[leebase]

Orson Scott Card has launched two new Young Adult series. I've already written about Pathfinder, a science fiction book. Lost Gate is a fantasy book -- OSC's attempt to invent his own magical world ala Tolkein. And that's about where the similarities end. OSC did not want to write in the universe of any existing magical system. He spent a couple decades with this idea in his head and working out his own magic, magical world, and characters in that world. He finally decided on what story to write in this world and "The Lost Gate" is the result. It's book one in OSC's "Mithermages" series.

OSC has borrowed from Shakespere, Homer, the Book of Mormon and the like before. This time he's written his own spin on Greek, Norse and Roman gods, as if those gods had always been real. Only Loki closed up all the gates (places of instantaneous transport for one place to another) to another world. Traveling back and forth to that world greatly increased the powers of the gods. Without the gates....the gods have been declining in power ever since. So that's how OSC ends up with a mixing of a magical people and our own recognizable modern world.

The story is about a boy who discovers he has powers. And yes, clearly this book is targeting the Harry Potter crowd. I think anyone who liked Harry Potter would like this book, and a fair amount of folks who thought Potter was too long and hard to read would like this book.

It's the first book in a series and leaves one eager for the next installment.

Lee