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In case you didn't notice, Hart's Hope is going back into print. If you haven't yet read this book, now's your chance! This is one of Card's absolute best books, and one of his few plunges into the fantasy genre. What can I say, buy this book!
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The reprint of this book is a sign that the entire universe is not totally screwed up. It's a shining spot.
Posts: 5383 | Registered: Dec 1999
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Icky? Hart's Hope? The "ickiest" part about it is the rape of the twelve year old, and the way it's written, it's pretty damn tame.
The book has a decent plot, but it's Card's inventive details (such as the writing that can be read in four different directions) that really make the book enjoyable. Still, Enchantment and Pastwatch remain, at least in my eyes, Card's best works.
Posts: 3293 | Registered: Jul 2002
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The twelve year old? It's an opening detail of the book, if I remember correctly. The story of Paercival's (if I remember the name correctly) rise and fall from power is just the setting for the main plot.
But if you're sure, just post again (or IM me) and I'll edit that post and delete this one.
Posts: 3293 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Annie -- Hart's Hope bothered me. The images in it were troubling. I don't think that was accidental. I read it a few years back and haven't re-read it.
I find quite a few of the images in Scott's writing troubling. And I don't think that's accidental either. I've run into folks who have said "Anybody who would write a story like X just isn't worth reading" about him. And I know where they're coming from, although I disagree with their choice.
Life brings me troubling images. The world I live in is filled with ugliness and cruelty. It is also filled with love and beauty. It is a compound of good things and bad things and they all get swirled around together. When I read what Scott writes it troubles me, but it also makes sense. It fits. It's real, even if it's in a fantasy framework.
Hart's Hope works on many different levels. One of those levels is the way in which many parents sacrifice their children to get what they want. Another is the way in which building things and creating things demands sacrifices from us. We must destroy to create -- the law of entropy demands that. And it is more difficult to distinguish compassion and cruelty, beauty and ugliness, than we would like to think.
I will read it again. Not soon, probably, but I will. I will probably find it troubling again. But that's okay. If it helps me, then it's worth it. And it probably will.
Posts: 35 | Registered: Jun 2003
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Wow. Thank you, Blain. That's about how I feel about the book. But I could never have articulated it nearly that well.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Annie, I liked it. It didn't rock my world like some others of Cards have and do, but I didn't read it at a very vulnerable time, so that may be it. It was a bit icky, but it was necessary. I still loved it.
Arslan, though. There's a book that was icky, contained a scene similiar to the opening one in Hart's Hope, and I hated it. Never taking book reccomendations from Ornery again!
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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quote:Did anybody think of Medea when they read Hart's Hope?
I'm not sure OSC would appreciate the comparison, but an even stronger association would be the Medea of Christa Wolf.
Posts: 3423 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Annie, Blain and Rivka...I feel the same way about Hart's Hope. I'm glad to hear that there are other that feel the same way because I thought I was the only one.
It has been a while since I've read it, but I don't think I'll read it again...it's one I won't ever have in my house or let my future children read. It is too bad because my OSC collection won't ever be complete, but I guess I can live with that. Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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hart's hope is, I think, OSC's best technical work. Its FAR superior from a literature standpoint then anything else he's written, largely because his language is the same, but he uses second person sucessfully, something that is very difficult to do.
That said, I find Hart's Hope very disturbing. However, I'm reading it again right now, because I love the story. Its... very classical in nature.
And yes, it is similar to Medea... but only similar.
Posts: 4112 | Registered: May 2001
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I think I have to read it again. I've read it twice, and enjoyed it both times. The first time I read it I was probably about 15. Then read it last year at 20, and picked up a lot of stuff I missed the first time around. I think, after reading what has been posted here, there is more that I need to clue in on.
Posts: 348 | Registered: Dec 2000
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I'm dismayed that you don't trust your future children's judgement enough to let them choose. I admit, I'm not letting my 10 year old read it, but it won't be very many years before I do let her read it. I think I was about 16 when I first read it, and it did not shatter anything my parents had taught me. If anything, it bound their teachings more strongly to my heart.
Posts: 3495 | Registered: Feb 2000
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I suppose they'll be able to choose when they want to. (But, I agree with you that Harts Hope is too much for a 10 year old.) I plan to keep certain things out of my house as my kids grow up...just to help shelter them a little. It only works 'til they hit 12 or so, but by then I hope I'll have taught them good enough so that no matter what they come up against, they'll be like you were and remember what their parents taught them. Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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There was a really cool thread alast year, or the begining of this year, about HH. I started to read it many years ago, but the opening scene bothered me so much that I put it down. It wasn't graphic, but it was very desturbing to me nonetheless.
I didn't reread it for years, and let me tell you, if you knew me you would realize how odd that is. I read everything in sight most of the time. I read at least 5 books a week, unless I am very busy. If I am, then I onlt read one or two that week.....but I didn't read HH for 5 or 6 years, after I had bought it at a second hand store...
And I found out that that secene formed the foundation for an excellent, if unusual, story. Without that scene, the story could not exist, and that would be a shame.
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My 14 year old daughter has never read any OSC books. I wish she would. She doesn't want to read anything that "her mom does" except for Harry Potter and the Georgia books (another Brit auth).
She has been an avid reader since age 4! I certainly wouldn't give her Harts Hope or Lost Boys to introduce her to OSC, but ... I think she's mature enough to read it. It's just that I want her to continue reading OSC books and that one might set her stubborn mind against it.
What would anyone suggest to entice her? Enchantment? Posts: 874 | Registered: Oct 1999
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Ender's game for a 14 year old... but, then again, enchantment might appeal to her if she's got a romantic bent. If she likes history, pastwatch. None of his "disturbing" books (Wyrms, songmaster, harts hope).
Posts: 4112 | Registered: May 2001
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Ender's Game would seem logical, except that she's got a mindset against "SCI FI" because her parents have a bookcase FULL (or more).
Also thought she might think Enders Game too "boyish".
I didn't think about Pastwatch. One day this summer when she was RANTING about having nothing to read (in a house FULL) of books. She deigned to read Micheal Crichton's Timeline. She liked it but won't read any of his other books unless they are about "medieval times"?
So Wyrms and Harts Hope would maybe fit the bill of not seeming too sci fi - except they are disturbing!
So I guess so far Pastwatch and Enchantment might interest her.
Any other suggestions? What about from you teens? What book got you into OSC?
Posts: 874 | Registered: Oct 1999
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I'd say worthing saga, but thats also disturbing.
Treason is probably too weird and sci-fi ish.
Definetely not the earth series.
Possibly the alvin maker series? Its fantasyish, set in colonial america, isn't really disturbing, and has a good strong female character.
Posts: 4112 | Registered: May 2001
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Both good suggestions! I'd just thought about the Alvin series myself. Silly since I see the new book advertised every time I come on the forum!
She'd like the Alvin b/c set in past and "magical".
Also forgot about Songmaster! She's at a Magnet school now for Vocal Music - so it would be right up her alley.
Posts: 874 | Registered: Oct 1999
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