That’s the problem with growing older and more experienced. Decisions that would have been “good enough” when I was thirty now seem like cheap shortcuts to me at sixty-one. I know how to write better than I did before; but knowing better usually means that I have to work harder, invent more, and find solutions to ever-more-difficult expository problems. This is why writers never retire. If we’re doing our job right, we’re always just figuring out how this thing is done; we’re always novice writers flailing about to find some kind of solid ground for moving forward.

By Orson Scott Card from Tom Doherty Associates

BY ORSON SCOTT CARD
FROM TOM DOHERTY ASSOCIATES

Empire

The Folk of the Fringe

Future on Fire

(editor)

Future on Ice

(editor)

Hidden Empire

Invasive Procedures

(with Aaron Johnston)

Keeper of Dreams

Lovelock

(with Kathryn Kidd)

Maps in a Mirror: The Short Fiction of Orson Scott Card

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

Saints

Songmaster

Treason

The Worthing Saga

Wyrms

THE TALES OF ALVIN MAKER

Seventh Son

Red Prophet

Prentice Alvin

Alvin Journeyman

Heartfire

The Crystal City

ENDER
The First Formic War

Earth Unaware

Earth Afire

Ender’s Game

Ender’s Shadow

Shadow of the Hegemon

Shadow Puppets

Shadow of the Giant

Speaker for the Dead

Xenocide

Children of the Mind

First Meetings

Ender in Exile

Shadows in Flight

HOMECOMING

The Memory of Earth

The Call of Earth

The Ships of Earth

Earthfall

Earthborn

WOMEN OF GENESIS

Sarah

Rebekah

Rachel & Leah

THE MITHERMAGES

The Lost Gate

The Gate Thief

FROM OTHER PUBLISHERS

Enchantment

Homebody

Lost Boys

Magic Street

Stonefather

Stone Tables

Treasure Box

How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy

Characters and Viewpoint

Pathfinder

Ruins

About the Author

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Orson Scott Card lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife, Kristine Allen Card, and their youngest child, Zina Margaret.

Copyright

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

THE GATE THIEF

Copyright © 2013 by Orson Scott Card

Portions of The Gate Thief appeared in Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show, Issues 30 and 31, as the short story “Flying Children.”

Cover art by Trevillion Images

A Tor Book

Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

175 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10010

Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

ISBN 978-0-7653-2658-4 (hardcover)

ISBN 9781429947039 (e-book)

First Edition: March 2013