The Gate Thief by Orson Scott CardMy rating: 1 of 5 stars
Move over Stephenie Meyer...there is another Mormon author edging in on the adolescent soft porn market. While I have read and generally enjoy Cards books, this one was too much of a departure*. The main Characters all seem to be obsessed with Sex. Yes, I know that the book is about ancient mythical gods who were quite promiscuous, and that actual teens are obsesses with Sex, but that doesn't mean Card has a responsibility to graphically illustrate this. If it _has_ to part of the story fine... but at least 30% of this book deals directly with Sex. Within these pages, you'll find such gems as "I want you inside me", "but though I didn't want to, I said yes", "at the moment of release", "I want you to put a baby in me", "He's not gay or maybe he is" just to name a few.
Another thing that derailed this story was the main characters over fascination with being a high school student. Fine, Danny starts this book by trying to hide with the normal kids, and have a normal life. But then everything goes nuts, his power increases, and he's the most powerful person on Earth. Right after making a treaty with the volatile families who are at moment coming to kill him and his friends, he stresses about "having missed a whole day of school" and "having to make assignments up later". What? Clearly, his tole as a Gate Father is going to supersede his need to pretend to be in high school.
I found it annoying that Card was trying to jam in current popular cultural references, which he usually does not. "I uploaded it to YouTube", "I guess you didn't get the 'How I Met Your Mother' reference" or "We have a black president". I see what he's trying to do there...draw me in with relevant references... but don't. Go ahead an model your fantasy world after mine, but leave the specifics out of it.
I really sense Cards jealousy of Meyers here. I'd actually feel better if this book was a result of a gentleman's wager. Something like "Oh ya?! Meyer isn't so great. I bet I can write a shallow book about teenage sex and Mormons will still buy it by the case! In fact, they'll sell my teen porn book at Deseret Book." Card, let me know if this is the case, and we can all have a good laugh.
*(I wanted to acknowledge that I know Card is no stranger to having controversial language and sexual themes in his books. I am not as the Zoobies say, shocked and appalled by this. Cuss words and references to sex pepper most of his books. Enders Jeesh loves to swear...and did you ever read "A Planet Called Treason"? Sex and sexual organs and transgender issues galore. Fahgedaboutit.)
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