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Title: Wyrms by Orson Scott Card ISBN: 0-7653-0560-7 Publisher: Orb Books Pub. Date: 05 April, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.87 (30 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Mind Over Genes
Comment: Slavery comes in many forms. Patience, the 13 year old protagonist of this novel, is a nominal slave to the Heptarch, ruler of this far-future world that was colonized by humans thousands of years ago. She is also the seventh seventh seventh daughter of the first Starship Captain, and as such is the subject of a prophesy declaring her to be either the savior or destroyer of the world. In the end, she is more slave to the prophecy than to the Heptarch.
Trained from birth in the arts of ruling and courtly intrigue, Patience is an intriguing character, whose real voyage of self-discovery starts with the death of her father. For this world has many different types of denizens that are almost human, gaunts, dwelves, and geblins. As Patience travels the world in search of the Unwyrm, she is forced to meet and interact with each of these races, and finding that each has their own right to life, their own ways of living, even if each of these races seems to be an incomplete copy of humans, and all are subject to overriding desires and commands that originate with the Unwyrm, the true slave-master of the world.
Card's themes of free will and moral imperatives to help others are nicely brought forward through his characters' interaction with each other, though at a couple places where he directly explicates some of this philosophy in the discourse of the giant Will, in comes across as a little bit preachy. The world and its biology is a fascinating if somewhat disturbing look at just what life really is, from the perspective of the genes, which folds into and on top of his free will ideas as a built in imperative that none may escape.
Some may find the climatic scene highly disturbing, involving rape, murder, and mental coercion in a manner normally considered well outside the pale of normal human actions, but it fits well with both story and theme. Card does not shirk from the implications of his prior story development, and a little reflection on this scene will convince you that this is truly the only way the problems could be resolved that was consistent with the theme Card is presenting, but I do feel that this scene makes this book highly inappropriate for younger readers.
But Card fell down a little bit in his conclusion, his continuation of the story after that climatic scene, as it comes across as almost sugar-sweet after all the grimness of the rest of the book, as it proposes an extremely optimistic viewpoint about basic human nature that just doesn't fit. Also a little bit disappointing was the final disposition of the brother-sister gebling kings, as this did not seem to be quite in character for either of them.
Some truly original ideas, some decent characters, but in the end I felt the theme came to over-dominate the story, left me with less emotional involvement than was possible, became too much an intellectual probing. Still, worth reading, if only to see what Card can do outside of the Ender series.
--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
Rating: 3
Summary: How does he do it?
Comment: Again, and again, and again. Can this man write a bad book? Card's worlds are so complete, so intricately detailed, and populated with such believable people that I despise the fact that I live in such a mundane realm, by comparison. Card's fondness for biological science manifests itself here as usual, though not with the density to be found in Speaker for the Dead or Xenocide, and he comes up with some rather amusing and original science-fiction concepts as well (the heads).
Story-wise, it's an engaging read, a bit short, but there are no loose ends left over and Card shows he can be concise and to-the-point as well as epic as in Ender or Alvin Maker. As anyone will tell you, this book is not for young kids. In true Card fashion, it exists also beneath the surface, raising questions and promoting thought on religion, motivations, and displaying wonderfully complex situations. Want a great afternoon read (and a side order of inferiority complex for aspiring writers)? Go for this one. No, it's not perfect - sometimes it drags a bit and a couple of the character developments are a little hard to swallow - but if you can push your normal "willing suspension of disbelief" a little further than usual, this'll do quite nicely.
Rating: 4
Summary: Not Card's Best, But...
Comment: I first read this book when I was about 13 years old, if I recall correctly. Now, looking back on it, I realize I was much too young to appreciate this novel. I would definitely not recommend it to anyone under 16.
At the same time, I knew this book was really very good after I had finished reading it, and I knew that the affect it had on me was exactly the affect intended by Orson Scott Card. Some reviewers have said that they were offended by this novel, but I think that's an awfully strong feeling to have about a book. Instead, I was left vaguely disturbed, as if someone I knew closely had lost part of her humanity to fulfill a crucial mission. I cried at the end of Wyrms; if you don't want a novel that will have that strong of an affect on you, don't read this book. On the other hand, if you want a strong, memorable story that is well-written and that takes place in an interesting world, don't overlook Wyrms.
At the same time, though, I had the sinking suspicion that I had read this story many times before, written by the same hand. The truth is, most of Card's plots from his early career involve young geniuses giving up part of themselves to fulfill their destinies, and this novel is certainly not Card's best attempt to portray this story. If you are new to Card, I would recommend Ender's Game or Hart's Hope instead.
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Title: Songmaster by Orson Scott Card ISBN: 0312876629 Publisher: Orb Books Pub. Date: 01 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: First Meetings : In the Enderverse by Orson Scott Card ISBN: 0765308738 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 05 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Hart's Hope by Orson Scott Card, Orson Card ISBN: 0765306786 Publisher: Orb Books Pub. Date: 02 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Crystal City (Tales of Alvin Maker, Book 6) by Orson Scott Card ISBN: 0312864833 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 10 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: The Worthing Saga by Orson Scott Card ISBN: 0812533313 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 15 December, 1992 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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