The
Crystal City
is the sixth novel of Orson Scott Card’s long-running Alvin Maker
series. In this novel, Alvin
becomes a Moses figure, freeing a large group of slaves from Neuva
Barcelona (New Orleans) on his journey to create the Crystal City he was
shown in his dreams so long ago. Card
has long since expanded the focus of his story from Alvin himself, and he
delves into the growth of Alvin’s brother-in-law, Arthur Stuart, travels
with Calvin Smith on an expedition against the Mexica, and shows Verity
Cooper’s attempt to expunge the theft charges against Alvin dating back
to his apprenticeship.
Although
keeping the multiple story lines going, Card focuses the most attention on
Alvin’s own adventures, even when he is not an active character in the
book. This serves to heighten
the reality of Alvin’s story because it means that when Card is
focusing on Alvin, the reader is aware that there are other stories being
played out elsewhere which may (or may not) have the same import, but
which are just as real as Alvin’s adventures.
As
with the earlier novels, Alvin makes broad use of his knack of makery,
even as he learns to do new tricks with it.
This time, however, Alvin is not the only maker, or even person
with a powerful knack. Arthur
Stuart is coming along as a maker, Card introduces new characters such as
La Tia, and characters like Calvin and Tenskwa-Tawa are re-introduced to
help or hinder Alvin in his plans.
With
the various stunts Alvin pulls in The Crystal City involving water,
specifically those in relation to moving the slaves and poor from Neuva
Barcelona up to Noisy River, it is interesting, and somewhat problematic,
that Card portrays this as a society with such a strong Christian
conviction. Even as Alvin
denies any parallel between himself and Moses during the exodus, his
damming of the Mizzippy evokes the parallel of Moses with the Red Sea,
even to the characters in the book, and his bridge over Pontchartrain is a
reconstruction of Jesus and Peter walking on the Sea of Galilee.
While
the title of the book seems to indicate that the book will focus on
Alvin’s creation of the Crystal City, the majority of the novel focuses
on the exodus with Alvin never quite feeling he is doing the work he is
supposed to be doing. Of
course, this raises the issue of predestination, which Card deals with
throughout the series in an interesting way, helped along by characters
like Peggy Larner, Alvin’s wife. As
a torch, Peggy can see the future, or the possible future, but she is also
able to perform actions, or help other people perform actions, which
changes the future that she can see.
While this would appear to negate the idea of a preordained
universe, Card provides the feel that Alvin has a very definite destiny
which will occur. Card
doesn’t quite resolve this apparent contradiction, although the sense
that Alvin’s destiny can be thwarted does always exist.
While
some of the earlier novels seem to have lost their focus, which will only
be able to be determined for sure when Card finishes the series, The
Crystal City, for all that it appears to be a sideline for most of the
novel, also feels as if it captures the right mood and events for the
series. Five years after the
release of Heartfire, Card has managed to pick up the saga of Alvin
Maker and continue it towards its conclusion.
With luck, he’ll find the time to focus on Alvin’s story and
let his readers know what is ultimately in store for the cast of
characters before too many more years have passed.
