Pathfinder by Orson Scott Card

I had been planning on reading Pathfinder after I finished Connie Willis's time traveling historian series, but when I learned that Orson Scott Card was coming here for a book signing, I decided I had better read it before he arrives, in case people talk about it at the signing. It is the first book of a new science fiction and fantasy trilogy. Yes, it's both science fiction and fantasy. It has swords and starships (although not together). The book reveals what is going on throughout the story in an interesting way, similar to how the Mistborn trilogy had chapter headings that gradually began to make more sense and reveal things about the history of the world as the book progressed, except this book uses longer headings, and it's not clear at first what the relation between the asides and the main narrative is.

The story and characters are mostly interesting. There are some parts in the middle where it dragged a little for me, but most of the time I was intrigued. Sometimes the characters would get on my nerves, but that's mostly because they are very smart (one reminds me of a political Ender) so it's a little jarring when they act juvenile. Sometimes they can be annoying, but that's true to character for teenagers so that's not a flaw. The science fiction elements of the story are very intriguing, and the exciting parts were appropriately thrilling. I'm looking forward to reading the next installment next year.

Overall, any Orson Scott Card fan should like this, although it I suspect it would especially appeal to teen readers who can more closely relate to the protagonists. It's a good book, although not up there with Ender's Game or Enchantment. I recommend it.

Format recommendation: Audiobook. The narrators, including the Ender series narrator Stefan Rudnicki, are good, although I liked some of them more than others. I didn't care for one of them, but he only had a couple of chapters so it's not a big deal, although it did make me like the character whose viewpoint he did less at first. The book is also available on the Kindle.

Age recommendation: Young teens and up. Content is pretty tame, although the political and scientific subject matter might confuse younger children.