Hatrack River Forum: Magic Street -- first 5 chapters

This is topic Magic Street -- first 5 chapters in forum Discussions About Orson Scott Card at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by Portabello (Member # 7710) on :

I don't see where anybody else has mentioned it, but you can now read the first 5 chapters. It's available on the front page.

Posted by aiua (Member # 7825) on :

Wow, I completely missed that...

Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :

Me too!

Thanks Porter.

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

Front page? What's that?

Thanks, Porter! [Big Grin]

Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :

Now, you pick up dinner for your wife, you figure it's going to get cold, and then you use that as an excuse not to stop at See's? [No No]

Much as your wife appreciates you getting dinner, if she's like me, she wouldn't care if it was cold if you had gotten her See's on the way! [Taunt]

Posted by Jenny Gardener (Member # 903) on :

Oh! I'm in love! There is MAGIC in Magic Street. Gotta go get a copy NOW!!

Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :

Oh my! I did not know anything about this, and it looks awesome!
Is it a stand-alone nevel, or will I be waiting in agony until he finishes a series?

Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :

Stand-alone novel.

Copies not available till July. But tell your friends it's coming <grin>.

Posted by El JT de Spang (Member # 7742) on :

Not Fair! Posting 5 lousy chapters that I blow through in twenty minutes and now I have to wait till JULY to read the whole thing! I'm already hooked! You can't just give someone crack and then take it away. The withdrawal can kill you! You gotta wean them off it. Like maybe two pages a day till the release. Then I won't be totally immersed in the story when the book comes out.

Posted by Papa Moose (Member # 1992) on :

July? Front page says June 28th. Which is it? 3 days is practically an eternity!

Plus, the earlier the book comes out, the more likely the tour will happen before I leave. *crosses fingers*

Posted by Sid Meier (Member # 6965) on :

whats the book about about?

Posted by Papa Moose (Member # 1992) on :

About 380 pages.

Posted by Mr_Megalomaniac (Member # 7695) on :

quote:
now I have to wait till JULY to read the whole thing! I'm already hooked!

Exactly why I refuse to read it write now. [Wink]

... But I'm so curious! [Cry]

edit
I see the mistake in there, but am too lazy to correct it. Which is odd, since it's taking me much longer to type this out. Hmmm I'll need to contemplate this for a while...

[ April 21, 2005, 10:02 PM: Message edited by: Mr_Megalomaniac ]

Posted by CRash (Member # 7754) on :

Darn it. I hate being addicted to a not-yet-available book, but I'm just too darn curious! [Grumble]

I'm going to die of waiting... Guess the old saying's true- curiosity killed the CRash.

But wait! I can't die until I find out what happens next!!

Posted by blacwolve (Member # 2972) on :

I really should have just waited. Now I'm going to be in agony.

Really though, this works perfectly. Magic Street will come out; and then just when I've finished it Harry Potter will come out; and just when I've finished it the next Tamora Pierce book, which judging by the sample chapters is going to be the best one yet, will come out; and the Serenity will come out.

This is going to be a good summer.

Posted by MidnightBlue (Member # 6146) on :

Is that exactly how it will appear in book form? I ask because there's a typo on page three where it says "Ceesewould" instead of "Ceese would".

But I absolutely loved it and I can't wait until the rest of it comes out!
[Party]

Posted by Katarain (Member # 6659) on :

I should have known better than to start reading that book. I was thinking... nah, there's no way I'll be sucked in from just 5 chapters... completely forgetting that's the way it ALWAYS is with Card books. I figure... Magic Street? Come on... that sounds kinda funky. It's safe to read without checking the release date.

Boy was I wrong. July can't come soon enough!!

-Katarain

Posted by Portabello (Member # 7710) on :

I haven't read the 5 chapters yet, but can anybody tell me if this book is a novel version of Card's story The Dragon House?

Posted by beatnix19 (Member # 5836) on :

I'm not sure if this is just me being crazy but I remember reading a short story about a black family and a baby and a waterbed. I also seem to recall this either OSC or someone else saying that he was making that into a new novel(this was a couple years back). Anyone else or am I just crazy and recalling some odd dream I had long a go?

Posted by Papa Moose (Member # 1992) on :

I remember that short story, beatnix -- but I'm waiting for June instead of reading the story now, so didn't know they were related (you know, if they are). But I doubt you were imagining it.

I haven't read The Dragon House (I'm waiting for Maps II rather than trying to collect the shorts separately). Is that the one about the electricity?

Posted by Portabello (Member # 7710) on :

It is the one about the electricity dragon that lives in the wiring of an ancient house.

What's the name of the waterbed story, and where can I find it?

[ April 23, 2005, 11:11 AM: Message edited by: Portabello ]

Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :

I remember the waterbed story also, but very vaguely. I had thought that I'd read it here somehow, in the OSC Library, but I'm not seeing it there now.

Posted by docmagik (Member # 1131) on :

It's called "Waterbaby" and it was published online in--I believe--a now defunct magazine, and in a magazine called The Leading Edge.

Posted by accio (Member # 3040) on :

Am I the only one who has a problem with the following line?

From Chapter 3: He only want me around so they somebody to watch him be cool.

Posted by MidnightBlue (Member # 6146) on :

It sounded like it fit with the dialect to me. [Dont Know]

Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :

The storyline of "Waterbaby" is incorporated within Magic Street. It WAS going to be a chapter, but I structured it differently and it wouldn't work that way anymore.

In the Dragon's House may yet be a novel someday. I was torn between writing Magic Street and Dragon's House as the next novel on my contract with Del Rey; Magic Street won ... or lost, depending on your view.

Nobody is required to read the five chapters we put up. But our hope, in putting it there, is that people will sample it and get the buzz going on the coming novel.

I mean, do you close your eyes and plug your ears and hum during movie trailers, too? <grin>

Posted by Hot Soup (Member # 7840) on :

I'm torn. I resisted reading the beginning of SOTG before it came out, but I'm not sure about this. Should I wait?

Posted by Portabello (Member # 7710) on :

Is there no way for me to read Waterbaby?

Posted by Descartes (Member # 1257) on :

Holy Crap!

OSC, I never knew you to write anything that DARK! That's unbelievable! I'm hooked already, mostly because it's so different...was that intentional, by the way?

Well, chock up $29.95 from me...

Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :

In looking for it, Porter, I'm not finding much. Looks like it was originally published in the now defunct site GalaxyOnline.

Here's a review.

quote:
A new story by Orson Scott Card is certainly a cause for celebration. "Waterbaby" is no exception. A black man narrates the tale of his daughter's strange yet natural affinity for water. She takes to the swimming pools and lakes, immediately swimming like a mammalian fish. She wishes she were a fish and that she would never have to leave the water. But quickly we find the narrator is on trial for an act he could never have committed, nor could it be believed that he never committed it.

Ah-hah! It appeared in print in the April 2001 issue (issue 41) of Leading Edge (which was published at BYU, interestingly enough). I'd check ebay and haunt library bookj sales if I was after a copy of the magazine. Here's a link if you want to see the cover art for that issue (not that the cover art is actually for Card's story).

[ April 24, 2005, 12:12 PM: Message edited by: Noemon ]

Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :

Porter, check yer mail.

[ April 24, 2005, 12:19 PM: Message edited by: Noemon ]

Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :

Sounds like someone is passing out illegal copies of my story.

So tomorrow I'll ask Scott Allen to put up the complete text of Waterbaby here on Hatrack. The substance of the story is included within Magic Street, but not the first-person narration, so they remain separate works.

Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :

I emailed Porter a copy of it that I found here. I did this rather than posting it because it didn't sound like you wanted it to be widely distributed. If what I did was beyond the bounds of the acceptable I apologize.

Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :

I have to say, thought, that in general if a work is out of print and I can't find a copy of it for sale anywhere, tracking down an electronic copy of it and giving it to a friend doesn't really trip my "this is morally wrong" sensors. I guess what I'm apologizing for in my previous post is offending you, rather than the actual act (given the circumstances) of finding the story online and emailing Porter a copy of it. I won't do this with your work in the future.

Out of curiosity, how does this differ in your mind from, say, my finding a copy of the relevant issue of Leading Edge in a freebie box (which is how I've gotten most of my back issues of SF magazines) and mailing it or a photocopy of it to Porter via conventional mail?

Posted by Leonide (Member # 4157) on :

quote:
OSC, I never knew you to write anything that DARK!

You've obviously never read any of his short stories...

I've owned Maps in a Mirror for over a year, and have only managed to get about 1/3 of the way through because I'll read a story and pretty much throw the book across the room, I'm so disturbed and upset.

But I always pick it back up again eventually... [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :

And of course, Lost Boys isn't a stroll in the park.

Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :

Wait a minute. I thought I just wrote military stories for children. That's what all the SERIOUS critics say. It couldn't possibly be that they haven't actually READ anything of mine, right?

I have some really cheerful sweet little stories in Maps, too. Like "Porcelain Salamander" and "D*** Fine Novel" and "Saving Grace."

Posted by Leonide (Member # 4157) on :

And the Foundation story is very cool and a great read (it's like good fanfiction! who thought there could be such a thing?)

I think the story that made me put down the book for the longest time was The Changed Man and the Kind of Words. I couldn't tell you *why* precisely, but I bawled hysterically after that and made Strider take the book into another room, I wouldn't even pick it up.

Course I read it again a few weeks back and handled it ridiculously well, with more of an eye for how well it's written and how sad it is, without actually feeling sad this time. Huh.

[ April 24, 2005, 09:00 PM: Message edited by: Leonide ]

Posted by kojabu (Member # 8042) on :

I just finished reading it and aaah the last chapter creeped me out with the motorcycle lady and the stairs. But I want to know what happens!