The world if Seventh Son is fairly fascinating. It’s set in early 1800s somewhere around what would have been Indiana or Ohio in our world, except in this world magic is real. It seems to be based on any number of folk magics turned real and powerful–but apparently only in the New World. Possibly because of that, American history hasn’t gone quite as we remember it. The Iroquois nation became a state. Washing was executed as a traitor. Things aren’t named quite as we know them, which at times gets annoying.

As the seventh son of a seventh son, Alvin Maker Jr is destined to be a Maker, a particularly powerful user of the story’s magic. As such, he’s apparently been hunted by a powerful evil being–the Unmaker–his entire life. He already has hints of that power, although he doesn’t seem to completely realize it at first. Towards the end, he manages to heal what should have been a deadly injury.

On the downside, this is very obviously the first book of a series. Honestly, it looks like Card may have just cu the book in parts, since Seventh Son by itself doesn’t really come to a climax, it just sort of ends at what would have been a section break in many other books. Such books generally annoy me, especially when they’re the first of the series. This is no exception.

Overall, the world building sounds like it has a lot of potential, but the story itself was lacking. I’m curious enough to see how the next book is though, so there’s that?