The Lost Gate, by Orson Scott Card

The Lost Gate is an older book which came out in January of 2011 but it's still definitely worth a read in my opinion. Aside from Ender's Game I never really read any of Card's books and for whatever reason couldn't get into the books related to Ender's Game, so The Lost Gate acted as a sort of re-introduction to Card for me as well as an introduction to his Mither Mages series.

Thousands of years ago mages from the distant planet of Westil came to our planet through Great Gates and found their powers greatly increased by the journey. Different Families of mages became the various pantheons of gods and ruled ordinary humans, or drowthers, for centuries. However the power of the Families was severely broken when Loki, a gatemage from the North Family, sealed all of the Great Gates and forever cut off Westil from Earth in 632 AD. Fourteen centuries of war and isolation from Westil have eliminated some families and left the others considerably weakened. An uneasy truce has been reached with the agreement among all the families that if a gatemage should ever be born again they should be killed immediately to prevent another devastating war.

Danny North is only thirteen and does very well in school and at languages, but shows no magical talent whatsoever. His family members assume he's a drekka, a member of a mage family born without magic, and therefore assume he's inherently useless. By the second chapter, though, we've learned that Danny is a powerful gatemage and his mere existence threatens to destroy the fragile truce. Danny must spend a life on the run avoiding all the Families, including his own, and somehow learn the secrets of gatemagery by himself.

Overall, I actually liked this book despite a couple of my issues. I found it kind of cliched at times, "Oh, Danny's entirely normal and not special at all you say? Yeah, you'll excuse me if I find your argument unconvincing." So I kind of saw the big plot twists coming well ahead of time. And to an extent I kind of got bored with Danny's character at points in the book. Because...well, he's a teenager, and a believable teenager at that. He's foolish, impulsive, convinced of his own invulnerability, typical teenager traits which is why I don't like teenagers. Yes, I know I'm in my twenties but I live with them at home. But, if anything, making Danny an annoying teenager made him more real and believable as a character so that's a bonus.

Despite my own hang-ups I liked the world that Card created. Sure it takes place in our world of 21st century Earth (for the most part), but it felt well-grounded. The Families and their "ranks" of mages felt logical and well-developed. Card focuses mainly on Greek and Norse mythology so it's a little limited in scope, but those are the two pantheons with which I'm most familiar and most people probably are as well. And it was just...enjoyable to read. It's not a page-turner like some of the Pratchett novels that I love, but at no point did I want to stop reading it entirely. The plot Card sets up in this book is resolved while leaving hints open for the next book, The Gate Thief, and I'm definitely interested in reading more. If anyone's interested in reading a good Urban Fantasy (that includes some Swords and Sorcery) I'd definitely recommend The Lost Gate.

-Kalpar