The Mither Mages Trilogy: (The Lost Gate, The Gate Thief, Gatefather)

Orson Scott Card

Jun 2017 · Mither Mages · Sold by Macmillan

About this ebook

This discounted ebundle from New York Times bestselling author Orson Scott Card includes: The Lost Gate, The Gate Thief, Gatefather

The mage-families of Westil are in exile on Earth. The magical gates have been closed, and for good reason. Unfortunately, Danny North’s magically-inclined family has been keeping secrets from him, secrets that may lead to disaster for them all.

The Lost Gate — Danny North knew from early childhood that his family was different, and that he was different from them. While his cousins were learning how to create the things that commoners called fairies, ghosts, golems, trolls, werewolves, and other such miracles that were the heritage of the North family, Danny worried that he would never show a talent, never form an outself.

Gate Thief — Here on Earth, Danny North is still in high school, yet he holds in his heart and mind all the stolen outselves of thirteen centuries of gatemages. The Families still want to kill him if they can't control him...and they can't control him. Danny will come to understand just why Loki closed the gates all those centuries ago.

Gatefather — Danny North is the first Gate Mage to be born on Earth in nearly 2000 years, or at least the first to survive to claim his power. What he didn't know at the time was that the Gate Thief had a very good reason for closing the Great Gates, and Danny has now fallen into the power of that great enemy of both Earth and Westil.


Tor books by Orson Scott Card

Ender Universe
The Ender Saga
Ender’s Game
Ender in Exile
Speaker for the Dead
Xenodice
Children of the Mind

Ender’s Shadow Quintet
Ender’s Shadow
Shadow of the Hegemon
Shadow Puppets
Shadow of the Giant
Shadows in Flight

The Second Formic War (With Aaron Johnston)
The Swarm

Other Books in the Ender Universe
Children of the Fleet

Ender Novellas
A War of Gifts
First Meetings

Other Tor Books Series
The Mither Mages
The Tales of Alvin Maker
Homecoming
Women of Genesis

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Ratings and reviews

Reading this book, I realized what I liked and disliked about Orson Scott Card. He writes wonderful, fascinating worlds with systems of life and magic that are wonderfully written and enjoyable to delve into. Opposite that, I feel his characters lack reality. The main characters, in this series especially, are all smarter than the average bear, and once someone presents a logical argument, they immediately agree that the argument was logical and they should follow the suggested course of action. In short: the characters feel unrealistic and, well, WRITTEN. They "tell" a lot more than they "show." So, tl;dr: if you like his other books, go ahead and read this one, because it's similar and enjoyable in that respect. If you're looking for realistic teens and characters in general, you should probably look elsewhere.

The first book was tolerable. It was an interesting concept and had a great deal of potential. The next two were terrible. Endlessly tedious dialogue from characters who are all essentially variations of the same three characters. Female characters are written horribly bad. The plot and settings are almost non existent. Just all around not good.

Lovely concept, but lacking in effort, in my opinion. The first book had more substance, as if having had more time to marinate in the author's mind. The second two seemed rushed. The third especially, seemed similar to a paper written by a poor student. The same thing written over and over in different words, making it so you waste time covering the same information. If these books were a roller coaster, it would be short, gentle rises, at a leisurely pace, but you are forced to go around the circuit more times than you would wish.

About the author

Orson Scott Card is best known for his science fiction novel Ender's Game and its many sequels that expand the Ender Universe into the far future and the near past. Those books are organized into the Ender Saga, which chronicles the life of Ender Wiggin; the Shadow Series, which follows on the novel Ender's Shadow and is set on Earth; and the Formic Wars series, written with co-author Aaron Johnston, which tells of the terrible first contact between humans and the alien "Buggers." Card has been a working writer since the 1970s. Beginning with dozens of plays and musical comedies produced in the 1960s and 70s, Card's first published fiction appeared in 1977--the short story "Gert Fram" in the July issue of The Ensign, and the novelette version of "Ender's Game" in the August issue of Analog. The novel-length version of Ender's Game, published in 1984 and continuously in print since then, became the basis of the 2013 film, starring Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis, and Abigail Breslin. Card was born in Washington state, and grew up in California, Arizona, and Utah. He served a mission for the LDS Church in Brazil in the early 1970s. Besides his writing, he runs occasional writers' workshops and directs plays. He frequently teaches writing and literature courses at Southern Virginia University. He is the author many science fiction and fantasy novels, including the American frontier fantasy series "The Tales of Alvin Maker" (beginning with Seventh Son), and stand-alone novels like Pastwatch and Hart's Hope. He has collaborated with his daughter Emily Card on a manga series, Laddertop. He has also written contemporary thrillers like Empire and historical novels like the monumental Saints and the religious novels Sarah and Rachel and Leah. Card's work also includes the Mithermages books (Lost Gate, Gate Thief), contemporary magical fantasy for readers both young and old. Card lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife, Kristine Allen Card. He and Kristine are the parents of five children and several grandchildren.