Seventh Son
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The first book in Orson Scott Card's series The Tales of Alvin Maker, Seventh Son (1987) is about Alvin Miller, the Seventh son of a seventh son. For a fuller explanation of the world of Seventh Son, see The Tales of Alvin Maker.
Seventh sons have strong "knacks" (specific magical abilities), and seventh sons of seventh sons are both extraordinarily rare and powerful. In fact, young Alvin appears to be the only one in the world. His abilities make him the target of the Unmaker, who recognizes Alvin's powers as those of a Maker — a wizard capable of creating amazing new things. The Unmaker works largely through water, trying to kill Alvin in his early years, before he can master his abilities.
Alvin's family is migrating west. When they try to cross the Hatrack River, the Unmaker tries to stop the as-yet-unborn Alvin from becoming a Maker, sending a tree down the river to crush the wagon the pregnant Mrs. Miller is riding in. Her son Vigor diverts the tree, but is mortally wounded in the act. Because a seventh son must be born while the other six are alive, Vigor desperately clings to life until Alvin is born. Help is dispatched at the insistence of five-year-old "torch" (a person who, among other things, can see the life forces of people and under certain conditions, their myriad alternate futures) Peggy Guester, who sees Alvin and Alvin's possible future as a Maker.
As the years pass, Alvin avoids numerous attempts by the Unmaker to kill him, often by the intervention of Peggy, who continues to watch over him. When he is ten years old, Alvin encounters "Taleswapper" (William Blake) a travelling storyteller who arrives in the town his parents have founded. Meanwhile, the Reverend Philadelphia Thrower becomes a tool of the Unmaker. When the Unmaker manages to injure Alvin, Taleswapper encourages him to heal himself, and Thrower (acting as a surgeon) attempts to kill him, but finds himself unable to by a mysterious force. Alvin heals himself (with the aid of his brother Measure) and is contracted as an apprentice to a blacksmith in the town on the Hatrack River where he was born.
The book's sequel, second in the tales of Alvin's life, is Red Prophet.
