The Crystal City by Orson Scott Card

This book picks up the pace in the Alvin Maker series again: there's far less repetition of past events and the story moves forward as Alvin rescues thousands of slaves and impoverished French people from New Barcy (New Orleans, under the control of the Spanish) and finds the spot for his Crystal City. He also discovers that to make the city, not everyone need be a maker, but everyone needs to have a part in it. I loved the addition of Abe Lincoln to the series, but I missed Taleswapper (and Peggy, for that matter, who is definitely there, but doesn't have as much of a role). I'm not sure if Card still intends to wrap this series up with a seventh book (supposedly titled Alvin Maker) but if he does write it, I'll be interested to see how he ends things--Peggy's visions make it sound like there will be bad with the good at the end.