Hidden Empire by Orson Scott Card

This week I took my son to the library and we both got new library cards.  I helped him pick out some books to read and then I got some for me.  I picked up Hidden Empire for my entertainment and I wasn't disappointed.  Having read Empire by Orson Scott Card a couple of years ago I was excited to see the sequel to it and a little intrigued at how this near future/alternative reality sci-fi thriller would twist and turn.  The first novel was interesting because it dealt with the civil war that happens between Red States and Blue State and is ultimately resolved in a series of dramatic and heroic twists that leave you just a little hopeful for the world.  This book starts off with something just as tragic and perhaps more dreadful than Civil War.  A virus that has the potential to kill as much as half of the worlds population starts in Africa.  It is this virus that becomes the tool of bringing peace...that and war.  As the President in the story says ( and I'm sure he's quoting someone) "There is no road to peace that does not pass through war".  One thing that really surprised me was the use of Christianity in this book.  Historically speaking the Roman Empire was lost in large part to a plague that devastated the population and eventually led to Christians becoming the influencing factor in succeeding governments.  The reason given for their success is that they cared for each other through the plague and for their neighbors and because of that they died at a significantly lower rate than the non-Christians.  The Christians in this story act the same way and in doing so drop death rates from the virus from 30-50% down to 15% or lower.  This theme in the middle of the larger story is something that struck me as the purpose behind the novel.  Not the political story and not the similarities to world circumstances today but the theme of civilization existing on the backs of people willing to care for one another.  I'm not suggesting that Christians are the only ones that do that.  I'm simply saying that this book brings to light the real success of civilization and that is not the technology, the economy, the politics, it is the lives we share one with another.  Orson Scott Card in the end of this proposes an incredible moral dilemma and to me the answer was in the middle of the book and not in the ethics of political posturing for the benefit of mankind.  If you enjoy a political thriller on top of world class moral dilemmas with just the right twist of Science Fiction then this novel is for you.  If you don't care for those things I encourage you to read both books anyway because they are well written and the characters are worth caring about. 

Pathfinder by Orson Scot Card

It's been a while since I last read a book cover to cover.  Largely because of life taking most of my library into boxes while we prepared to and actually moved.  Christmas cured this problem because my wife got me an awesome book, Pathfinder by Orson Scot Card (my favorite author of all time).  This book is about a young man (13 years old at the start of the book),Rigg, who is raised by a man who is a trapper.  This trapper however spends every waking moment of the boys life teaching him things that have almost nothing to do with trapping.  He teaches him languages, astronomy, rhetoric, politics, finance, math, and other non-trapping things.  The boy absorbs the teachings like most kids would when given no alternatives and is spectacularly intelligent because of the teachings.  (This should start sounding very familiar...think Ender's Game)  While being exceptionally intelligent is important to the story the most remarkable thing about him is the fact that he can see "paths" of people from the past.  He knows where animals, plants, and people have traveled based on the path they leave behind.  He doesn't fully understand the meaning of the paths but his Father teaches him enough to eventually begin to understand what they mean.  When his Father passes in a tragic accident, Rigg must start a journey that is full of twists and turns that will keep your mind reeling at the possibilities.  Rigg, together with Umbo, a childhood friend, start off together and eventually find that they both possess remarkable "skills" that when combined cause time and space to not work the way we come to expect...and that is when things get VERY interesting.
This book is perhaps every bit as good as Ender's Game which for me is about the highest praise I could give a book.  The thought provoking dilemmas and the awesome characters come together to be every ounce the greatness of Ender's Game.  While solidly in the Fantasy genre...it crosses borders in ways that make it equally Science Fiction.  I can't recommend this book enough.  If you want to get it I've tried to make it easy by giving you a link to Amazon.com.  Let me know what you think after you've read it...I can hardly wait for the next part of the series.