Thursday, February 3, 2011

Nick's Picks


Continuing our regular feature of book recommendations from Uptown Borders' sales manager, Nick Taylor:

The Lost Gate
by Orson Scott Card

Finding a way out of the house yesterday would have been a simple task for a master of space-time distortion; unfortunately for the many drowthers (non-magical folk) of Uptown, this is not the case. While many doors were closed yesterday, including the Borders in Uptown, it provided ample opportunity for one to open a book, or in this case a gate, The Lost Gate by multi-award winning writer and author of Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card.  (Click on the book title for a YouTube video.)

Danny North, once believed to be a drekka (mage with no innate abilities) of a magical family, discovers he's been in engaged in unconscious practice with his powers for some time, for he is a feared and forbidden gatemage and only he can create the historic opening between the worlds of Westil and Mittlegard (Earth). While most of the book follows his path of self-education, eluding pursuers, and managing true-to-life emotional entanglements with the opposite sex, a divergent line lends to a pleasant parallelism in the world of Iceway and in the mind of a memoryless character, Wad.

Fast-paced links of these bifurcating story lines provide for any reader's need for pugnacious page turning and result in a cliff-hanger ending of series worthy proportions.

Any readers catching my other articles may note this is my first fiction pick and as such, I wanted a read that I could suggest to teenagers and adults alike, for the wonderful element of fiction rests with the escapist's journey through interpretation and all the imaginative conversations which lie therein as potential talk across the barriers of generations. Leap across time and space by opening the gate, The Lost Gate, and for those interested in how such an idea manifests in reality, look for my next review as a return to the realm of non-fiction with renowned physics writer Brian Greene's The Hidden Reality, Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos.

- Nicholas Taylor, Sales Manager, Uptown Borders

3 comments:

  1. Having never read anything by him, this was my introduction to Card's books. I received a free advance reader's edition back in December and loaned it to my neighbor who enjoyed it; so, I gave it a whirl. It's a shame to hear that about Orson Scott Card. Tis a great read.

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  2. I'm with Al. I was a huge fan of Ender's Game when I read it some 15 years ago.

    After hearing what a homophobe OSC is, I will never buy another one of his books.

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  3. Al and Johnny, your comments inspired some investigation on my part and I have responded in length on my personal blog page: http://nicholasdaletaylor.wordpress.com/

    Thanks and happy reading.

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