Bird is the word!

[avram]

Google Books has confirmed for me something I recall noticing — that Orson Scott Card’s 1995 novel Alvin Journeyman takes place in a world populated by owls:

• Page 35: Becca hooted.
• Page 38: The boy hooted.
• Page 57: Alvin hooted derisively.
• Page 138: […] but Horace hooted […] It was Vilante’s turn to hoot with laughter.
• Page 192: The lanky one hooted and several others chuckled.
• Page 195: Measure hooted with laughter.
• Page 199: Marty Laws, the county attorney, hooted at the joke.
• Page 210 Alvin hooted.
• Page 215 “Only so’s you can lick it out after!” hooted Mike Fink.
• Page 218: He hooted twice, high, as if he were some kind of steam whistle, and Holly hooted back and laughed.
• Page 316: The bailiff rummaged through the handbag, then suddenly hooted and jumped back.
• Page 360: Measure hooted once — after the door was closed.
• Page 366: He looked at Margaret with all the meaning he could put in his face, and everybody hooted and clapped.

There are also a couple of people not giving hoots, on pages 73 and 337.

This was the book that put me off Card’s writing permanently. I’m not the only one; this was also the first Alvin Maker book not to get a Hugo nomination (and it’s not as if the competition was particularly strong that year), and none have gotten one since. In fact, as far as I can tell by skimming through Locus’s records with bleary eyes at 2 AM, Card’s last Hugo nomination in any category was in in 1992, around the same time that news of his anti-gay bigotry was starting to spread through the SF fan community (I first saw photocopies of the linked essay handed around as photocopies at the 1991 Worldcon in Chicago).

Comments

[mamishka.livejournal.com]

It vaguely reminds me how in Stephen King's "The Eye of the Dragon" novel, everyone who was evil seemed to have giant green boogers coming out of their noses. It really made an impression (not in the 'good' kind of way) on me, and is the only thing I remember about that horrible piece of trash. ;)

[avram]

Shoulda been "The Nose of the Dragon".

[mcroft.livejournal.com]

I never understood how book 3 got any critical acclaim. I always assumed it was all coasting on Ender, which is why I picked up the first two. I gave him another shot on book 3 and decided that he wasn't for me.

It didn't pass the "this plot depends on people being fucking idiots" sniff test.

The lousiness of Alvin kept me from picking up his later Ender works.

[avram]

I never read any of the Ender books; just the original short.

I suspect the perfect time for Ender's Game is high school. Ideally, you ought to be a bright kid surrounded by dullards who bully you.

If, on the other hand, you're a socially inept kid surrounded by people whose motives you can't understand, go with an Ayn Rand book instead.

[mcroft.livejournal.com]

Part of my disillusionment with Card was getting interested in Cyberpunk. I decided (rightly or wrongly) that Card and Gene Wolfe were current versions of exactly the traditional SF that Gibson/Shiner/Sterling et. cie. were a refreshing break from...

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

I was rather favorably impressed (read, "I enjoyed parts of it") by the first Alvin The Maker book, but some aspects caused me to neglect (if not actually avoid) picking up the sequels. Notably, ermm... no, Journeyman Blacksmiths would _not_ produce cast-iron plows. Cast-iron is brittle, and plows often encounter large rocks. I seem to be unable to accept even a Fantasy in which reality is so distorted. (And that's despite an ability to accept the idea that Alvin can cuddle up with a plowshare (or was it an anvil?) and turn it into gold.)