Hatrack River Forum: Hot Sleep

This is topic Hot Sleep in forum Discussions About Orson Scott Card at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by SkeletonRock (Member # 10563) on :

I found a copy of Hot Sleep at the book store and bought just because I thought it was interesting. I've read most of OSC's stuff but never the Worthing Chronicle. Now I want to and I don't know if I should read Hot Sleep or WC. Is there much of a difference?

Posted by ricree101 (Member # 7749) on :

The basic plot is the same, but the way it is told is very different between the two. The Worthing Chronicle also continues chronologically a long ways past the end of Hot Sleep. Personally, I really prefer the way the story was told in Hot Sleep, but I think that both are very much worth reading.

Honestly, if I had the ability to force Mr Card to sit down and write one thing, it would be yet another remake of this story that is presented more along the lines of Hot Sleep, but still has the thematic and plot elements of Worthing Chronicle. Of course, such a rewrite wouldn't exactly be worthwhile in an economic sense, and he probably doesn't want to remake one of his stories yet again, so it looks like I'm stuck imagining what it would be like. [Wink]

Edit:
And by the way, welcome to Hatrack.

Posted by SkeletonRock (Member # 10563) on :

Hey, thanks so much for the info. Now I think I'm just going to have to read both of them.

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

That's what I did. [Big Grin]

Posted by Craig Childs (Member # 5382) on :

The two novels, while they share many characters and cover many of the same events, are actually very different. I read the books in the order they were written:

1) Capital: Short Stories in the Worthing Universe
2) Hot Sleep
3) Worthing Saga (which contains the full text of Worthing Chronicle, plus some extra short stories)

Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :

It's also worth picking up Captiol if you can find it. It's an earlier attempt at the same material. Reading all three of them back to back in the order that they were written is illuminating, I think; it's cool to see an author returning to plot points, themes, etc as his skill develops, and watch how those things change as he does.

Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :

Beaten to the punch! Curse you, Craig Childs, for your speedy fingers! [Smile]

Posted by SkeletonRock (Member # 10563) on :

Wow, thanks for all the info everyone. This was probably a n00b question and I appreciate you taking the time to answer it. Like I said, I've read most of OSC's stuff, but I some how missed this one. I've also never read the forum before, so I don't know everything yet. We all know that once you join a forum you become an expert.