Wyrms
By Orson Scott Card; Read by Emily Janice Card
9 CDs – 11.5 hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9781433218542
Themes: / Science Fiction / Diplomacy / Slavery /
“Wyrms” by Orson Scott Card was first published in 1987. I read the book then and loved it. I loved the world, the characters and the STORY.
It got lost as it was published between two Hugo and Nebula Award winning novels, Ender’s Game and Speaker For The Dead. It didn’t deserve it.
It’s been over 20 years since I read the novel, and I have never completely forgotten the book, or its impact. When I got the audiobook, read by Card’s daughter, Emily, I was thrilled to have the chance to experience it again.
Can the book be as good as I remembered? I wondered. But not for long. Before I had finished two chapters, I was hooked. Again.
Patience is the seventh seventh seventh daughter of the space captain who first came to Imaculata. She’s the daughter of the rightful heir to the kingdom, the Heptarch. But she and her father serve the current ruler as diplomats. And slaves.
Her entire life, her father has protected her from her destiny. But, when he dies, she’s must run for her life, and face a destiny that has been prophesied for generations. A destiny that that will save the world – or destroy it.
I highly recommend this book. The story is compelling and well paced, the characters complex, and the world believable.
The audiobook is well done, except that I had a problem differentiating one or two of the lesser voices. As my only complaint, it’s pretty minor. I enjoyed Emily Card’s interpretation of Patience and the other main characters.
On a scale of 1-10, I’d give it a definite 9. Get the audiobook. Get the paperback. While you’re at it, get the 6-volume comic books by Jake Black. You’ll thank me for it later.
Posted by Charlene C. Harmon
I read the book when it came out, and listened to the audiobook this year as well. It is an overlooked OSC book to be sure. I thought Card’s daughter, Emily Janice Card, was perfect for the reading as well. There’s a very interesting afterward by Card (Orson, that is) that is very illuminating in the way the novel came about. In a way I thought this book was the opposite of Star Wars in certain way. Star Wars is a fantasy story with a SF setting. Wyrms is a SF story with a fantasy setting. And besides who doesn’t like talking heads in jars. It works on Futurama after all.