posted
I found a copy of "The Worthing Chronicle" at a used bookstore a little while ago, bought it and read it. I had been curious about it ever since reading about "Tinker" in OSC's "How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy" book.
Anyway, I had just read the entire Alvin Maker series before cracking this one open, and I have to say that reading the books in the sequence I did, it mad eme wonder if there's any sort of connection between the two. I mean, obviously Worthing takes place a few millenia after Alvin, but there seemed to be a few common threads in the books.
In particular, the Swipes in Worthing seemed to be a lot like Torches in Alvin; perhaps a more advanced form of the same mental ability, but it seemed quite similar. And then there's the whole walking on water thing, but that could just be coincidental.
I don't know. I'm pretty much a n00b around here so I'm sure the topic has come up before. I was just kinda curious what others thought, and if OSC himself had ever actually commented on the idea before.
Posts: 8 | Registered: Jan 2005
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posted
Yeah, both grew from the imagination of the same person, so it isn't terribly surprising that related ideas are kicked around in both of them. I don't think that they're part of the same "universe" or anything.
Welcome to the forum by the way!
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Only one of many secret osc conspiracies that are so arcane that even I don't know about them.
When I conceived and wrote the Worthing stories, it was long before I had even thought of the Alvin stories. Certainly there was no intent to link them in any way.
But now that you've mentioned it, I keep coming back to my long-ago dream of converging ALL my fictional universes. I'm just not sure whether to write a book tying them all together at the end of time, or at the beginning. Maybe a common ancestor to Lanik Mueller, Ender Wiggin, Alvin Maker, Nafai, Orem Scanthips, Patience, Step Fletcher, Jason Worthing, Deaver Teague, Sarah, and Ansset.
Or maybe they're all in parallel universes and all those people listed above are the SAME PERSON living through the SAME MOMENT IN TIME and only the surrounding world and all its history is different from one person to the other.
Or maybe I should write about a strange alien with godlike powers who possesses certain people at birth and then devotes THEIR entire life to tormenting them with impossible moral dilemmas that can't be resolved without agonizing sacrifice.
Oh, wait. That would be me.
Posts: 2005 | Registered: Jul 1999
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quote: Or maybe I should write about a strange alien with godlike powers who possesses certain people at birth and then devotes THEIR entire life to tormenting them with impossible moral dilemmas that can't be resolved without agonizing sacrifice.
This reminded me of Faulkner's famous advice to writers:"In order to write a good Novel you must kill your little darlings".
Posts: 327 | Registered: Oct 2003
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quote: But now that you've mentioned it, I keep coming back to my long-ago dream of converging ALL my fictional universes. I'm just not sure whether to write a book tying them all together at the end of time, or at the beginning.
This was Asimov's approach.
quote:Or maybe they're all in parallel universes and all those people listed above are the SAME PERSON living through the SAME MOMENT IN TIME and only the surrounding world and all its history is different from one person to the other.
And this is Moorcock's. Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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quote:Or maybe I should write about a strange alien with godlike powers who possesses certain people at birth and then devotes THEIR entire life to tormenting them with impossible moral dilemmas that can't be resolved without agonizing sacrifice.
Oh, wait. That would be me.
I think all your characters want to buy you a beer.
posted
I swear that Greensboro was never mentioned in the Homecoming books. Or Hart's Hope. Or Wyrms. And nobody slept in bunks, either near to or far from the door, in Homebody.
Posts: 2005 | Registered: Jul 1999
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