Nothing is at risk, nothing at stake, his desire to see them is not even that burning because he’s never seen them before. Rigg is curious about his mom and sister- this is the whole of his motivation.

So let’s recount the stakes and the motivation here. Rather, he has Rigg bumble along like a bit of a fortuitous prick- early on stumbling into some swarthy dude who basically adopts him for the book’s duration and acts as a personal bodyguard and stand-in father. Because once you’ve given a hero this kind of superpower, there’s no story left to tell unless you come up with a super-villain with an equal or greater power, and the wit to use it. Then he doesn’t use it again for anything useful for basically the rest of the book. Rigg uses this new-found skill to go steal some ancient merchant’s dagger. If I go back in time and steal money from myself, do I have it now, or does future me have it, or does it just disappear? And who cares? a

Thick and fast and thick, Card explains his mechanics of time travel. This is either fascinating to you, or you’re already groaning with the inevitable Back To The Future 2 time-travel logic retreads that are coming.Īnd yes, they come. Put his skill with Rigg’s, and hey presto, Rigg can travel in time. He hits the road with some doofus friend in tow- who just so happens to have the ability to slow time. For an unconnected reason (whomping great plot-‘stick’) at the same time Rigg gets kicked out of his village. His father dies early (after hanging around long enough to show the annoying one-upmanship relationship he has with Rigg where they’re both constantly arguing over the teeniest of logical mistakes, trying to catch the other out) and gives him some cryptic ‘carroty’ spiel about hunting down his real family. The quest is a hunt for Rig’s real parents.

Everything afterwards is basically a by-the-numbers quest shot through with that funky premise as dustings of spice. This premise is certainly the most interesting part of the book. Pathfinder tells the story of Rigg, a boy with the ability to see the paths of all living things backwards through time, kind of like the silver slug trails in Donnie Darko. His latest fantasy/sf novel ‘ Pathfinder‘ falls into both camps, though not in equal measure. ★★ Orson Scott Card’s books vary enormously in quality- when he’s good he’s genius tying intricate plotting with fascinating inner monologues, cumulative story development, and a real sense of threat (a la Pastwatch, early Alvin Maker, early Ender and Bean), but when he’s bad he’s atrocious padding his ‘stories’ with bantery filler, gross over-explanation, and a distasteful kind of sexualized potty humour.

The pathfinder orson scott card