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Pathfinder #1-3
Pathfinder / Ruins / Visitors
From the internationally bestselling author of Ender’s Game comes a boxed collection of all three riveting books in the Pathfinder Trilogy!
A powerful secret.
A deadly path.
In Pathfinder, Rigg—a teenager who possesses a secret talent that allows him to see the paths of people’s pasts—joins forces with another teen with special talents on a quest to find Rigg’s sister and discover the true significance of their powers. Then Rigg’s story continues in Ruins, when he must decipher the paths of the past before the arrival of a destructive force that threatens the future of his entire world. And the series comes to an epic and explosive ending in Visitors, as everything that has been building up finally comes to pass and Rigg is forced to put his powers to the test in order to save his world and end the war once and for all.
A powerful secret.
A deadly path.
In Pathfinder, Rigg—a teenager who possesses a secret talent that allows him to see the paths of people’s pasts—joins forces with another teen with special talents on a quest to find Rigg’s sister and discover the true significance of their powers. Then Rigg’s story continues in Ruins, when he must decipher the paths of the past before the arrival of a destructive force that threatens the future of his entire world. And the series comes to an epic and explosive ending in Visitors, as everything that has been building up finally comes to pass and Rigg is forced to put his powers to the test in order to save his world and end the war once and for all.
1824 pages, Hardcover
First published November 4, 2014
About the author
Orson Scott Card
846 books21k followersOrson Scott Card is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is (as of 2023) the only person to have won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for his novel Ender's Game (1985) and its sequel Speaker for the Dead (1986). A feature film adaptation of Ender's Game, which Card co-produced, was released in 2013. Card also wrote the Locus Fantasy Award-winning series The Tales of Alvin Maker (1987–2003).
Card's fiction often features characters with exceptional gifts who make difficult choices with high stakes. Card has also written political, religious, and social commentary in his columns and other writing; his opposition to homosexuality has provoked public criticism.
Card, who is a great-great-grandson of Brigham Young, was born in Richland, Washington, and grew up in Utah and California. While he was a student at Brigham Young University (BYU), his plays were performed on stage. He served in Brazil as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and headed a community theater for two summers. Card had 27 short stories published between 1978 and 1979, and he won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 1978. He earned a master's degree in English from the University of Utah in 1981 and wrote novels in science fiction, fantasy, non-fiction, and historical fiction genres starting in 1979. Card continued to write prolifically, and he has published over 50 novels and 45 short stories.
Card teaches English at Southern Virginia University; he has written two books on creative writing and serves as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest. He has taught many successful writers at his "literary boot camps". He remains a practicing member of the LDS Church and Mormon fiction writers Stephenie Meyer, Brandon Sanderson, and Dave Wolverton have cited his works as a major influence.
Card's fiction often features characters with exceptional gifts who make difficult choices with high stakes. Card has also written political, religious, and social commentary in his columns and other writing; his opposition to homosexuality has provoked public criticism.
Card, who is a great-great-grandson of Brigham Young, was born in Richland, Washington, and grew up in Utah and California. While he was a student at Brigham Young University (BYU), his plays were performed on stage. He served in Brazil as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and headed a community theater for two summers. Card had 27 short stories published between 1978 and 1979, and he won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 1978. He earned a master's degree in English from the University of Utah in 1981 and wrote novels in science fiction, fantasy, non-fiction, and historical fiction genres starting in 1979. Card continued to write prolifically, and he has published over 50 novels and 45 short stories.
Card teaches English at Southern Virginia University; he has written two books on creative writing and serves as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest. He has taught many successful writers at his "literary boot camps". He remains a practicing member of the LDS Church and Mormon fiction writers Stephenie Meyer, Brandon Sanderson, and Dave Wolverton have cited his works as a major influence.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 30, 2017
Amazing trilogy! I love reading about time paradoxes and Orson Scott Card delivers perfectly. Some of the theories and twists were complex enough for me to have to go through them again to fully grasp the timelines. Overall great book that kept me engaged from start to finish. Each book in the series builds up to something bigger, making the previous books seem almost negligent in terms of the troubles encountered by the characters. The reader evolves with the books and the story to a point where anything becomes possible! Incredible work of science-fiction that includes a hella lot of science and fiction!
February 11, 2023
Although the story is very attractive and keeps you curious about what’s gonna happen, it is too freaking slow! I tried and tried and tried to stay with the book because I actually liked it and wanted to go with the characters, but the rhythm was so slow I just couldn’t bare anymore. Maybe the problem was that I started these series after the Red Rising (which I absolutely adored) where the action/ story is very fast & twisted, like an emotional rollercoaster. Sorry for the low rating. The books might really be good but the action is (for me) too slow and too static to read!
January 14, 2023
I think Orson S.C. to be a great sci -fi weaver and is capable to keep you tied to his story for the mean time for you to finish it. Even with that his story lacks of representation, don't think antagonist are memorable but maybe that's part of his objective cause the greatest villain in this story are the choices our protagonist is made to make.
May 1, 2017
I am posting my review of the entire trilogy here.
PATHFINDER:
*** stars
Pathfinder is part 1 of the trilogy and I found it to be the best part. The publisher, Simon Pulse, lists it as science fiction, but this is not the case. Although it contains some very interesting sci-fi themes, it is essentially a fantasy novel, like its two sequels.
Card offers us the story of a young man named Rigg Sessamin, who grows up in the wilderness where he discovers that he has the gift of 'seeing' the pathways of other living creatures and where they have been. He is a sort of super-tracker but of what use is this gift? Card then introduces more characters, and these people have the gift of shifting in time. With one character seeing all these pathways and another character able to move in time and the two of them getting together to jump to certain spots in time, the story takes a different shape, but not for the better. The most interesting aspect of this novel for me was the opening scenes of each chapter, where the pilot of a starship outward bound from Earth has a series of exchanges with an entity called an expendable, who also interacts with the ship's computers. Enter the themes of relativity and time dilation and artificial intelligence etc. They are the most intriguing things in the entire novel, and my reason for awarding even three stars here. If left at that, this novel would work as a fine sci-fi story. But it degenerates into a very poor dirge of fantasy.
The novels, an attempt by Card to tackle the issues and paradoxes of time travel, never panned out very well with any other writers. The complexity (or philosophy) involved make it nearly impossible to tell a coherent story. It is a topic better left to short story humor writing.
RUINS
**stars
As an immediate sequel, this book really hit bottom. I had expected to see more intriguing dialogue and ideas, but instead, the story headed rapidly into the far-fetched zones of pure fantasy. So much so that I find it hard to see why Card even bothered to write it. The scattered themes could have been incorporated into the first novel, perhaps strengthening that one good effort. Card utilizes the dreaded information dumps in all of the conversations, in which character is not only severely limited in development but in which a group of child-like semi-heroes have fun playing God with the history of their world. Tales of time travel and its consequences hits an all-time low here. Almost all of it is unbelievable, but Card trucks on in this dismally developed attempt of a novel. In the infamous last line of the book [“See?” said Vadesh. “See how you clutter up the world?”], I have to ask: see, Mr Card, how you clutter up the reader with unworkable ideas?
VISITORS
**stars
Visitors merely carries on the story of Rigg and Umbo and his companions as they endeavor to save the world for humans. There are tidbits of interesting dialogues and subplots, but the impact of the larger story falls flat. Perhaps Card was having some extended fun with the idea of time travel and the manipulation of history that time travel purports to hold. But it doesn't work because there are far too many paradoxes involved, especially those of unforeseen consequences. Rigg and his many clones come to be virtual gods in their strange abilities, and as such, they are given too much of an advantage over the average protagonist. They cease to be believable or desirable as characters under conflict, and even less so as heroes encountering danger. I can only recommend that the reader skim through these last two books for the occasional Cardian brilliance of conjecture among the drivel of impossible situations.
PATHFINDER:
*** stars
Pathfinder is part 1 of the trilogy and I found it to be the best part. The publisher, Simon Pulse, lists it as science fiction, but this is not the case. Although it contains some very interesting sci-fi themes, it is essentially a fantasy novel, like its two sequels.
Card offers us the story of a young man named Rigg Sessamin, who grows up in the wilderness where he discovers that he has the gift of 'seeing' the pathways of other living creatures and where they have been. He is a sort of super-tracker but of what use is this gift? Card then introduces more characters, and these people have the gift of shifting in time. With one character seeing all these pathways and another character able to move in time and the two of them getting together to jump to certain spots in time, the story takes a different shape, but not for the better. The most interesting aspect of this novel for me was the opening scenes of each chapter, where the pilot of a starship outward bound from Earth has a series of exchanges with an entity called an expendable, who also interacts with the ship's computers. Enter the themes of relativity and time dilation and artificial intelligence etc. They are the most intriguing things in the entire novel, and my reason for awarding even three stars here. If left at that, this novel would work as a fine sci-fi story. But it degenerates into a very poor dirge of fantasy.
The novels, an attempt by Card to tackle the issues and paradoxes of time travel, never panned out very well with any other writers. The complexity (or philosophy) involved make it nearly impossible to tell a coherent story. It is a topic better left to short story humor writing.
RUINS
**stars
As an immediate sequel, this book really hit bottom. I had expected to see more intriguing dialogue and ideas, but instead, the story headed rapidly into the far-fetched zones of pure fantasy. So much so that I find it hard to see why Card even bothered to write it. The scattered themes could have been incorporated into the first novel, perhaps strengthening that one good effort. Card utilizes the dreaded information dumps in all of the conversations, in which character is not only severely limited in development but in which a group of child-like semi-heroes have fun playing God with the history of their world. Tales of time travel and its consequences hits an all-time low here. Almost all of it is unbelievable, but Card trucks on in this dismally developed attempt of a novel. In the infamous last line of the book [“See?” said Vadesh. “See how you clutter up the world?”], I have to ask: see, Mr Card, how you clutter up the reader with unworkable ideas?
VISITORS
**stars
Visitors merely carries on the story of Rigg and Umbo and his companions as they endeavor to save the world for humans. There are tidbits of interesting dialogues and subplots, but the impact of the larger story falls flat. Perhaps Card was having some extended fun with the idea of time travel and the manipulation of history that time travel purports to hold. But it doesn't work because there are far too many paradoxes involved, especially those of unforeseen consequences. Rigg and his many clones come to be virtual gods in their strange abilities, and as such, they are given too much of an advantage over the average protagonist. They cease to be believable or desirable as characters under conflict, and even less so as heroes encountering danger. I can only recommend that the reader skim through these last two books for the occasional Cardian brilliance of conjecture among the drivel of impossible situations.
September 20, 2015
Interesting! I ended up getting a little caught up in the time travel paradoxes towards the end but the outcome was satisfying
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews