The Lost Gate

2011

Ratings62

Average rating3.6

Orson Scott Card's The Lost Gate is the first book in the Mithermages series from the New York Times bestselling author of Ender's Game. Danny North knew from early childhood that his family was different, and that he was different from them. While his cousins were learning how to create the things that commoners called fairies, ghosts, golems, trolls, werewolves, and other such miracles that were the heritage of the North family, Danny worried that he would never show a talent, never form an outself. He grew up in the rambling old house, filled with dozens of cousins, and aunts and uncles, all ruled by his father. Their home was isolated in the mountains of western Virginia, far from town, far from schools, far from other people. There are many secrets in the House, and many rules that Danny must follow. There is a secret library with only a few dozen books, and none of them in English — but Danny and his cousins are expected to become fluent in the language of the books. While Danny's cousins are free to create magic whenever they like, they must never do it where outsiders might see. Unfortunately, there are some secrets kept from Danny as well. And that will lead to disaster for the North family. The Mithermages series The Lost Gate The Gate Thief Gatefather At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

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3 primary books5 released books

#1 in Mither Mages

Mither Mages is a 5-book series with 3 released primary works first released in 1979 with contributions by Orson Scott Card.

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Sandmagic

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Popular Reviews

Reviews with the most likes.

Corey McCaffrey

The Lost Gate trilogy features a compelling magic system (“gates”) to propel a story about feuding descendants of mythological gods.

June 30, 2016

Metaphorosis Reviews

reviews.metaphorosis.com

3.5 stars

Danny's the descendant of gods - literally. Only, the gods are mages who have lost a lot of their power, and Danny doesn't even seem to have that. Living on the family compound, far from ordinary folk, he has little to protect him from his talented cousins, until suddenly a visit from a more powerful clan precipitates a crisis.

I've been a fan of Orson Scott Card's writing since I ran across Ender's Game (the short story) in the August 1977 Analog. I was just the right age for one of the best short stories of the last century, and I moved on to Card's astounding Planet Called Treason, Songmaster, etc. While Card has made some pretty substantial missteps (Magic Street, Invasive Procedures), much of his work is excellent.

At the same time, I skipped his recent Empire series entirely, when a reader more politically conservative than me told me they were too conservative for his tastes. And of course it's now difficult to think about Card these days without considering his very conservative (and to me offensive) political views. All that taken together, I picked up The Lost Gate partly out of nostalgia, and partly in the hope that a fantasy book would steer clear of politics. That's a faint hope, of course. No book is ever completely divorced from politics. ‘Politics' is just a convenient term for the issues that surround us all daily. A book that didn't deal with them would be pretty dull. So, while reading The Lost Gate, awareness of Card's politics kept creeping into the background. The good news is that the politics is bearable. The cast of characters is reminiscent of a certain set of 80s SFF - clever boy, doting girl, no gays in sight - outdated and sexist, but not worse than many others. Most of the actual policy elements are of the unobjectionable peace and harmony type. Happily, then, Card is still capable of writing books that are more story than screed.

The writing in The Lost Gate, unfortunately, is not up to Card's standard. It's largely good, but feels rushed (which an afterword indicates is true). The narrator, for example, has inconsistent knowledge of the world - he knows little about money, but all about checks. Even a young adult audience will disdain some of the adolescent humor.

Most troubling is the characterization. I give authors of young adult books some humor, but here, a book focused on adolescents has distinctly pre-teen character development. When Danny meets some questionable older boys, he immediately tells them all about himself. It comes across not as naivete, but non-credible writing. A key older character is similarly flimsy.

The magic system, which Card says he has been working on for decades, is surprisingly thin. The idea and setup are good, but a lot of the details are sketchy at best. There are Gatefathers, Finders, Keyfriends, Lockfriends,... We don't learn much more about them than their names. This was an opportunity to do something quite interesting, sadly squandered.

The ending of the book seems to reflect either time pressure or loss of interest - where most series would just be working into the discovery phase - how does all this work?, Card leaps forward to a manufactured crisis. He ends on a good note, but so much opportunity is passed over that it's dissatisfying.

With all that, I still plan to read the next book. Why? Because I found that the politics didn't intrude in the way that I feared, because the world and characters are intriguing enough, and because I believe Card has the skill to pull this off in the end. If you don't buy Card's books because of his politics, then as far as I know, they haven't changed. If I applied that filter, I'd have very few books to choose from. If you've been avoiding Card because you don't want to read about his politics, this book is pretty safe. And if you don't care about any of that, but just want a decent young adult fantasy, go to it. This is not a book that will remind you of Card's startling early skill, but it's fun, quick, and easy.