Need To Find The Path

I have been on some of my favorite book blogs lately (for an incomplete list look at the sidebar) and I've noticed they have all of these neat, concise, readable book reviews while mine are...well...kind of all over the place.  At first I was all Oh No I need to come up with format, and some consistency...than I will have to go back and fit in all my previous reviews...and than...anyways long story somewhat shorter is that is probably never gonna happen.  I realized that if I want a coherent book review there are a ton of amazingly good sites out there for that already, and my purpose in writing this blog is purely selfish, I like to talk about book stuff. So I guess my "reviews" are not really reviews so much as they are my own personal ramblings about books I have read, hopefully other people will ramble with me in the comments, because that is my favorite thing is to discuss books with other people.  So without further ado here is my ramble about a book I recently finished.

Pathfinder by Orson Scott Card is the start of a Young Adult series.  This book was an interesting read, it took me a little longer to get through it than usual because I had to keep stopping and mulling over concepts that were presented.  This is in no way a criticism, in this world of cookie cutter stories and instant gratification the idea that a book geared at young adults encourages stopping and thinking is awesome!  Card tells two intersecting stories in this book, each chapter starts with a couple pages about a futuristic colony ship then goes to the more central story of Rigg the young pathfinder.  To me it was pretty obvious early on that the two stories would intersect at some point, there was a moment in the book when to me it all became fairly clear how the two stories where related which was a really fun AHA! moment.  This book is one of those great true combinations of Science Fiction and Fantasy, where magic and science are used interchangeably in as realistic a fashion as fiction gets.

There will probably be a few spoilers ahead, so consider yourself cautioned.  The bulk of the story follows 13 year old Rigg and his journey to discover the puzzle of his life that the man he called Father left to him after he died  Rigg has the incredible talent to be able to see the past paths of any living creature, from the path he can tell how old the path is, what kind of creature is was, and with people he knows can identify their paths.  This talent is put to use in numerous and surprising ways throughout the book.  Through out his journey Rigg discovers that he is the long lost prince to a deposed female monarchy, Is given a pouch full of jewels that are more then just pretty baubles, that the man he called Father was really somebody he never could have imagined, and he has a sister with powers of her own.  Rigg set's out on his journey after the man he calls Father is killed in a freak accident.

 As with many of his other books, the story starts with the kernel of an individual (in this case Rigg) and then extends to the people who help him, (Loaf, former soldier, Umbo his friend who can slow/speed up time, Olivenko, a guard who befriends Rigg, Param, his sister who is gifted with invisibility/time control ), further out we have the country and it's politics (Rigg's scheming mother the former Queen, the People's Republic who are almost as bad as the deposed monarchy, Citizen General who is trying to bring back the Royal Family), moving out into the whole world of Garden (which is discovered to be vastly bigger than anyone originally knew), then finally into the universe( where the secondary story is mainly set detailing the voyage of the first colony ship and the event's that led to a very unusual settlement).

The story is pretty complicated (in a good way) so I am not going to rehash the plot line 'cause I would be here forever and pretty much have to retype the whole book, which I heard is illegal in most countries :-), but if you don't mind putting some thought into a book then I would highly recommend this one to you.  I have heard a couple people say it dose not read like Card's other books, to which I say four things.

One, his new adult series The Mither Mages, which starts with The Lost Gate is very similar to this one, it is a bit darker as it is for adults, but it stars a 13 year old boy who discovers he has a very powerful talent and also has a duel story line (I liked this book a lot too).  Two, I thought the book read very much like an Orson Scott Card book, many of the elements of politics, individual choice, right and wrong, various view points, were all in this book.  Three, this is not Enders Game (which I really need to ramble about one of these days)  many people (including myself) have read and loved this book and equate it with Mr.Card, but he has many many many other books and stories out there many of which I have read and I think this book fits in very well to his point of view. Four, books and stories are meant to be different from each other, I have read series and authors who pretty much retell the same story with minor variations over and over and over again, and while that is comforting at times, to me I prefer originality in my authors, even if it means telling a new story in a new way. Ok so that is my rambling for this book, again this book is unusual, original and has several great stories so please take the time to read it, think about it, and discuss it.
Do you like books that make you think, or do you prefer your reading on the lighter relaxing side?  Do you like your authors to stick with your favorite story or do you prefer them to branch out?  What would you like your genetic talent to be?