“The Worthing Chronicle” eBook was published in 2016 (paper edition originally published in 1983) and was written by Orson Scott Card (http://www.hatrack.com). Mr. Card has published nearly 80 novels. This is the third novel in his ‘Worthing’ series.
I received a galley of this novel for review through https://www.netgalley.com. I categorize this novel as ‘PG’ because it contains scenes of Violence and Mature Situations. This Science Fiction novel is set in the far future. While humanity has spread across the universe, some settled planets have fallen backwards into an agrarian life style.
The story takes place on one such planet with three major characters: Jason Worthing, a former Star Ship pilot with the ability to read minds; Justice, a young woman with extensive mental capabilities; and Lared, a teenage native of the agrarian world.
Jason and Justice arrive on the planet and approach Lared. They join in the simple life that Lared and his remote village have, but they engage Lared to capture their story. Justice is able to put dreams into Lared’s head at night that are the memories of Jason.
Lared records the dreams with ink and parchment over several months. The stories tell how Jason was persecuted because of his abilities. He was finally able to escape, piloting a colony ship. While his ship was attacked, causing many of the colonists to be lost, he was able to settle a world with the survivors.
Jason uses the suspension capability developed for multi year space flight to slow his aging, appearing to the colony only every few years. Because of the attack in route, the colony had to start from a very basic agrarian civilization.
I spend about 8 hours reading this 275 page novel. It was . . . interesting. This is the fourth book of Card’s that I have read. The only one I found exceptional was the first, “Ender’s Game”. This book seemed more of a collection of short stories as you read a sequence of memories that Lared dreams. These cover many years of time. I found it very slow and it felt far longer than the 275 pages. I give this novel a 3.5 (rounded up to 4) out of 5.
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John's Notes 