Capitol (novel)
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Capitol (1978) was Orson Scott Card's second published book. This collection of short stories set in the capitol of a futuristic empire is no longer in print, having been revised (along with its sequel Hot Sleep (1978) ) as The Worthing Chronicle (1983). It was re-written again as The Worthing Saga in 1990.
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Jacket description
Taken from the Ace Books version (1979):
“Capitol is a world whose only hope is sleep, whose only sleep is death, and whose dreams are fulfilled dangerously often. From the invention of the immortality drug somec which is only available to the privileged few, to a farflung empire on the edge of the galaxy, Capitol traces the fulfillment of mankind's loftiest dreams - and most dismal nightmares. It is not a utopia; but some people manage to find a kind of happiness, a kind of peace, and even, sometimes, a kind of nobility. You will meet...The telepathic ship captain who inadvertently destroys three planets. The dying prophet who keeps his god alive in the heart of a young boy. The wargaming genius whose greatest creation is undone by the only man who could ever match him. The woman who slowly kills her son - until he murders her, but she comes to visit him in the hospital anyway. Their enemies are powerful. Their lives are cruel. But you won't forget the people of Capitol.”
Story list
The short stories in the book are:
- A Sleep and a Forgetting
- A Thousand Deaths
- Skipping Stones
- Second Chance
- Breaking the Game
- Lifeloop
- Burning
- And What Will We Do Tomorrow
- Killing Children
- When No One Remembers His Name, Does God Retire?
- The Stars That Blink
ISBN numbers
- ISBN 0894370723 (paperback, 1979)
- ISBN 0708880649 (paperback, 1980)