Pathfinder

Orson Scott Card

Nov 2010 · Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

From the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Ender’s Game, a “fast-paced and thoroughly engrossing” novel of a teenager who can see others’ pasts (Booklist, starred review).

Rigg is well trained at keeping secrets. Only his father knows the truth about the teenager’s strange talent for seeing the paths of people’s pasts. But when his father dies, Rigg is stunned to learn just how many secrets Father had kept from him—secrets about Rigg’s own past, his identity, and his destiny. And when Rigg discovers that he has the power not only to see the past, but also to change it, his future suddenly becomes anything but certain.

Rigg’s birthright sets him on a path that leaves him caught between two factions, one that wants him crowned and one that wants him dead. He will be forced to question everything he thinks he knows, choose who to trust, and push the limits of his talent . . . or forfeit control of his destiny.

And meanwhile, a ship approaches a terraformed world populated by humans with a long history very different from that of the humans of Earth . . .

“The combination of science fiction and fantasy as well as a surprising revelation at the end harken back to genre classics like Robert Silverberg’s Lord Valentine’s Castle and Roger Zelazny’s Nine Princes in Amber.” —School Library Journal

Ratings and reviews

Wow. This book had so many twists and turns that you're left to form most of the connections on your own, but it is a joy. The characters build off of each other rather than standing alone. There's the perfect blend of sci-fi and supernatural, with temporal dynamics sprinkled about. I didn't want to put this down.

great story and love the character build up. sometimes the pace of the story gets bogged down with heavy dialogue and over explanation but like Umber's time power, this 'slowing' passes after a few minutes and the story continues as fast pace as ever. two stories in one - with the journey to the new planet as a stand alone powerful short story on its own.

I'm usually not a fan of time travel books. However, Card presents the idea in a very plausible way and fully develops the constraints in which the time travel mechanism works. He takes into account all consequences of time travel and does not use it to help the good guys out of a tight spot. The story is very entertaining and the characters are well developed. Very entertaining read.

About the author

Orson Scott Card is the author of numerous bestselling novels and the first writer to receive both the Hugo and Nebula awards two years in a row; first for Ender’s Game and then for the sequel, Speaker for the Dead. He lives with his wife in North Carolina.