Heartfire, Book 5, The Tales of Alvin Maker by Orson Scott Card

(Lots of spoilers here so do not read if you do not want to read the spoilage )

Shortly after I read Book 4, I was a bit un-satiated by the book and jumped straight into Book 5.  Book 5 had two divergent plot lines.  One with Alvin’s wife in the deep south fighting against slavery, but ultimately distracted by Alvin’s brother (and possible nemesis) Calvin who was ensnared in a accidental trap.  The other is Alvin himself in ‘New England’ attempting to learn something about building a good city, while trying to escape the anti-witchery laws.

The book is much better than book 4.  In fact it almost works out to be a mirror image of book 4 as the book heads right into another trial like looking at Book 4 through bathroom vanities at Lowes or something.

What’s to be expected when the newest character of the book is still an attorney?

But just as the trial starts to get interesting, Alvin does the obvious, makes his shackles fall off and beats feet to the South to save the day.  Its probably just as well that the book was wrapped up, as even though the trial did seem like it could be interesting the story was wildly off track (kind of) and there’s no getting it back on track until Alvin confronts his brother and gets on with building a city.

Although there might be a case to be made that if he’s truly to build a crystal city, he would need the help and support of the entire country, but he’s not running for President. .  . . Yet.