From Product Description:

Eighteen-year-old Eff must finally get over believing she is bad luck and accept that her special training in Aphrikan magic, and being the twin of the seventh son of a seventh son, give her extraordinary power to combat magical creatures that threaten settlements on the western frontier.

The fact that she admitted to leaving out the Native Americans from this frontier tale because she was not talented enough to side step the Native stereotypes says quite a bit about her skill. <br /> <br />She said something along the lines of "I didn't want them to be the savages or eco-protectors that they are commonly portrayed as". As if those were the only two options available to her. <br /> <br />She was one of my favorite writers, but I've begun to lose respect in her and in her work because of her lack of thought.

loved it. little house on the prarie mixed with harry potter. its as easy to read as the HP series. only complaint is this is labled BOOK 1 and so far no book 2 has shown up

First this book reminds me strongly of Alvin Maker by Orson Scott Card. except that ms Wrede doesnt slip the knife of relibon into you as you read. <br />Next one reviewer know 2 stars off for failure to have native american and Slavery issue in the bool. Why? first its an fantasy alternate story. But it is mention in the story that the civil war was fought in the earyl 1830's that about 30 years sooner then in our on history. It almost bankrutpt the coutnry and the settlement and land grants a major issue in the story came out of this as the government had no money to pay poeple with so the grants land was one way of doing this. <br /> <br />It is also mention that Ms Ouchib (sp) please excusse me book not handy to look up spelling. Father Had gone north to Pennsylvania to buy a whole ship load of slave and freed them on purchasing them. She was the results of his marriage to one of the women. The date of the American revolutin is not mention but the country is the Alliance, which suggest that the USA under the consitution is NOT. lol <br /> <br />I thought the connection to all these many factors were very well done. I can understand the lack of native american as the continent was loaded with both animal of magical nature and many of the megafauna from over 10,000 years ago. Mammoth, Sabrecats, direwolfs, wooly rhino. all of these left over from the last ice age. I notice that there was a decided lack of firearms shown in the story, a revolver was used by the young Rationalist, Washiington mentin his rifle. The trains are mentioned. but over all I can see that industry here in thise world are going to be pushed by magic. <br /> <br />Character development is mainly witin Eff family, the Professor of naturalist and Washington are both full form characters. I await the next book in this series . <br />

//Thirteenth Child// is a young-adult fantasy novel set on the North American frontier in an alternate 19th Century. Eff narrates the story as her family moves West to the edge of human settlements. With her family, Eff must face both magical and non-magical threats to human expansion. She must also overcome the stigma of being an unlucky thirteenth child. <br /> <br />Eff's strong, authentic voice and the excellent world-building by Wrede make it very easy to become immersed in a frontier world that includes steam dragons and woolly mammoths. However, the book focuses more on world-building than action, making for a very slow-paced read. Additionally, it's extremely disappointing that a story as creative in its historicity as this one did not experiment more with alternatives to the societal norms of the time period. This feature alienates the reader from the story because retaining these mores doesn't feel like a natural consequence of a world with magic. //Thirteenth Child// will appeal most strongly to those that enjoy imaginative worlds that evoke well-known historical settings. If a book emphasizing action and innovative development of human societies is more to one's taste, then it would be wise to skip this one. <br /> <br />Reviewed by Rachel Wallace

Set in an alternate historical, magical America, young Eff is an unlucky thirteenth child. Her twin brother Lan, on the other hand, is the seventh son of a seventh son -- destined for greatness. She and most of her immediate family move away from Helvan Shores for a fresh start on the magical frontier after her extended family refuse to stop harassing her for her supposed bad luck. <br /> <br />I had heard a lot about the controversy surrounding Wrede's alternative history frontier fantasy before I read it, so I settled down to read this book with some trepidation, even though I dearly love Patricia Wrede. Because her new Frontier Magic series takes place in an alternate American history, one where the United States never had a Native American population, many readers and critics were troubled. It seems deeply insensitive to eradicate a group of people who have already been through so much. And yet, reading the book, didn't feel as overwhelmingly uncomfortable as I would have thought. I'm also a fan of Joss Whedon's Firefly, a science-fiction/Wild West type show, and I have to admit, the lack of Native Americans on that show never bothered me. It was unclear to me, reading Wrede's book, if slavery had ever existed in her alternate history. While Aphrikan people (and their magic) seem to be a rare minority, no further backstory is given. <br /> <br />I liked the idea of frontierspeople struggling to hold their own against magical creatures; mammoths, dragons, enchanted beetles. Magic, in this world, is commonplace and everyday. The Wild West twang to the character's speech added depth to the story. <br /> <br />Eff's continual low self-esteem became a bit wearing as the story went on. She is just as worried at age eighteen about inadvertently causing bad luck to befall her family and loved ones as she was at age five, when her maliciously bad-tempered extended family went so far as to outright suggest that her parents do away with her. Some of the terms like Mammoth River (for the Mississippi) or Columbia (for America) being thrown together with place names such as Philadelphia threw me a bit. I wish that this had been set in a completely new world altogether, kind of like Robin McKinley's The Blue Sword. <br /> <br />I was fascinated with the Rationalists, Puritan-like settlers who eschew magic entirely. I was really rooting for them, especially after seeing how callously many of the magicians in the story treated Eff. Eff's older sister Rennie elopes with one of the Rationalists and her encampment is one of the only ones resistant to a particularly nasty strain of magical locust-like mirror bugs. So, I was disappointed when Eff finally has the chance to visit them and Rennie breaks down, admitting that life without magic is very, very hard -- so much so, that she's resorted to sneaking in a spell or two to make her hardscrabble life a bit easier. <br /> <br />On the whole, I enjoyed this book, and I'll definitely put it in the hands of young fantasy readers who enjoyed Wrede's Sorcery and Cecilia series, or the Bartimaeus trilogy by Jonathan Stroud. I'm curious how this book would fare as book club material; there are so many different themes at play to provide fodder for discussion.