The Lost Gate, a review

I want to start this review by saying that Orson Scott Card is definitely not an unknown, or even lesser known, author. If you don't know who Orson Scott Card is, stop now and go find a copy of Ender's Game. Run, don't walk.

I read Ender's Game years ago, and there are still only a handful of books that can top it, in my mind. It changed my view of childhood intelligence, and what a child could be capable of. Possibly as impactful as the book itself was the foreword I read in my edition discussing the impact of the concept of a "speaker for the dead" on the readers of that series. It is the only time I can remember crying through the foreword. If you haven't read it, I can't recommend it enough. It's a book to read slowly, to chew on and really let simmer down into your bones.

But this isn't a review of Ender's Game. This is about a lesser known book by a great author, The Lost Gate.

I'll start off my saying I really enjoyed the book. It was a fairly quick read, maybe too quick for the amount of worldbuilding Card was cramming into one slim volume. The cover led me to believe that it was a YA novel (as well as the school library stamp on the edges of the book), but it really isn't. The Amazon listing says that it is for ages 14 and up. I'd suggest that it's more appropriate for "up," and depending on how closely you watch the content for your teenagers, probably way "up." I'll list some content warnings at the end.

It is one novel in a series, called The Mithermages. Orson Scott Card reportedly was first inspired to create the land of Westil (a fictional other world from the story) in 1977. Through the years, pieces of this story came together. It wasn't finally written until 2010, then published in 2011. That's right, it wasn't written until 33 years after the initial idea! And I thought I'd been sitting on some story ideas for a long time! Ha!

So what is it actually about?

Danny is the unmagical child of the North Family. They are the descendants of the Norse gods, a family still angry at Loki for closing all of the gates of the world. Now the North family lives on an extensive farm in western Virginia.

In this world, the various mythological hosts are all families that came originally from another world, called Westil, via gates. Passing through a gate heals you completely, and if you pass through a "great gate" from Westil to Earth, your native magical abilities are strengthened to god-like levels. People born to these families have all sorts of magical powers, like control over wind or stone or water. For example there are folks who can bond with an animal, called Beastfriends.

There is a forbidden kind of magic, gatemagery. The story goes that the last Loki (because they seem to recycle names, it is almost like a title) closed all of the gates on Earth. Not only his gates, all of the gates. Loki was a "gatefather," the highest form of gatemagery.

Cut off from gates back to Westil, the families went to war with each other. Everyone's power diminished over the years, until now the families are in hiding. They no longer have enough power to appear god-like to the natural denizens of this world, and certainly nothing that could stop modern weaponry. The only thing that stopped the war between families was an uneasy truce.

As per the truce, any child in any of the families that is born with gatemagery is supposed to be killed on the spot. Then the child is supposed to be cut into pieces and the pieces sent to the other families as proof that they followed the truce.

Danny, our main character, has never shown a single sign of magery of any kind. He is very smart, and able to pick up languages unlike anyone else in his family, but no magic. He is ridiculed by his cousins, and looked down on by his aunts and uncles. Everything changes when a contingent of the Greek family appears for a routine inspection. By accident, Danny discovers that he is a gatemage. And now his life is forfeit.

Doing what anyone would do in that situation, he runs away. Immediately.

What follows after is exactly what you would think for a 13-year-old boy with magic powers living on the streets. It gets pretty rough for a while. Between begging and burglary, there are encounters with thugs, drug users, and one character who I, personally, refer to as "Pantsless Lana." That might give you a clue to the, er, "earthiness" of this book.

He doesn't last in this precarious situation long, which is good. I was on the verge of putting it down when Danny finally got to some real adults who treated him like what he was- a child.

Meanwhile, there is the story of Wad. He starts out as a man in a tree. We are led to believe that he has been grafted into a tree for hundreds of years, deep in a forest, high in the mountains. At the beginning of the book, he comes out of the tree, looking very young and having little memory of who he was or how he got there. Through stealth, trickery, and the generosity of others, he's able to make his way to the living quarters of the king of Iceway. There he's given a name, Wad, and work in the kitchens. But before long, he becomes known as the Squirrel. He doesn't speak, though he is able. He can, however, gate. He makes gates all over the castle. There is no place in the castle that he cannot get to, or hasn't explored. Because he is often accused of stealing things, he keeps a scrutinous eye on everyone else. He's a spy, though he isn't pledged to anyone.

Unfortunately, Wad falls in love with the Queen. Married to the King, but very isolated for political reasons, she has no friend or companion. What follows is a deceptive dance between the two of them that gets darker and darker with every chapter. At the end, I wasn't sure I wanted Wad to be rescued from his circumstances or not.

What I liked about The Lost Gate was the unique magic system. It was well-written and easy to pick up in the story. Even the gatemagery, which might have been clumsily handled with another author, was clear to me as I read the book. By the time they were talking about "eating" gates and "spiraling" gates, I felt like I knew what was happening as well as the characters.

I also really liked the two main characters, even if I didn't always like them. I was really invested in what happened to them. At the end, I wasn't sure if I wanted things to go well for Wad, but I still wanted to know.

I also appreciated that Orson Scott Card let his character be his age. Danny is 13 at the beginning of the story and he says and does a lot of things that remind me of real 13 year-old boys. By the end of the story, he's a few years older, but definitely still a teenager. And he acts like it. In a world that takes 17 year-old characters and makes them think and act like battle-hardened 30 year-olds, Danny was refreshingly young.

Now with the cons.

My main complaint is that Orson Scott Card created this really interesting world, and a really interesting magic system, and then spent a lot of the book explaining it, instead of letting the reader experience it. I think this can be explained by one singular thing: it was a bit of a rush job.

Wait a second! 33 years of sitting on a story is a rush job? Well, he had the idea in 1977. But once he started writing, it's pretty clear that he was under contract to finish the book heck-or-high-water by the end of the year. In the afterword he talks about writing and revising chapters on planes and in hotel rooms. It sounds like he barely scraped it out in time, and the final product shows.

That said, there was a lot to explain, and letting the reader experience it all without just explaining some things would have probably doubled or tripled the length of the novel. That'd be a lot for your average reader to mull through.

If I'm honest, most readers (i.e. readers who aren't also writers) will likely not notice this much. They might feel it in the pacing. They might find themselves a little bored in some scenes, but whether they know why or not is debatable. If you decide to read this one, and I recommend most of you do, just know that it'll pick up again in a page or so.

My other complaint, and the reason I say "most of you" and not "all of you" should read it, is the content.

I think a lot of fantasy readers are used to murder in their books. What fantasy story happens without a king being deposed or a partner in crime coming to a bad end? A lot of fantasy is built around someone's murder! However, in The Lost Gate, there is some creative violence, including toward children. Toward the end of the book, there is an infant death. That might be a bit too much for some readers.

Secondly, "Pantsless Lana." Personally, I don't think she adds much to the story except for compromising, and even confusing, situations. She is older (not sure how much older) and she encounters 13 year-old Danny. Within minutes of meeting him, she is pushing him on the floor in a very sexually aggressive way. While nothing comes of it, the potential "it" gets discussed a lot. I think that would be too much for younger readers especially. And the aggressive nature of it might be a no-go for some not-so-young readers as well.

Also, Danny is a trickster. There are some crude and unsavory things that are said and done, including mooning a security guard. While this didn't bother me so much, (I have met teenage boys, after all) it might be off-putting for some readers.

So. If you are a reader looking for super-clean material, this book is definitely not for you. If you are the kind of person who would laugh at the idea of a snotty kid mooning a security guard, then this book is for you. Also, I cannot recommend this book for younger readers due to content. For me, this is an adults only read.

What do you think? Are you interested in what happens to poor Danny, on the run from his family? Would you like to read an Orson Scott Card novel? Tell me about it below or find me on social media and let me know!

As always, this copy will be available on my store page, here.

Once it sells, I can't guarantee that I will get another copy in stock. Here are some links to other retailers that carry this same title:

Thriftbooks

Better World Books

Ebay