Pathfinder (2010)
Pathfinder is a 2010 science fiction book written by Orson Scott Card.
Rigg can see the paths of every living thing that has ever passed, faint trails stretching back through time. He has spent his boyhood trapping in the mountains with his father, who taught him the woods and little else. When his father dies, his last words send Rigg toward a sister he never knew he had. The journey pulls in Umbo, a friend who can bend the flow of time, and turns Rigg's odd gift into something far larger than a hunter's trick. Orson Scott Card opens his Pathfinder trilogy with a puzzle-box of time, memory and a world that is not what it seems.
Quick answers
What is Pathfinder about?
Rigg can see the paths of every living thing that has ever passed, faint trails stretching back through time. He has spent his boyhood trapping in the mountains with his father, who taught him the woods and little else. When his father dies, his last words send Rigg toward a sister he never knew he had. The journey pulls in Umbo, a friend who can bend the flow of time, and turns Rigg's odd gift into something far larger than a hunter's trick. Orson Scott Card opens his Pathfinder trilogy with a puzzle-box of time, memory and a world that is not what it seems.
When was Pathfinder published?
Pathfinder was published in 2010.
Who made Pathfinder?
Pathfinder was written by Orson Scott Card.
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A few thoughts on Pathfinder
Umbo's knack for nudging time backward gives the book the feel of a rewind puzzle, so players of Braid or Life Is Strange will recognize the pleasure of undoing a moment to change what follows. On screen, Interstellar chases the same idea of time as a place you can move through, anchored by a parent and child pulled apart across it.
Manga that treats time as something you can walk through
Rigg's gift lets him read every path a life has ever taken through time. These manga treat time with the same lack of reverence. Doraemon hands out gadgets that turn a whole timeline into a plaything, Phoenix follows souls across centuries of Japanese history, 20th Century Boys jumps between a childhood promise and its grown-up consequences, and Galaxy Express 999 rides a train straight through the future.
Concept albums built around bent, simulated reality
Pathfinder treats reality as something that can be folded, tested and finally seen through. These concept albums chase that same unease. Muse's Simulation Theory imagines a world running on borrowed code, Black Holes and Revelations bends its songs around relativity and collapsing stars, Deltron 3030 raps from a future where identity itself has been rewritten, and Universal Migrator sends its heroes drifting between planets and forms.
Blockbusters that turn time and fate into the plot itself
Rigg's odd gift turns out to move whole worlds far beyond his mountain boyhood. These blockbusters chase that same scale. Interstellar bends time itself against a father's promise, Project Hail Mary follows an amnesiac scientist piecing together a mission to save Earth, The Matrix reveals an entire life built to be seen through, and Avengers: Infinity War lets Doctor Strange search fourteen million futures for the one that works.