-Rigg has spent most of his life in the woods with his father tracking animals for their furs. His father teaches him about politics, languages, and history and helps him hone his natural talent for seeing the past paths of living creatures. When his father dies, Rigg is thrust into a world of uncertainty, discovering that everything he thought he knew about himself is wrong-his father isn't really his father and he is the only son of the deposed queen. Rigg sets out with his childhood friend, Umbo, to the capital city to fulfill his dying father's last request that he find his sister in this novel (Simon Pulse, 2010) by Orson Scott Card. Along the way, the two meet friends and foes and work on their skills with time travel and pathfinding to discover how they may be able to save Rigg's life. Card juxtaposes a second story about Ram Odin, the pilot of a colony ship from Earth, who is playing with time folds to discover a new colony. This full-cast production is not successful. Most of the actors, with the exception of Kirby Heyborne who voices Umbo, are not suited for their parts. The actor who reads Rigg's perspective sounds too old, while the actor who voices Loaf barely takes a breath and can't do female voices. With a confusing plot and poor narration, this novel is more successful in print format.-Necia Blundy, Marlborough Public Library, MA (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A brain-bending bildungsroman kicks off a promising science-fiction series. Rigg has spent all his 13 years trapping in the wild, aided by his peculiar ability to trace the past of any living being, until his enigmatic father's death thrusts Rigg into a wider world to search for his previously unknown sister. His friend Umbo (whose own special talent is slowing down time) tags along when they discover that their gifts can combine in unexpected ways. Rigg, Umbo and their various allies and enemies are likable characters (if preternaturally clever, witty and self-aware), and their interactions believable and charming. Their planet proves fascinating to explore, despite the highly implausible juxtaposition of advanced theoretical science with pre-industrial technology. The implications of the boys' power to manipulate the past unfold cleverly (if with interminable analytic dithering), feeding into the Machiavellian political intrigue for a pulse-pounding climax. Casual sexist references, a weird fascination with excretory functions and a baffling authorial afterword explaining "what 'really' happened" may put some readers off; still, Card's many fans will be thrilled by this return to his literary roots. (Science fiction. 12 up)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.