The Call of Earth: 2 (Homecoming)
Read The Call of Earth: 2 (Homecoming) Online
Authors: Orson Scott Card
HOMECOMING: VOLUME 2
HE
C
ALL OF
E
ARTH
ORSON SCOTT CARD
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This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental.
THE CALL OF EARTH
Copyright © 1993 by Orson Scott Card
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
Cover art by Keith Parkinson
Maps by Ellisa Mitchell
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
Tor
®
is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
ISBN-13: 978-0-812-53261-6
ISBN-10: 0-812-53261-9
First Edition: January 1993
First Mass Market Edition: January 1994
Printed in the United States of America
20 19 18 17 16 15 14
To
Dave Dollahite
Teacher and dreamer
Husband and father
Friend and fellow citizen
I owe thanks to many for easing my way through the writing of this book. Clark and Kathy Kidd provided me with a refuge during the last week of the writing of this novel; half of it came forth under their roof, and with their good company.
A writer’s life can so easily slip into undisciplined sloth; my body has long reflected the physical indolence of a mentally exhausting career. This book owes much to the fact that during the writing of it I woke my body up again: I owe thanks to Clark Kidd and Scott Allen for sweating with me as I tortured a new bicycle into submission on the roads and bikepaths of northern Virginia and on the streets and strands of North Myrtle Beach.
Several readers helped me reconcile this book with its predecessor, reading scraps of manuscript as they emerged from my printer, most notably Kathy Kidd and Russell Card. My editor on this series is Beth Meacham;
my publisher is Tom Doherty; it is no accident that I have done the best work of my life so far for them. And my agent, Barbara Bova, has been a constant help and wise counselor during a turbulent time.
This novel was supposed to be easy, but it turned out not to be. Moozh complicated everything, and yet made it all worth doing. During the long struggle to make Moozh and the rest of the story fit together, I imagine that I was barely tolerable to live with, but still my wife, Kristine, and our children, Geoffrey, Emily, and Charlie Ben, were willing to keep me around; it is the joy of my life to find them always around me when I surface from immersion in my work. And, as always, Kristine has been my first and best editor and audience, reading my work with a sharp and trustworthy eye, then telling me what I have written so I can keep or alter it as need be.
Because of the marriage customs in the city of Basilica, family relationships can be somewhat complex. Perhaps these parentage charts can help keep things straight. Women’s names are in italics.
WETCHIK’S FAMILY
RASA’S FAMILY
RASA’S NIECES
(her prize students, “adopted” into a permanent relationship of sponsorship)