Gatefather: A Novel of the Mither Mages

Orson Scott Card

Oct 2015 · Mither Mages Book 3 · Sold by Tor Books

About this ebook

From the bestselling author of Ender’s Game comes Gatefather–the third installment of the Mither Mages series

Explore a contemporary world where magic intersects with the modern realm, hiding ancient gods, goddesses, and the powerful Mages of Westil, exiled to Earth for millennia.

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. Families of Westil in exile on Earth have had a treaty that required the death of any suspected Gate Mage. The wars between the Families had been terrible, until at last they realized it was their own survival in question. But Danny survived. And Danny battled the Gate Thief, and won.

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.

Ancient secrets are revealed, destinies are challenged, and both Earth and Westil hang in the balance.

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

Ratings and reviews

Much like the last few books of the Ender series, this book is just a backdrop for pedantic speeches about his ideas of morality. There is hardly any action or actual plot progression. It's just a series of scenes in which the characters stand in differing locations and hold long, stilted dialogues about right and wrong. When the plot actually advances, it does so as an afterthought. Often in one, uninspired sentence that is almost overlooked. I only gave it three stars because I like the premise.

I felt obligated to finish this book in order to finish the series. The reviews I read before reading the book are dead on. The whole book consists of many dialogs that are only mildly entertaining at best. The series started out strong and exciting with the first novel but spiraled downward from there. By the end of the book I was in a hurry to finish it so I could move on to some other book. I have like many of OSC's other novels but this is definitely not his best work.

Disappointing, previous two were much better. If you read some of the 1-3 star reviews here they pretty much say it all. Lots of speeches with only a couple real events. If you've heard of "show don't tell" as a storytelling device, this is the opposite. It's also way too corny for most of the last third.

About the author

ORSON SCOTT CARD is the author of the international bestsellers Shadow of the Giant, Shadow Puppets, Shadow of the Hegemon, and Ender's Shadow, and of the beloved classic of science fiction, Ender's Game, as well as the acclaimed fantasy series The Tales of Alvin Maker. He lives in Greensboro, North Carolina.