Pandoricus , Apr 16, Joe Joerson , Apr 16, May 16, Messages: I read it about five or six years ago, I agree it's a great book. That said, my memories of the Worthing Saga are almost nothing like your description of it? The primary story of the saga is barely sci-fi at all, focusing on the life and trials of a young teenage blacksmith's son in a little forest village that could very well be out of the 17th century, if it weren't for the spaceships flying off in the distance once or twice a year.
Shortly after a major world-changing event the nature of which I'd rather not spoil , he comes across what appears to be an old man and his daughter - both with brilliant blue eyes - obvious foreigners lost in the woods. They begin to live as guests with the boy and his family, and over the next few years the man teaches the boy of Mankind's long-lost history which he seems to have witnessed personally. The majority of the saga though is a collection of his tales - flashbacks telling various slices of humanity's past actually a collection of short stories published separately, then put together with the framework novel.
They tell of Humanity's great empire that lasted for thousands of years, of the city-planet Capitol and the lives of those who lived there, of the sleeping drug that let people gain a perceived form of 'immortality' by going into stasis for dozens, hundreds, even thousands of years. They tell of the rise of psychic powers among some humans - those with striking blue eyes - of humanity's fear of them despite them being the ones who could safely pilot interstellar starcraft , of chaos, civil war, and eventually the collapse of the Empire with all the myriad of worlds falling silent to each other.
And they tell of one pilot, Jason Worthing, who led a colony ship to a new world, and the struggles he has founding, leading, and watching over a new start for mankind. Now that I think about it a bit, I do recall most of the stuff Pandoricus mentions in the various stories, and they're all quite interesting. But the best part of the novel for me was the overarching story, especially the finale of the man's tales and how it ties into the great world-change at the very beginning of the story.
It gets a bit into morality and ethics, and isn't subtle about it at all, but pulls it off fairly well IMO and was quite emotional. Also probably helps if you know Card likes to put a bit of his religious beliefs into most of his works. So yeah, great book that I'd also highly recommend.
Surprised to see someone else talking about it here actually, usually when people talk about Card they want to talk about Ender's Game and related. Ramiel , Apr 16, It was Mother, and her eyes were wide. The clerk moved his lips, but made no sound. Her eyes looked like a ewe's eyes, when the pain of birth was on her, and he dared not stay or quarrel.
The night had turned bitterly cold, and the frost was thick on the grass. The ewes were ready for the milking, but Lared was not. His fingers quickly became too cold, despite the warmth of the animals. No, it was not the cold that made his hands tremble clumsily. It was the books that waited for him in the old clerk's room. It was the three new graves heaped up in the moonlight, where soon a fourth would rise. It was, above all, the man and woman who walked across the river, angling their steps to combat the current. The river was ten feet deep from bank to bank, but they walked as if the water were hard-packed dirt, whose only oddity was that it slid away underfoot as they walked.
Lared thought of hiding, so they would not see him; but instead, without deciding, he stood from his stool by the ewe, set the milk bucket up high where it could not be kicked over, and walked out across the cemetery to meet them. They were on the riverbank before he reached them, looking at the new graves. There was sorrow in their eyes. The man was white-haired, but his body was strong, and his face was kind and sure. The woman was much younger, younger than Mother, yet her face looked harsh and angry, even in repose. There was no sign that either of them had been in the water -- even their footprints on the riverbank were dry.
And when they turned and looked at him, he could see even in the moonlight that their eyes were blue. He had never seen eyes so blue that even without sunlight their color was brightly visible. The man answered in a language that Lared didn't understand. The woman shook her head, said nothing: Yet Lared felt a sudden desire to tell them his name.
His name sounded strangely twisted on her tongue. He felt a sudden urgency not to tell anyone that he had seen them walk on Endwater. Then he knew, though he still did not know how he knew, that he should take them home. But he was afraid of these strangers. The thought came into Lared's mind: I just know that there was a way of downloading and uploading memory. Then the assistant would inject somec.
It wasn't a pretty picture. It caused severe physical problems--sweating, discomfort, pain--but the user would forever be unaware of it because the memories would never include this part of the experience. Who was it for? At first, it was just for starship pilots. Their skills would be needed throughout a long voyage. And if a trip took hundreds or perhaps thousands of years, then they'd need Somec to function. The computer would always be able to wake them up in case of an emergency. But they'd arrive at their destination intact. So for colonization vessels, it really couldn't be any better.
A ship would carry three hundred or so passengers and all the supplies needed to create and establish a civilization on another planet. So there were a few valid uses of the drug, I suppose. But the real corruption began when somec became a common necessity for the people. Imagine the possibility of immortality. The brilliant minds of society were all given the chance for immortality. The more valuable society deemed you, the longer you would sleep between waking cycles.
The common people lived and died naturally enough. But a good portion of society, became obsessed with immortality. What does it accomplish really? You're not able to have friendships with others unless you're on the same sleep cycle. You're not able to maintain family relationships either.
The Worthing Saga
People could theoretically outlive their great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren. Love becomes to a certain extent irrelevant. Most things become irrelevant. No time for the finer things in life. For not only do most people spend most of their times asleep, what little time they're awake they're obsessed with power, money, fame, greed, control. They always want more, more, more. There is no longer any joy in living life. But really too few people notice what they're missing. The aforementioned Abner Doon. Abner "rescues" Jason, if you will, and offers him a chance to become a part of something great.
Jason becomes a starship pilot, a very famous starship pilot, and he eventually leads a colonization ship. Abner's big plan--besides the fall of the Empire--is to recreate life as it used to be. To spread humanity throughout the galaxy. To have human civilizations sprout up on thousands of planets. He knows that with the fall of the Empire, with the fall of technology, it will be thousands upon thousands of years before ANY civilization becomes advanced enough for star flight.
He sees this as a way for humanity to wipe the slate clean and begin anew. The Worthing Saga is the story of Jason's planet. How Jason "fathered" or "created" that world. And what happened to its inhabitants. What happened to his descendants.
All these stories--and there are many--span thousands of years. Everything is leading the reader back to Lared. Back to the Day of Pain. The Worthing Saga is about the meaning of life. It is about what it means to be human. It asks important questions. It goes where few novels do. It asks what the meaning of pain and suffering is. It asks what the meaning of struggles are. It is ethical in nature. It asks the hard questions.
But it is philosophical as well. I love the world-building.
Books By Orson Scott Card - The Worthing Saga - Chapter 1
I find the three settings within the book to be fascinating. There is Lared's home planet which is the present-day setting; there is Capital, the planet from Jason Worthing's memory and stories, Capital becomes "real" to Lared as he experiences Worthing's memories through dreams; there is Worthing, the planet that Jason colonized with a handful of colonists thousands of years before the novel opens, again this planet becomes "real" to Lared as he experiences other people's memories through Justice, Jason's descendent.
Readers get a taste of all these societies and communities. I love the characterization. I love getting to know Lared, Sala, Jason, and Justice. Not to mention all the men and women from the memories and stories. I have a soft spot for Hoom. I love the storytelling. I love the dialogue. I love how everything is layered together. How the story all comes together. How Lared slowly but surely pieces things together and comes to understand--if understand is the right word--the world. Card's characters are so very human, so vulnerable, so fallible. Readers see humans at their best and at their absolute worst within The Worthing Saga.
Moments of compassion and redemption make it so worth while. I love the ideas.
Anyone read the Worthing Saga?
I love the depth and substance. That is not to say that I agree absolutely with every single philosophical idea within the book. But it goes places most fiction doesn't. It asks real questions, tough questions. One also sees the consequences or possible consequences of ideas. Jun 21, Denise rated it did not like it Shelves: I got this book from someone who told me she "found it absolutely fascinating". For this reason, I forced myself to keep reading until I finally let myself give up after Chapter 7. This is only the second book I've ever given up on.
I can't put my finger on exactly why I was disliking this book so much. I just know for pages I didn't like the book for a second so I gave myself permission to abandon it. Nov 17, Marc Sandin rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: This book is a manifesto on the human condition.
It is told with gallons of truth, and a direct bluntness that is refreshing to the victimized psyche we have trended toward in Western culture for decades. The story hints at puncturing human dissatisfaction with God and suffering for the almost the entire book, and slams everything home in one fell swoop at the end which should mind-blow every reader out of their staus-quo-like endless loop of wondering, "Why do bad things happen?
Removal of the pain is the removal of yourself. Be prepared for either a rude awakening or a profound enlightenment. My audiobook review is at the end of this review. Orson Scott Card never ceases to amaze me in the questions he tackles in his writing. In The Worthing Chronicle, Jason Worthing comes to a small village where Lared resides and asks him to write his story. As Lared writes we learn of two worlds - Capitol and Worthing. It is through Jason's story that Card explores the reasons why a god would leave their children unprotected when they have the power to provide lives full of happiness and devo Note: It is through Jason's story that Card explores the reasons why a god would leave their children unprotected when they have the power to provide lives full of happiness and devoid of pain, the power of corruption, and the obstacles of creating a peaceful and just human society.
The anthology continues with Tales of Capitol - which introduces more of the world of Capitol and its inhabitants and explores the affect of the sleep drug Somec that allows rich or successful members of society to sleep for years at a time, the corrupt society Somec created and the people people and relationships that are affected by it. The anthology concludes with Tales from the Forest of Waters, which explores some of Jason Worthing's descendants who live on the world of Worthing.
The stories really made me think and offered some interesting insights on human nature. If you're into this type of thing, it's definitely worth a read. Audiobook Review The audiobook version was narrated by Scott Brick. He is one of my favorite audiobook narrators and he did not disappoint in his reading of The Worthing Saga. The short stories were narrated by different narrators, whose names I can't seem to locate anywhere at the moment, but they were all well read and realized by the narrators. Aug 02, Bruce Freedancer rated it it was amazing. Possibly one of the greatest books I have ever read.
A collection of linked short stories, set in two different time zones and places, yet with a thread that connects them both. What makes this book so special to me is that it attempts to answer the riddle of Joy and Pain, by exploring what life might be without pain, and whether it would even be worth living. The feeling that without pain we have something precious taken away from us, a certain loss of our own claim to humanity, but really only b Possibly one of the greatest books I have ever read. The feeling that without pain we have something precious taken away from us, a certain loss of our own claim to humanity, but really only by reading the stories could someone understand what I'm trying to say.
I have read this book quite a few times over the years, and it never fails to move me, to ask me to look deeply inside myself to at least feel for the answers we can never really know in any empirical sense. This is not one of Cards more well known books, but in my view, it is hands-down his best. Sadly, it was with some surprise that as I learnt more about the author, I discovered that Card appears to have a religiously motivated prejudice against homosexuality. Since learning this, I have struggled greatly to reconcile the open mind of someone who could have written such a masterpiece with the closed mind of someone who can't accept love in a shape different to the way he personally experiences it.
But I've come to accept it, recognising even the greatest author is just a fallible human being like all the rest of us. I could not recommend this book more highly. It starts off a bit oddly, but it unfolds into brilliance if you just give it a small chance to set the scene. Jan 28, Xavi Aznar rated it liked it Shelves: Nov 07, Ivan rated it it was amazing. My favorite OSC book. OSC really shows his Mormon roots in this tale without hitting the reader in the face with morality. He uses the setting of the book to explore the relationship of Justice and Mercy.
In the Abrahamic religions, the idea of sin and reconciliation are applied as the balance between Justice and Mercy in Mormonism. If a judge forgives a criminal mercy is served but not justice, etc. These themes are brilliantly woven into the book in the simple life of an innkeepers son in an a My favorite OSC book. These themes are brilliantly woven into the book in the simple life of an innkeepers son in an agrarian society, and in his friend, a former starpilot.
OSC also blends in powerful imagery about the purpose of suffering and the need for opposition in all things. Feb 05, Kat rated it really liked it. I jumped into this blind. I haven't read much Orson Scott Card and this showed up in my library's limited audiobook selection. I wish I had better understood that the Saga is a collection of three separate books with three separate perspectives. Without understanding that, the first transition three me for a loop. I'm left pondering what makes a successful civilization, what we can do to protect our communities from corruption, and how far privilege can spiral into out of control power.
Jun 10, Jon B rated it it was amazing. Pretty much my dream book. This book details what would happen if you crash landed on a different planet and had to remake civilization. A very very interesting read. The main character goes into cryo so he is able to witness the world evolve over thousands of years.
This book gripped and captivated me, a pure 5 star rating. OCS is a wonderful writer. His stories are about people so they continue to hold up over time. This story is a great example of that. This story reminds me of why it's not good for people to have everything they want all the time. Jun 27, JonSnow rated it really liked it. Jun 27, Carrie rated it really liked it.
A book about near immortality and its consequences. Ideas somewhat reminiscent of Asimov's Naked Sun, but explored in a way that only Card could pull off. Apr 08, Justin Thrash rated it it was amazing. Best Card book that I've read so far. Jun 05, Chak rated it it was amazing Shelves: I don't have time for a real review, but here are my quickest, most concise thoughts on this collection of stories: What does it mean to be a God?
To me, this was the central theme of the main story in the book. Though there are certainly sci-fi elements to the book, it did not feel very sci-fi to me I loved it anyway. How I understand and interpret mythology, pain and immortality will likely be affected by my reading of this book.
I will probably need to read it again. Loved the character of Abner Doon. He ranks in my list of top antagonists because of his complexity, humanity and moral ambiguity. Recurrent theme of a life without pain is a stagnant life. Some passages I want to remember: In every client state and conquered territory, rebelling was ruthlessly suppressed -- but loyalty was lavishly rewarded, taxes were not high, local customs and freedoms were respected, and life for the computer-simulated populace was good.
Rebellions profited nothing, and lost all, and so the government was stable, so stable that even inferior players, making stupid blunders while Nuber was on somec, even they could do little damage to Nuber's Italy. Instead, he would use it as a test of what he planned to do in real life: He played carefully, and in his dream Lared believed he understood all that Abner did. He engaged in pointless wars and made sure they were badly generaled and stupidly fought -- but not so stupidly that there were any crushing defeats.
The Worthing Saga contains examples of:
Just attrition, a slow wearing away of the army, of the wealth of the empire. And within the empire he also began a quiet corrosion. Mismanagement and stupid decisions on industrial production; changes in the civil service to promote corruption; unfair, almost whimsical taxation. And the conquered nations were singled out for harassment.
Religious persecution; insistence on the use of the Italian language, discrimination against certain groups in jobs, in education; severe restrictions on what could and could not be printed; barriers to travel; confiscation of peasant land and the encouragement of a new aristocracy. Abner did a simple thing, but it was enough: The outrage, the loathing it caused tore away the last pretense at legitimacy, even decency that Nuber's Italy possessed.
The computer hardly knew how to cope with this, except with instant, overwhelming revolt. All the grievances in every nation were joined now with the anger of the aristocracy -- all classes acted at once, and Italy was undone, the empire fragmented, the armies in mutiny. A Hoom or a Wix or a Dilna is impossible in a universe where actions have no consequences! Why do you love Hoom, if not because of what he did in the face of suffering? Without the suffering, what was he? WIthout his father's beatings all his life, without the face of his father haloed in the flames, without his wife's adultery and the deaths of Bessa, Dallat, and Cammar -- yes, without the touch of Cammar's fingers as he leapt and fell, what would there be in Hoom to make you love him?
What would there be of greatness in him? What would his life have meant? He had been so calm for all these weeks, it made his rage the more fearsome.
But Lared would not be put off, even so. Everybody would prefer that everything go smoothly for them. The worst bastards in the world are those who devote their entire lives to making sure things go smoothly for themselves. Individual preference has nothing to dow with what I'm saying.