The Worthing Saga

By: Orson Scott Card

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 18 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

It was a miracle of science that permitted human beings to live, if not forever then for a long, long time. Some people, anyway. The rich, the powerful, they lived their lives at the rate of one year every 10. Some created two societies: that of people who lived out their normal span and died, and those who slept away the decades, skipping over the intervening years and events. It allowed great plans to be put into motion. It allowed interstellar empires to be built.

It came near to destroying humanity.

After a long, long time of decadence and stagnation, a few seed ships were sent out to save our species. They carried human embryos and supplies and teaching robots and one man. The Worthing Saga is the story of one of these men, Jason Worthing, and the world he found for the seed he carried.

Orson Scott Card is "a master of the art of storytelling" (Booklist), and The Worthing Saga is a story that only he could have written.

©1978 Orson Scott Card (P)2005 Blackstone Audiobooks

Utterly depressing, with no redeeming qualities

I love the Ender series, but this story is apallingly bad. It should come with free Prozac, it is so depressing. I simply could not make it to the end of the book, even though I had nothing else to read. I hope this review will save someone a credit and a lot of wasted hours. If not, you were warned.

Pure Crap

Some of the worst Sci-Fi I have ever read or seen. Incomplete storylines. Babbles on and on. Takes 50 words to describe what could be done in 10. Incoherent. Pure crap. The audio voices would probably be better enjoyed if the subject matter was not so awful.

Be forewarned

I usually have neither the time nor the inclination to write book reviews, but THE WORTHING SAGA provoked such a negative feeling in me that I decided to take the time to write a review for the benefit of those of you who want to make informed decisions about books on which you decide to spend your money.

This is a dark, dark story. From my personal perspective, the religious, social, moral, and/or literary message that Card has in mind is far overshadowed by the graphic violence depicted in the book. I agree that as good human citizens, we all must do our best to be aware of the realities of the world: the good with the bad. However, the real world is enough for me, and I'm not personally willing to wade through all the incredibly violent and negative behavior in this book -- especially involving children -- to ferret out the moral message that Card has in mind. I was too distracted by these graphic depictions of extreme human misfortune to care about the message. If Card was eliciting a visceral reaction in his reader, he certainly succeeded with me, but he lost me in the process.

I think Card is a great writer, and I highly recommend the Ender/Bean/Petra/Peter/etal books he's written, but you will have to have a stronger stomach than I to enjoy THE WORTHING SAGA.

Saga stands for long and boring.

Long, boring, and just plain a waist of a credit. I love most of his other works but this one stinks.

Nope

I just could not get into this one. I have listened to many, many audible books, good and bad. With this one I tried really hard to stick with it but just couldn't.

odd bunch of stories

This was on OK audio book. Its definitely not a happy one. Many moral issues are covered throughout. More than once I had to pause and reflect on the actions taken by the characters. You can tell Card's Mormon background influenced this story (i.e., several themes of man creating his own world & being god like).

I would be hard pressed to give it one star, as I did listen to the whole thing, including the short stories. Overall though, I think there are more interesting stories to read & consider.

A disappointment when I expected brilliance

Disjointed, start and stop story without a real sense of a novel, of a story progressing and leading to a satisfying conclusion. If I had read up on this more I would not have bought the book. I was not prepared for a series of short stories based on Mr. Card's creation of the world of Worthing. Perhaps if I were more in the mood for short stories I would have felt differently, but I thought I was getting a novel. I love fantasy and Sci Fi both. I found elements of Worthing very interesting but it did not hold together for me ultimately. It FELT (as Mr. Card states in his afterwards) as if the stories came from different periods in his life - just didn't hang together for me.

Had to stop halfway...

I have loved Orson Scott Card in the past, but this "story" seems like a series of parables, and the characters and plot only exist to further the philosophical/social/political musings of the author. Each chapter felt like sitting through a sermon. I don't intend to listen to the last third of the book.

Very depressing book

This the first audio book that I have stop listen to. The book if poorly put together and is very depressing.

Yawn !!!

A sick/ boring twist to the story of Genisis. Little action and less plot - save your credit.