Megan O. reviewed on 1/15/2008

Helpful Score: 4

This is, perhaps, my favorite book by Card, which is saying a lot.

Imagine a world without pain. If you cut off your finger, it magically sews itself back on. If you fall into the fire, you're protected from flames until you can be pulled out. If you die, your family grieves, but the grief is muted by time that hasn't passed. This is the world the book starts in, a world that will soon change.

On the very first day in the book, life changes on this world. It begins with children waking from nightmares. People get hurt when they're shoved, or are careless with a pick, or play too close to the fire. The small town buries many people in the fist week. And they get two new members, a man, Jason, and a woman, Justice.

The Worthing Chronicles is partly the story of those two, but also partly the story of the village child they chose to tell their story, Lared, as he comes to terms with the fact that it is because of them that he can feel pain, and as he realizes that a life without some pain isn't really better.

It was one of the most thought provoking books I've ever read, and well worth it.

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