Wyrms (book)
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- This article is about the novel. For other uses of the term, see Wyrm.
| Author | Orson Scott Card |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Tor Books |
| Released | 1987 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0765305607 |
Wyrms published in 1987 by TOR books, is a novel by Orson Scott Card. The story examines desire, wisdom, and human will. Card describes a version of the tri-partite soul, similar to that articulated by Plato in The Republic.
[edit] Plot
The setting for the story is a planet where ore for producing hard metal is rare, most of the ore having been destroyed by the madness of the starship captain ages ago while his ship was in orbit. The world is inhabited by humans as well as geblings, dwelfs and gaunts. Geblings are an intelligent apelike species, who have the ability to communicate with each other telepathically. Dwelfs haven't the capacity to remember anything, and gaunts haven't any free will of their own. They can however (through unknown means) read the will or desires of those around them and always act on the impulses they read. There is one other life form that preceded all the others on the planet. They are called Wyrms. They disappeared from the planet shortly after the humans landed. Nobody on the planet is certain where the other species originated from.
Patience, a 13-year-old girl who is descended from the captain, is the only daughter of the rightful heir, called Heptarch, of the planet's ruling class. Her father, Peace, willingly lives as a slave (or servant) to the usurper King Orec. Peace acts the part of a diplomat (as well as assassin) who serves King Orec well in public, but secretly teaches Patience who the rightful heir is. Patience at a very young age becomes very skilled in the arts of her father, and is also employed by the king as both diplomat and assassin. Her tutor, Angel, spends the most time with Patience as she grows up, her father being away on official business most of the time. King Orec, paranoid about his reign, never allows both Peace and Patience outside of the castle grounds at the same time. This hostage situation satisfies him that Peace is kept in check, while away. Even when Patience and her father are together, their speech must be guarded due to the spies Orec employs everywhere. Because of this isolation, Angel has become Patience's father figure as well as tutor and best friend.
Patience soon learns of an ancient prophecy that when the seventh seventh seventh human heptarch is crowned he will be the Kristos and bring eternal salvation or eternal destruction to the world. Patience learns that it is her son who would be the seventh seventh seventh Heptarch. While a skeptic herself, a whole religion exists built around the legends of the starship captain and his descendants. Thousands of people, called Vigilants, stand ready to aid Patience in reclaiming the Heptarchy and fulfilling the prophecy at the center of their religion.
Other mysteries unfold through the story, such as why did all the wise men of the land suddenly forsake everything and go on a pilgrimage to Cranwater, never to be seen or heard from again. Called "the Cranning Call," it leaves the world destitute of its greatest thinkers and achievers.
When Patience's father dies, he asks her at his bedside to cut into his shoulder with a knife and retrieve a crystal that is hidden there. It is the scepter of the Heptarchy, he tells her, and admonishes her to keep it secret and safe. Then he dies, and Patience must escape the castle before she too is assassinated. Before leaving, however, she sneaks into Slave's Hall, where the heads of the wisest people are preserved and kept alive by headworms. The head's memories are intact, and are coerced by the headworms to only speak the truth when addressed. Patience seeks out her father's head, and uses the opportunity to learn all she can about prophecies and the Cranning Call. She forces her father to tell her his darkest secrets, and begins to formulates her plans when she meets up with Angel.
Outside of the castle, she too hears the Cranning Call and knows she must go there to meet her fate. Angel and Patience set out for Cranwater together. Along the way the Cranning call gets stronger and stronger. Patience, fighting the urgency to get to Cranwater, chooses her own routes in defiance, yet still travels toward Cranwater. Along the way, Sken, a massive river woman, joins their party. Later 3 others join the group: Ruin and Reck, twin brother and sister geblings, who are exiled from their homeland of Cranwater; and Will, the silent but strong human friend who lives with Reck. Reck and Ruin are share kingship over the geblings, but are repelled from Cranwater by a force which turns them away from the city. When Patience arrives, the Cranning Call cancels this repulsion that Reck and Ruin feel, and they are able to travel with her.
At one point Angel explains to Patience what the scepter is and how to use it. It is to be placed in the skull surgically, and it melds with the brain. The scepter than transfers all the memories of the previous users of the crystal to the current user. The scepter was stolen long a go from the Gebling king by the Heptarch. It has been worn by all the human Heptarchs since. Since the crystal sometimes caused insanity it was sometimes worn under the skin away from the brain, but still melded with the user, in a safer manner.
Patience has Ruin, a skilled surgeon, insert the crystal into her own brain. She then spends weeks reliving the lives of all the previous users including the Gebling kings. She learns of the history of the humans and geblings all the way back to the beginning when the starship captain first set foot on the planet.
She learns of the Starship Captain, and how he was lured, through lust, to the surface to meet with the Wyrm. Inside a cavernous lair beneath a glacier they mated and the Wyrm gave birth to the geblings, dwelfs and gaunts. They were supposed to be super humans, but were not. Then another child was born that looks like the wyrm. It was very hungry, and ate its mother the Wyrm. It is called Unwyrm, and is the source of the Cranning Call, so it can mate with patience to finally give birth to the super human race, part Wyrm and part human. The captain left the lair as the geblings, dwelfs, and gaunts followed him through the endless tunnels out. Throughout the ages Unwyrm has kept the Heptarchy in power, so that at some point when the mother of the seventh seventh seventh Heptarch was born he could lure her to his lair in the glacier above Cranwater. Then the Kristos, as he was called by the Vigilants, would kill or take over all other life on the planet to make room for his race. Unwyrm called all of the Wise to him to learn everything he could about humans and how best to achieve his plans.
Patience now knows the truth of the Cranning call, and her lust for Unwyrm has become overpowering. She struggles to be free of him, but knows she must kill him or the world would be doomed. She explains it all to the rest of her companions, and they continue their journey to meet and hopefully kill Unwyrm before he is able to bring his dark plans to fruition. When it is all over Patience hopes to take her place as Heptarch and unite all of the planet's species together in peace.
[edit] Comparison to other works
Like many of Card's works, this story is a metaphor. It looks at, among other things, the desires of the flesh, and how succumbing to them is dangerous.
The story bears some similarities to other books by Orson Scott Card. A Planet Called Treason also took place on a planet without ore. Patience is a child turned savior, similar to other protagonists in Card's works like Ender Wiggin, Alvin Maker and Lanik Mueller. The semi-conscious self-modifying organism native to Imakulata (which becomes, eventually, Unwyrm) resembles the Descolada from Speaker for the Dead.
[edit] External link
- Chapter one, from Card's site
