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Author Topic: The Lost Gate
lyss0176
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Hey just wondering what everyone thought about The Lost Gate....

I thought it was a really really good book but the ending felt a little rushed. However, it looks like Card is going to write some more to this series - The MitherMage series.

Does anyone know when the next one is due to come out or if he's starting to write it?? Im dying to read the next book!!

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rivka
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It's meant to be the first of a trilogy, I believe.
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iglee
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Just started reading it last night. So far so good. But hey, It's Card [Hail] so it has to be good. At least that has been my experience with all his books.
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Chris Bridges
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Posted the link to my review of this and Pathfinder over on the other side...
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Orson Scott Card
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That "rushed" feeling has two causes.

1. In writing a novel, you work to make the situation clear through most of the book, so that when you reach the climax, NOTHING has to be explained. The reader already knows. So you move much more swiftly through the action than in the earlier expository scenes.

2. In a series, you can't have a lingering denouement to put a nice close on everything because the denouement is the next novel!

That said, I agree that it might be more spare than it needed to be. I get eager to finish the scene myself, and maybe I skim in the writing the way I skim when reading climaxes <wince>.

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Geraine
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I am not very far into the book but am enjoying it quite a bit. It reminds me a little of the book "Eddie Fantastic," which is one of my favorite young adult books.

I feel like we have been spoiled these past couple months by Mr. Card. We got Pathfinder in November and The Lost Gate this month. The hard part is going to be having to wait for the next books in the series.

ETA: It is good to see you posting again Mr. Card! I hope you are recovering well.

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theamazeeaz
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I liked it. I liked how Danny grew from being a righteous little kid who was going to have to deal with the fact that Gatemages couldn't be trusted, to someone, who I, as a reader completely privy to his worldview, wouldn't trust at all. I also like how everyone in the book clearly had their own agendas. I think I read it to fat to tell apart the different flavors of gatemagery though.
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Michael Watts
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I polished off Ender's Game and The Lost Gate this week after never reading OSC. Just wanted to say that I really regret reading the first chapter of The Lost Gate at the end of the Kindle edition of Ender's Game. You see, I tried Ender's Game because I noticed that there was a nice chunk of material in that universe so I wouldn't be salivating for more if I enjoyed it. It worked; Wednesday night (1:30 a.m.) I am absolutely plowing through the climatic scenes bound and determined to use my recently acquired stash of Amazon gift cards for "Speaker for the Dead." But wait, what is this I see as my next page button continues to search for the coveted 100% mark at the bottom of my screen? Dang, less than 24 hours later this fantasy lover is jonesing for more. Even worse, I absolutely didn't notice the release date for The Lost Gate was only the 4th. All this to say that you have a new fan Mr. Card, hope your recovery is going well, and I look forward to more from the Mithermage universe.
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Kwea
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I am so out of the loop that I didn't realize the first book of that series was even out yet, despite loving "Stonefather" and looking forward to reading more stories set in that universe.

Guess I know what I will buy the next time I am at Barnes and Noble. [Smile]

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rivka
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Welcome to Hatrack, Michael. [Smile]

And yes, definitely read Speaker next.

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iglee
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Welcome to the fan club, Michael. Ender won both the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel the year it was published and then Speaker won both awards the next year. And OSC just keeps getting better and better.

I finished The Lost Gate a couple of hours ago. Now I can go to bed. I enjoyed it every bit as much as Enchantment, Homebody, and Magic Street so it goes on my list of books I reread from time to time.

Good job, Bro. Card. And may God bless you and your family that you make a full and rapid recovery.

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The Ether of Space
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The Lost Gate is a Science Fiction Book Club selection.
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Raymond Arnold
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I've always been curious what would happen if you read the books in chronological, rather than textual order (i.e. immediately after Ender's Game read Ender's shadow)
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iglee
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You'd get a never Endering story. [Big Grin]
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iglee
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Yes, I should be ashamed of myself for that groaner.

But seriously they are great books whatever order you read them.

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Seatarsprayan
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I loved The Lost Gate. I liked Pathfinder too (just read both this week) but The Lost Gate was much better.

Sandmagic is one of my all-time favorite short stories, and I was amazing to me to read that it was rejected from the first publisher OSC sent it to! What were they *thinking*?

Since then, I heard bits and pieces about more Mithermages stories, and then we finally got Stonefather. Quite good, but too short of course.

And now that we have The Lost Gate, we are sure to get more, it seems unlike some other theoretical trilogies (*cough*lovelock*cough*) that OSC will actually produce more Mithermages books.

I can't wait. And hey, we finally got an explanation of what Manmagic is!

The nomads in Sandmagic must have never heard of gatemagic though, because it is clearly much more powerful than sandmagic.

You know though, if Danny or anyone else weren't so selfish, he could make a public gate appear in the entrance to every emergency room in every hospital in the US, and help so many people, instead of helping a few kids with acne and piercings in a high school.

Even if he didn't have enough gates to do *every* hospital (which he actually might have) he could do, I don't know... SOME. Or are drowthers not worth healing?

It makes no sense for Danny to have gone to school where he did, 20 miles from the Family compound. Sure, his family doesn't go there, but you don't think spies do? Whether they discovered him via the Great Gate or not, they would have found him eventually; he can't resist using his powers publicly it seems.

HOWEVER, Danny is written as dumb, so that's all right, it's actually refreshing to have a character make dumb choices but have the story acknowledge that they are all dumb (as opposed to supposedly intelligent characters acting dumb, which takes one out of the story). And the Silvermans don't really know the Norths and so why it might be dumb of them to let Danny pick that high school, it's not as dumb as Danny picking it. But he IS dumb, so we're okay with it!

I assume he'll eventually find a way to lock his gates even against VeeVee though? It seems weird to have someone that can't even make a gate at all able to open his locked gates... what's the point of locking them at all if another gatemage can open them? Even an "open" gate is invisible to a non-gatemage, so the locking is really of limited utility against anyone but Hermia at this point. She can close but not open.

The next book will make no sense though if Danny doesn't SOON open another Great Gate for VeeVee and Hermia to pass through, and himself as well. I don't think he has much to fear from Loki and his six gates. However, after that is accomplished, they would want to keep the Great Gates to a minimum; Loki fears something and probably with good reason.

I feel so bad that Trick died. It is so evil for a woman to kill her own son for political gain. It's been done before many times, but it's still so awful to read about. I can't believe that Loki left her alive though. Or rather, I can believe it, but I was expecting it would be because she was pregnant with an innocent child, and he'd plan to kill her after it was born. (And the in the next book, if we still need Bexoi alive, his bloodlust could have faded by then.)

But the idea that he was that willing to let her keep her kingdom is amazing to me. Her being pregnant is the ONLY reason I wouldn't rip her heart out after finding my child dead. It'd probably be hard not to carve a swath of destruction throughout the whole kingdom actually.

Bexoi is actually kinda dumb though, for all her plotting. She could have no way of knowing that Lodi *wouldn't* kill her once Trick was dead, therefore her entire plot depended on killing with with the fire and poison... and she failed.

Since gatemages can heal instantly, killing them must be quite hard to do, I'd think an arrow in the eye socket would be the way to go in those medieval times, barring some poison that *cannot be felt* until it renders the victim unconscious.

But really, she was queen, if she wasn't so selfish, she could have FAKED the child's death, given him to Wad to raise, given him money and provisions, and sent him away. He wouldn't have cared that his child sit on the throne. All he cared about was its safety. She tried (and failed) to kill him instead, and it was a pretty terrible risk.

Even now, she only rules because he allows her too. He can kill her at any time and there is nothing she can do about it. That is how powerful gatemagery is, even with only six gates. You only need one to heal, and he doesn't have to leave any open, so really he has five more than he even needs to be super-powerful.

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