Huh.

I am torn as to what I think about this book. On the one hand, I could hardly put it down, and it had moments of sheer exhilarating action that had me quite breathlessly turning pages almost before I had processed their contents. On the other hand, there is a LOT of confusing time travel speculation and investigation in here, and even though Card “hangs a lantern on it”, as they say, and has his characters complain of incipient headaches when confronted with the more ticklish subjects of causality and the like, I still had serious trouble trying to get my brain around the whole thing.

I hate time travel.

A lot happens very quickly in this book. It’s like, meet Rigg, he’s our hero… now watch as his life is rapidly turned into a particularly harrowing episode of some overwrought daytime soap opera. His father dies. His mother’s alive! He’s a murder suspect. Nevermind, he’s been vindicated. And now he’s heir to fabulous wealth! Plus, a prince! All that would be needed for him to discover he has an unknown evil twin (instead, he merely discovers a sister), and the gamut would have been well and truly run.

Anyway, not-so-orphaned Rigg and his best friend (who had recently tried to kill him), Umbo, set out on a trek across the countryside to find long-lost Mom, and this is really the most enjoyable part of the book. Rigg has been well instructed by the man who had stood as his Father in all manner of useful things, like several different languages, logic, finance, rhetoric and the habits of command, all of which stand this thirteen year old stripling in good stead as he negotiates his precocious way to the big city, wherein live his remaining family. He meets along the way the bluff and kindly inn-keeping couple Loaf and Leaky, makes friends with a guy who acts as kind of his jailor, learns how to harness a bunch of magical powers he and his friend Umbo (and later, it is discovered, his sister) all possess, and narrowly avoids assassination more than once. That stuff is all very exciting, and although Card is oftentimes a little long on the telling and rather too light on with the showing throughout proceedings, there can be no doubt that his tremendous talent for fusing disparate elements of speculative fiction -- this book is a blend of Rightful Heir Fantasy and straight up Sci-Fi; we cut frequently to the shipboard shenanigans of an interstellar pilot known as Ram, who is in charge of a load full of cryogenically frozen colonists, on their way to a brave new world – and making them his own is on full display here.

So why am I so ambivalent about this book? You know, I hate to be predictable, but I really think it’s the time travel thing. There’s just so much of it, and it’s all so mindwarping. All this slowing down and speeding up and traveling through and stealing things from… not to mention all the talk, talk, talking about it. Tiresome, indeed, for someone such as myself, who has a big issue with the whole narrative concept. (Clearly, I had no idea that the Fantasy lookin’ cover with the fricken sword on the front was gonna end up being about time travel! Oooh, that OSC’s a prankster, isn’t he?)

Another reason I found this book less than utterly enchanting is, I have to say, the major ick factor. Bodily function talk abounds, and I just don’t like that kind of thing. (‘Cause I’m a lady!) Also, there was this whole heavy-handed political message that was essentially anti-Communist rhetoric, and it was so blatant and untimely that it rather makes one wonder if Card is concerned that sympathy for the Marxist ideal is making a comeback amongst the cool kids, or if he just wants to get his book banned in China.

Also, Rigg’s mother? A stone cold bitch.

This is the first book in a new series, and so this is only the beginning for young Rigg and his assorted collection of friends and allies. They’ve just realized they’re aliens on their own world, that they’re lives are pretty much controlled by sentient computer programs and that they better get themselves ready to welcome some visitors, because humans from Earth could well be on their way, over 10 000 years since the planet Garden was settled by their distant ancestors. Will I check in for the next installment to see how all of this plays out? Oh, yes, I suppose I will, it’s Orson Scott Card after all, and I rarely if ever like to leave a series unconcluded. Nevertheless... all that time travel.

My head still really hurts. And, gosh darn it, this is supposed to be a Young Adult offering! (Hence all the scatological humor, no doubt.) I have the disheartening feeling that were I to wish to really understand the timeline disruptions perpetrated in this book, then I’d have to read it at least a couple more times, just to get it all straight.

Ah, and here’s a telling detail: I do not plan to read it ever again.

  -- Rachel Hyland