The Lost Gate-Orson Scott Card

The Lost Gate
Orson Scott Card
Tor, Jan 11 2011, $24.99
ISBN 9780765326577

His ancestry comes from another world, but they were sent here in exile. Danny North knows his DNA flows with ages of mages, but does not think much about it. That changes when powers surface that scare him. He is a gatemage.

Danny knows he can open a portal for his race to return to their home world. However, he fears revealing his skill to anyone as gatemages are not a longevity occupation; as the squabbling banished clans prefers the peace over going home; this means executing gatemages before they cause havoc. Danny flees before he is murdered. He finds a temporary shelter and begins experimenting with opening the Great G for the first time in fourteen hundred years.

At the same time on the planet Westil, Wad the gatemage falls in love only to be betrayed. He struggles with his lost memory as he has poor recollection of how he arrived at this remote castle.

The Lost Gate is an entertaining young adult fantasy with a nod to Stargate, but with a Surf Ninja crowned prince different spin. The story line loaded with action but with some exciting subplots that seem to add little to the prime theme of a beleaguered “antihero” teen Danny struggling to survive something he did not desire; becoming a gatemage.

Harriet Klausner