Now Reading – Recently Completed – The Worthing Saga by Orson Scott Card

Review

Rating: 7

The Worthing Saga is a series of short stories and novels that tells the story of an empire’s death and rebirth. It is the story that began Orson Scott Card’s career. This book includes stories as published in 1978 and continuing through its release in 1990. The audio version includes readings by both Emily Card and Orson himself.

This book, the Worthing Saga, includes both The Worthing Chronicle and a grouping of short stories. The Worthing Chronicle is a grand unifying story that combines both the novel HotSleep and many of the short stories that were worked into the Worthing Chronicle.

Those stories were not rewritten for this book, but appear in close to their original format. So, the do not all quite align with the saga, but that’s OK. They are entertaining none the elase. They were written as independent works and published in magazines and in part in one or two novels (Hot Sleep and Capital). OSC decided to publish them as-is without removing inconsistencies for the Worthing universe is after all a story about memory, its truths and its lies.

This was my second reading of The Worthing Chronicle. I don’t normally do short stories, so it was a difficult book to read the first time through. I don’t think I ever finished it. Too often short stories ends before the author can fully explain the characters and I read almost exclusively to hear people’s stories – even if they are fictional people.

In the end – though I will say that the Worthing Chronicle was a more craftily interwoven story, I enjoyed the HotSleep version of the story much more. HotSleep rings true to me where as Chroncicle is perhaps told in a more technical correct manner.

I do recommend you read both Hot Sleep and The Worthing Saga, but you should read HotSleep first. It delves more deeply into every character in the story and helps you understand the Worthing Saga in a deeper way.

Unless you have a really good used book store around you (my favorite was flooded two years ago and never recovered a REAL shame), the only place you will find Hot Sleep is attached to the second issue of OSC’s magazine The Intergalactic Medicine show. You can buy each issue for under $3 and you get MORE than your money’s worth.

Visit it at: http://www.InterGalacticMedicineShow.com