• They take place on planets separated from earth
• They feature several different groups that are bred to focus on different abilities/powers
• It's stated that if Earth discovers their abilities they will destroy the planet
• Both protagonists have the ability to learn a lot of other people's talents as well as his own.
• Both protagonists are the heirs to the throne in their kingdoms.
• Both protagonists end up with duplicates of themselves.
• Both protagonists rely heavily on manipulating time.
• Both stories move forward as the protagonist moves between the different kingdoms/families/folds and encounters the new abilities there.
• Both worlds are being manipulated and run by a third party.

This isn't a criticism. I really like the Pathfinder series and Treason wasn't bad. I just thought that given the extensive similarities that Pathfinder seems to be a reboot on the original that OSC wasn't too happy with.
 

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Posted by MrSquicky (Member # 1802) on :
 
I only read book 1 of the Pathfinder series, but yeah, that was close to my impression as well. It seemed to draw heavily from several of OSC's book, with Treason being the heaviest.
 

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Posted by vineyarddawg (Member # 13007) on :
 
Interesting thought. I've never read Treason, but I was definitely pulled into the Pathfinder series hook, line, and sinker. I don't think I'm going to read Treason now, though, because I don't want to spoil the ending of the Pathfinder series if it really is similar.
 

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Posted by DustinDopps (Member # 12640) on :
 
vineyarddawg: I don't think they're similar enough that Treason would spoil anything. As far as actual plot, scenes, dialog, etc. goes, they are quite different.

But I also noticed a similarity. I just thought "It's a Card book. It feels Card-ish."
 

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Posted by scifibum (Member # 7625) on :
 
I haven't read past the first Pathfinder book, yet, but a lot of those items in the list seem to recur in a lot of OSC's work as well as in speculative fiction in general.

This is the one that makes me wonder:

quote:

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Both protagonists end up with duplicates of themselves.

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...but to be fair, this happens in the Enderverse too.

I think any prolific writer is going to repeat himself a bit. I'd lean toward the guess that this wasn't meant to be a rewrite of Treason; I'd expect that rewrite to use the same setting and characters.
 

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Posted by Ronin (Member # 1749) on :
 
scifibum: Hope my list didn't spoil anything.

Treason is a pretty weird book. It was OSC's second novel and probably the only book he's written in first person.

DustinDopps: The biggest things for me were the different families and how they each had different sort of evolutionary paths that they followed which is the back drop for Pathfinder as well.
 

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Posted by scifibum (Member # 7625) on :
 
Ronin, I'm sure the spoilers won't affect my enjoyment if I pick it back up.
 

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Posted by Jeff C. (Member # 12496) on :
 
But in Pathfinder, the main character doesn't have breasts.

>.<
 

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Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
 
I think there are arguably similarities between the Pathfinder series and OSC's Worthing stories too. And his Homecoming series.
 

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Posted by Marek (Member # 5404) on :
 

quote:

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Both protagonists are the heirs to the throne in their kingdoms.

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