Humanity has colonized another world and they have named it "Garden." Now some of the descendants have developed extraordinary abilities. Umbo can slow time and Rigg can see the paths left by any human, past or present. When the mysterious man Rigg believed to be his father dies, Rigg and Umbo set out to find Rigg's mother and sister and discover his heritage. But there is much about his past that Rigg doesn't know, and when he finds his family, he finds himself embroiled in a civil war - for he holds the key to unlocking the mysteries of Garden. Card is compelling writer and this is a great story, but it's very long! He always has good characters and this is no exception. The plot is well done and he unravels it slowly to keep the reader turning the pages. Overall I thought it was a good book, but it took so long for the story to develop and reach its conclusion. ( )

This was a pretty good book. If you have read OSC before and like how he develops characters and plots then I think you will find this book being a typical Card book. Easy read and I only found a couple of difficult spots which I will touch on below after the spoiler warning. I know this is the first of a trilogy and overall I though the pacing was good but the ending was a little jarring for me. I will be reading the next one soon if not next.

*** SPOILER ***

Ok. I found the back story of colonization and the mishap through time pretty cool. I assume it was intended that the reader figure it out pretty quickly but it was still interesting and I looked forward to that part of the story at the beginning of every chapter.
I did find some of the time jumping difficult to follow once or twice and I am still not sure why the kids had the capabilities they had. I hope to figure it out better in the next book. ( )

This series was enjoyable, but the dialogue between characters regarding the parameters of time travel was distracting. ( )

I will confess that I was drawn to this book by its cover. The colors are grand, there is a metallic sheen underneath, and -- thankfully -- there is no hooded protagonist on the cover, as so many other covers have been using over the past few years. As I began reading this book, I was intrigued by two things. First, the story line juxtaposes high technology (spaceflight) with low technology (your typical fantasy world of taverns and swords etc.). Presumably the story eventually ties these together, but I don't know -- I decided to abandon reading it. The second thing that intrigued me was that the main character was able to manipulate time, and see the paths that others have taken through his environment before he arrived there. But after I had invested several not-unpleasurable hours of reading, it seemed like the author was having too much fun confusing the characters (and the reader!) with time travel paradoxes. I simply lost interest in the book. It was one of those cases where the book was interesting, but because it is competing for my attention with many other books (on my shelves and on my wishlist), I chose to give up on it. Sorry, Mr. Card. ( )

Time travel. series. could have used a little more action. Confusing, hard to wrap my mind around the ability to travel back and then forward. ( )