Hot Sleep

Worthing #2

by Orson Scott Card

The human race gets a second chance. What would happen if the human race has a chance to erase all its mistakes and try again? Could we create a perfect world? Hugo-award winning author Orson Scott Card explores this possibility with intriguing results.
Jason Worthing is sent with 333 people to start a colony in deep space. However, when he arrives at his destination, he discovers that, as a result of a battle in space, the memories of all his colonists have been erased. Starting with 333 infants in adult bodies, Jason sets up a completely new kind of world. It all goes smoothly until the second generation learns to think for itself.
HOT SLEEP probes the mind of Man and delves into his true nature. You'll either argue with Orson Scott Card's conclusions or you'll believe them. But you will care about what they say.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Novels

407 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 1979

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

[Cmadler]

Having re-read both this version and The Worthing Saga (which contains The Worthing Chronicle, Card's much re-written version of this story), I am now more convinced than ever that this earlier version, particularly when paired with the short stories in Capitol, is a far superior version of the story. This version gives the reader more of the most interesting parts -- those taking place on Capitol -- and less, which is to say none at all, of the least interesting parts: the framing story.

[Raj]

Jason Worthing is one of the greatest starship pilots in the fleet. He is also a telepath, something forbidden under imperial law. When a rebellion against the empire goes wrong, the rebels are forced to become colonists to the furthest colony ever established by mankind - and the colony is to be led by Worthing!

I really enjoyed this book. Although Worthing is nominally the title character, we rarely see anything from his point of view. We see things from the point of view of those around him and see what he does being reflected in them. The book also suddenly turns upside down with a twist half way through that I certainly wasn't expecting which changes the tone completely.

Very readable and a great adventure. I may not agree with Card's philosophy and politics but he still writes a cracking yarn.

[Gordon]

I'm impressed. Decided to try this book after seeing a friend recommend it and am glad I did. The sudden change of pace part way through was a bit disconcerting at first, but overall Worthing has the sweep of Asimov's Foundation series - with a much defter human touch.

[Nightkid]

閱讀卡德的科幻小說，總會有種虎頭蛇尾的感覺，每到故事中段就會莫名其妙地變調。

主角詹森的設定的懂得讀心的天才兒童，一開始就自找麻煩，讓其他人都知道他是所謂的「天賊」，身份被暴露後，隨即把母親騙去殖民星球拓荒，在企圖選擇從軍這條較舒服道路時，被人強行拉入伙，一同實現一個莫名其妙的願景。

故事從詹森帶著一群人搭上殖民太空船後開始走樣，突然從太空劇變成拓荒劇，先是因意外導致乘客死了三分之二，剩下的人則都忘了自己的知識與身份；故事突然從科技發達的文明社會，急速倒退到史前時代，詹森則一躍為神，以全知全能的姿態，帶領剩下的人在蠻荒的世界中生活⋯⋯

救世主們為了要讓人類文明得到發展，結果把現有文明摧毀⋯⋯這種神展開，恕我無法欣賞。

[Wendy]

Having already read The Worthing Saga, I was very happy to find this earlier out-of-print work at a used bookstore. It includes a lot of the stories that form a backbone for the ones in The Worthing Saga, and I found it quite interesting to see how they were changed (and how Card's writing has changed over time).

[Howard]

9

[Ian]

Well, what to say? Enjoyed this, drama, insight, but the usual Card dismal view of humanity. Read the novel when it first came out.

[Tali Lerner]

Great book! Can't believe I have not read it before

[SF Guy]

Eigentlich zwei Bücher in einem. Reset nach der Hälfte des Buches. Etwas ziellos mäandrierend, aber unterhaltsam.

[Sarah]

Now I’m not sure which was which. Tinker story is very haunting- actually, most of these are, in their very visceral depiction of suffering.

[Kristin Love]

Explores building a society from scratch

[Italo De Nubila]

After digesting the whole point of the technology I can now appreciate the concept of the book and it does resonate way more.

[reherrma]

Die Elite der Gesellschaft des Planeten Capitol hat durch die Droge Somec die Möglichkeit ca. 10 Jahre im Tiefschlaf zu verbringen, ohne zu altern, man braucht nur wenige Stunden um die Geschäfte die regeln und sich wieder schlafen zu legen, die Gesellschaft und der wissenschaftliche Fortschritt setzen sich während der Schlafenszeit fort.
Wie funktioniert diese Gesellschaft ? und wie wäre es, völlig neue anzufangen, ohne die Fehler die gemacht wurden. Diese Fragen werden in beiden Romanen sehr unterschiedlich beantwortet.
Card zeigt hier die Fähigkeit, utopische Welten zu erschafffen und auf die Fehler im System hinzuweisen, in einer ungemein spannenden und unterhaltsamen Art...
"Diese Besprechung bezieht sich auf beide Teile der Worthing-Saga.

[Konstantin]

"I am Jason Worthing. Think carefully before you waken me. If my work has failed, I don't want to know it. And if it has succeeded, but wasn't good for the people after all, I would rather sleep on. My dream of the future is too good for me to be eager to wreck it with reality."

All I ever knew of Card was Worthing, and I want nothing else.

"Only because you remember the Empire, Stipock. If you forgot the Empire, you'd live like them and be happy, too."

[Foxthyme]

This is about the third Card book I've started reading only to have the niggling sensation that I'd read it before. Yes I did, but remember it? Not really. While I do like how Card gets that grand sweeping all historical slant to his writing (most often religion-based) I don't find most of his characters stick with me. Except for Ender and the gang's series of course.

[Ailene]

This is the original version of the Worthing Saga, or at least it covers most of the story that that book does. So if you've read that you might not find a lot of surprises in this one. I think I actually like how a lot of details are handled in this original version better. There's only one thing I think played out better in The Worthing Saga, but it's kind of a big thing.

[James]

I found a copy of this one at a used book store. It is interesting to read the versions of the stories that later become the Worthin chronicles.

[J.W. W Arlock]

Well... that was a snooze fest. Mediocre first half, then a whole new sub-par story for the second half. This one goes in the resell-to-the-bookstore pile.

[Arnoud Visser]

Once you think that you have a glue where this story leads, it becomes a completely different story, interesting in its own right.

[Hqwxyz]

看了两章，觉得与彼约德的迈尔斯系列类似，太多细节描写，现在似乎不耐烦看这样的文字。从星际帝国到蛮荒开拓，转折太剧烈。

[S Klotz]

hot sleep: the worthing chronicle by orson scott card