West

by Orson Scott Card, Stefan Rudnicki (Reading), Emily Janice Card (Reading)

In a post-apocalyptic America, Jamie Teague helps a group of travelers make their way past the murderous Bushwhackers. Jamie comes to find that the strangers are Mormons headed for Utah to avoid being massacred. Knowing that they will die without his help, he agrees to take them as far as his cabin. This story is included in Orson Scott Card's collection The Folk of the Fringe .

Audio CD

First published November 11, 2014

About the author

Orson Scott Card is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is (as of 2023) the only person to have won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for his novel Ender's Game (1985) and its sequel Speaker for the Dead (1986). A feature film adaptation of Ender's Game, which Card co-produced, was released in 2013. Card also wrote the Locus Fantasy Award-winning series The Tales of Alvin Maker (1987–2003).
Card's fiction often features characters with exceptional gifts who make difficult choices with high stakes. Card has also written political, religious, and social commentary in his columns and other writing; his opposition to homosexuality has provoked public criticism.
Card, who is a great-great-grandson of Brigham Young, was born in Richland, Washington, and grew up in Utah and California. While he was a student at Brigham Young University (BYU), his plays were performed on stage. He served in Brazil as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and headed a community theater for two summers. Card had 27 short stories published between 1978 and 1979, and he won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 1978. He earned a master's degree in English from the University of Utah in 1981 and wrote novels in science fiction, fantasy, non-fiction, and historical fiction genres starting in 1979. Card continued to write prolifically, and he has published over 50 novels and 45 short stories.
Card teaches English at Southern Virginia University; he has written two books on creative writing and serves as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest. He has taught many successful writers at his "literary boot camps". He remains a practicing member of the LDS Church and Mormon fiction writers Stephenie Meyer, Brandon Sanderson, and Dave Wolverton have cited his works as a major influence.

Reviews

[Marty Solotki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having recently listened to one “Folk on the Fringe” tale (Pageant Wagon), I went back to behind at the beginning. This one is long before we meet Deever Teague, but does introduce us to a Jamie Teague, who helps a group of too-trusting Mormons get from the Carolinas to Utah. While the religious overtones are strong, it doesn’t take away from a very good story about trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic society. This one has a stellar sextet of narrators; and while that ending is a bit sappy, it’s overall an excellent novella.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a "post apocalyptic road trip" novel -- well written (Orson Scott Card is a much better writer than most writers of such things), but not terribly novel or interesting -- the hints at some anti-Mormon pogroms (which get described more later in the book) are the closest to novel plot elements. I tend to like post-apocalyptic road trip as a genre, but otherwise this isn't a very memorable book and probably not particularly worth reading. Good audiobook performance.

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

In post apocalyptic America, a group walks from North Carolina to Utah dodging threats. This short book describes the interrelation of a band of mormons with a roaming loaner and the melding of their goals. It's not long enough to develop the characters and their relationships nor is it long enough to become boring as the scenes repeat as they wander the Appalachians, plains and Rockies.