What do you get when you cross all the good parts of the Hunger Games, Inheritance Saga?

A really really good book.  The book in mind is Orson Scott Card's Pathfinder, the first book in a new series.  This is the seventh book I have read in the past couple of years by Card however, and while the writing style does have some of the juvenile humor of some of his previous series this book is drastically different than any of his previous books I have read.

Pathfinder center's around one year in the life of Rigg who is a young boy from a small community in a larger empire.  Rigg has the special ability to view the paths of animals and individuals.  Rigg's fathers last request is for him to go meet up with his sister in the empire's capital city.  With this instruction and his inheritance Rigg sets out on an adventure not only to the capital city but also through time itself.

One of the more interesting points in this novel is the time travel that happens.  instead of focusing on the problems that time Paradoxes create and many other Science Fiction time travel novels/ movies to Pathfinder embraces those to show how small or large parts of the future can be changed.  The book also embraces the idea of inherited magical abilities with all of the main characters having a unique "magical" ability.

Another likable point about this book is the introductions at the beginning of every chapter that explain the founding of the planet garden.  the adventures and mystery surrounding the colonization of garden are not only intriguing but also interesting and easy to follow.

As the introduction hints at I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of Young Adult Science Fiction/ Fantasy.  Plus it is a much more interesting read than the books mentioned in the title of this review as it cuts out a lot of the unnecessary travel dialog or monologue that they have.  I give this book an overall rating of 8/10.