Thirteenth Child: Frontier Magic, #1 -- Patricia Wrede

Eff's younger twin, Lan, is the seventh son of a seventh son.  He is fated to be extremely gifted in magic, always lucky, and it is generally assumed that he Will Do Good Things.  By the same token, Eff, as the Thirteenth Child born into the family, is doomed to Turn Out Bad.  According to her uncle, anyway.  And according to pretty much everyone else in town.

Luckily, her parents are a bit more open-minded:

"Sara, you're overset," Uncle Earn said.  "I allow for a mother's partiality, but surely even you can see --"

"I can see plain enough that an angel straight from heaven itself would grow up crooked if she was watched and chivvied and told every morning and every night that she was sure to turn evil," Mama said.  "And I can see equally plain that fussing and fawning over a child that hasn't even learned his numbers yet, as if he were a prince of power and wisdom, will only grow him into a swell-headed, stuck-up scarecrow of a man, who like as not will never know good advice when he hears it, nor think to ask for it when he needs it."

"You're mad," Uncle Earn said dismissively.  "Daniel, I did not come here to be lectured by your wife."

"The door is right behind you," Papa said pleasantly.

BOO-YAH.  I loved her parents from that moment on.  (If you'd like to get a better feel for Eff's voice, there's a different excerpt at the author's website.)

So when the opportunity strikes, the family moves out west to a frontier town -- when no one knows that Eff is an unlucky thirteen, and where life will be completely different from anything they've ever experienced.

This is one of those embarrassing moments in which I have to admit that, YES, I did wait this long before reading the new Patricia Wrede book.  I don't know what my problem has been lately.

Anyway, no surprise, I thought it was great.  It's set in an alternate version of our world, in which the American Frontier is populated by mammoths and steam dragons and other beasties, and the people are trying to settle and farm the land without getting eaten or trampled or, just as bad though less dramatic way, losing their crops.  It has much more of a historical fiction feel than a fantasy feel -- because the characters have always lived with magic in their world, they're very matter of fact about it.  It's just part of life.

I loved Eff's voice, and as I mentioned, I loved her parents.  The Rationalists -- people who are determined to live without magic -- were excellent, and I liked that there was a broad range of tolerance and belief within that group as well as about them. 

Other than Uncle Earn and a few of the other very minor characters, every character in the book felt like a real person, with strengths and weaknesses and good points and flaws.  With two big exceptions.  I did feel that Miss Ochiba and Washington Morris -- who are both described as having dark skin -- seemed to fall into that Solitary Wise Person/Knowing Other archetype.  But I found them both so likable that I felt a bit conflicted about my mixed feelings.  I HAD MIXED FEELINGS ABOUT MY MIXED FEELINGS!  Which is going a bit overboard, even for me.  I have been accused of thinking about things too much.

While it's clearly the first in a series, Wrede played that aspect of it really well -- there were nuggets throughout the book that could lead into later storylines, but she didn't leave anything hanging at the end.  And so, unlike so many recent fantasy series installments, it felt like an actual, honest-to-God self-contained story.  IMAGINE!

I read it in one go.  It isn't a roller-coaster thrill ride of an action-packed read, but from the moment Eff began her story, I was hooked on her story and felt like I was living in her world.  I'm very much looking forward to the next one.

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Book source:  Review copy from the publisher.

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Comments

[:paula]

Ya know, I haven't read this book yet either. It's a good question - what's our problem? But now I will - great review!

[Celia]

I hearted this book so hard that I read it twice straight through, back-to-back. But then again, I pretty much always want to do that with a Patricia C. Wrede book. I can't wait for the *next* one!

Also? Great review.

[Melynda]

Don't want to be a party-pooper, but do the words "Race Fail" ring any bells? There was a great disturbance in the Force when this book hit the stands--maybe that's why you hadn't read it?

[Leila]

That might have been it, actually -- usually, if there's a huge amount of conversation about a book, I'll walk away from it for a while, so that I can read it with a clear(ish) palate.

I've been hitting different sites, though, and reading about it this afternoon -- there's A LOT to read.

[tanita]

I have been accused of thinking about things too much.

What? Never.

You wouldn't be a booknerd if you didn't. I've been waiting to read this book - I love Patricia Wrede and wanted the RaceFail hysteria to go away and read it with an eye to the storyline, not that it didn't follow history and had no brown people in it.

It sounds like there's a sequel expected? And I LOVE the parents. How I long to tell people the door is behind them, and not to let it hit them in the arse. But I fail to invite rude people into my house, so I never get to practice that line. *le sigh*

[Erin]

This sounds great, thanks for the review. :)

[Michelle R. Wood]

I'm a bit confused by such controversy and angst over a purely mythical book. Ms. Wrede created an alternative reality in which many things changed, not merely the humany geography of North Columbia. I found it no more an attack against Native Americans than the The Years of Rice and Salt (an alternative history novel where the Plague completely destroys Europe, paving the way for Middle Eastern/Asian world ascendancy) as a fatwa against Caucasians.

I also find it ironic that on the one hand, there are complaints about the lack of characters representing a specific ethnicity (although there was no mention of Latinos/Hispanics, either), while on the other hand, the inclusion of African Americans is considered condescending. Both Miss Ochiba and Wash are fully realized characters who have their own lives and goals: Miss Ochiba is a high school teacher who does far more than worry about Eff, to the point of leaving to pursue her own interests toward the end of the book, while Wash is off working a majority of the time as an employee of the federal government. They are no more subservient as people to Eff than the majority of white characters she comes in contact with; however, the book is not about them, it is about her, and therefore their stories are necessarily secondary to her narrative (it is, after all, a story told in first person).

I appreciate the misgivings you and other readers may have regarding this book. However, I think once Ms. Wrede clearly identified this world as completely speculative in nature, she should not be judged for nuanced historical accuracy. If there have been past sins of omission in fiction, let us not swing the pendelum so far in the opposite direction that this novel must be judged for their trangressions. I would encourage readers to let Thirteenth Child stand on its own merits. It was engaging, imaginative, well-written, and directly embraced the pursuit of equality, tolerance, and the creation of a New World identity fron the diverse traditions of all its pioneers. I heartily recommend it to all fantasy lovers, of whatever racial or ethnic background.