Wyrms

A New York Times Best Book of the Year New York Times bestselling author of Ender’s Shadow One of the most gripping SF adventure novels of recent years.— Science Fiction Chronicle The sphere is alien in origin, but has been controlled by man for millennia. A legend as old as the stars rules this constructed world: When the seventh seventh seventh human Heptarch is crowned, he will be the Kristos and will bring eternal salvation . . . or the destruction of the cosmos. Patience is the only daughter of the rightful Heptarch, but she, like her father before her, serves the usurper who has destroyed her family. For she has learned the true ruler’s honor: Duty to one’s race is more important than duty to one’s self. But the time for prudence has passed, and that which has slept for ages has awakened. And Patience must journey to the heartsoul of this planet to confront her destiny . . . and her world's. Publishers Weekly With his recent novels, Ender's Game (winner of the Hugo and Nebula awards) and Speaker for the Dead (a nominee for this year's awards), Card has joined the front rank of SF writers. His new fantasy adventure is again a progress toward enlightenment that severely tests its protagonist. Teenage Patience has received a worldly education beyond her years but it may not save her when she belatedly learns that she is ``seventh seventh seventh daughter,'' the person who has been prophesied to save or destroy the world of Imakulata. Her journey to the Unwyrm, the native lifeform that has waited thousands of years for her, is by turns a romantic, comic and nightmarish education/final exam/rite of passage in a world of noble goblins and idiot savants, where the dead guide the living and where human and alien have intermingled in bizarre and now inseparable ways. A wonderful, textured fable. (July 22) A New York Times Best Book of the Year New York Times bestselling author of Ender’s Shadow The sphere is alien in origin, but has been controlled by man for millennia. A legend as old as the stars rules this constructed world: When the seventh seventh seventh human Heptarch is crowned, he will be the Kristos and will bring eternal salvation . . . or the destruction of the cosmos. Patience is the only daughter of the rightful Heptarch, but she, like her father before her, serves the usurper who has destroyed her family. For she has learned the true ruler’s honor: Duty to one’s race is more important than duty to one’s self. But the time for prudence has passed, and that which has slept for ages has awakened. And Patience must journey to the heartsoul of this planet to confront her destiny . . . and her world's. Patience is the only daughter of the rightful king, but she and her father serve as slaves to the usurper who has destroyed her family. Patience must journey to the heartsoul of this planet to confront her destiny, and her world's Serving a usurper who has destroyed her family and rules their space-dwelling sphere home, Patience journeys to the heart of her world in order to reclaim her crown, a quest that may spell salvation or destruction for the cosmos