The Lost Gate (YA/Adult)

The Lost Gate. Orson Scott Card. 2011. January 2011. Tor. 384 pages.


Danny North grew up surrounded by fairies, ghosts, talking animals, living stones, walking trees, and gods who called up wind and brought down rain, made fire from air and drew iron out of the depths of the earth as easily as ordinary people might draw up water from a well.

I enjoyed The Lost Gate. It's a fantasy novel with mythological elements. Danny North is from one of powerful families--former gods, you might say--cut off for centuries from their home-world. But he's not the family's greatest hope--far from it. He's grown up being less-than. His aunts, his uncles, his cousins, his parents, everyone in his life has a gift, a calling. But Danny? Well, he runs fast and he's smart when it comes to book-learning, to languages especially. Not exactly magical, is it?

But Danny is about to learn just how special he is when the novel opens--and this knowledge puts him in great danger. He can't go home again--for the truth--if revealed--will lead to his death. So how does a young boy (12 or 13) survive in the real world? A world he's been kept separate from? How fast can Danny learn the necessary skills to survive? He won't be alone for long, but when there are people who want you dead, it's not easy to know who to trust.

Speaking of trust, there is a second story within The Lost Gate. Readers aren't quite sure (exactly) how these stories connect since they seem to be disconnected--separated by great time or distance.

The Lost Gate is a fantasy novel. Orson Scott Card crafts a new world (or two) within The Lost Gate. He's peopled the 'real' world with some fantastical beings--some more obvious than others. I enjoyed the world Card has created. I'm not sure I "love" this new world yet. But. I can say that The Lost Gate kept me reading. I found it compelling, enjoyable, satisfying. The time I spent with the book was happy. It felt right to be reading Card again.



© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews