The Crystal City
Master Alvin |
The Crystal City (2003) is an alternate history/fantasy novel by American writer Orson Scott Card. It is the sixth book in Card's The Tales of Alvin Maker series and is about Alvin Miller, the seventh son of a seventh son.
Plot summary
Alvin and Arthur stay at a boarding house in which mixed-blood children are cared for by Papa Moose and Mama Squirrel. There, Alvin uses his knack to cleanse the mosquitoes and disease from a well. A young woman, whom the people call Dead Mary, sees what he has done and asks him to come with her and heal her mother, who has yellow fever. Because Alvin heals her, yellow fever spreads throughout Nueva Barcelona (Louisiana) and averts an impending war with the United States over slavery. As the fever spreads, people begin to suspect Papa Moose and Mama Squirrel because Alvin has been healing everyone he can, which radiates outward through the city. Alvin is then approached by La Tia, an African woman, who wants him to help all the slaves and the displaced French to escape Nueva Barcelona. Alvin reluctantly agrees.
Alvin's brother, Calvin, at the behest of Alvin's wife, Margaret, comes to help. Calvin raises a thick fog, and Alvin uses his blood by magic that he learned from the Red Prophet
Alvin discovers that Tenskwa-Tawa has been collaborating with La Tia to create a
See also
- List of works by Orson Scott Card