Seventh Son (1987)
Seventh Son is a 1987 fantasy fiction book written by Orson Scott Card.
In an alternate frontier America where folk magic works and every settler carries a knack, Alvin Miller is born the seventh son of a seventh son, a birth that marks him for something rare. From his first night, water and darkness seem to conspire against him, and a force he cannot yet name reaches into the loving safety of his family's homestead to undo him. This first Tales of Alvin Maker builds a whole American mythology out of homespun materials: doodlebugs, hexes, torch-girls who glimpse the future, and a boy with the raw gift to make.
Quick answers
What is Seventh Son about?
In an alternate frontier America where folk magic works and every settler carries a knack, Alvin Miller is born the seventh son of a seventh son, a birth that marks him for something rare. From his first night, water and darkness seem to conspire against him, and a force he cannot yet name reaches into the loving safety of his family's homestead to undo him. This first Tales of Alvin Maker builds a whole American mythology out of homespun materials: doodlebugs, hexes, torch-girls who glimpse the future, and a boy with the raw gift to make.
When was Seventh Son published?
Seventh Son was published in 1987.
Who made Seventh Son?
Seventh Son was written by Orson Scott Card.
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A few thoughts on Seventh Son
Orson Scott Card spins a whole American folklore out of plain frontier life, closer to a tall tale than a quest. For that homegrown mythology, American Gods on television treats the country's back roads as sacred ground. And Big Fish carries the same tender, tall-tale spirit, where a family's stories bend gently into legend.
American folklore where ordinary towns hide something older
Seventh Son plants real magic inside the cornfields of an invented frontier America, where a baby marked at birth draws danger to his own family's roof. American Gods and Bioshock Infinite hide that same old magic and prophecy inside a country that insists it has none, Big Fish spins its own tall-tale mythology, and Smallville and Wizard and Glass send a marked kid down a road built around his gift.