Wyrms

By Orson Scott Card

Eight thousand years ago, a space ship happened to pass too close to the planet of the wyrms. Singing her siren song, Mother Wyrm called the captain of the space ship to her side. He landed the ship and was compelled to mate with the huge disgusting worm-like female, a mating that resulted in 4 new creatures: geblings, dwelfs, gaunts and unwyrm. Unwyrm was the only unwyrm born and at his birth he devoured Mother Wyrm and, in the process, gained not her memory and knowledge but the memory and knowledge of every mother wyrm before her. He then rested, high on the top of the mountain in his dead mother's cave, knowing that his time was not yet, that it would not be until eight thousand years in the future. At which point he would take a mate, a human woman, a woman who would either save her people from Unwyrm or send all humanity to its doom. The seventh daughter of the seventh daughter of the seventh daughter is that woman and her name is Patience and she is only fifteen when she is called upon to face her fate in Unwyrm's cave.

Well, this certainly was an imaginative and compelling story. The wyrms have got to be one of the best aliens ever thought up by an author. There will be a final clash between human and wyrm, as the son of wyrm, Unwyrm, makes a desperate bid to save his people from anihilation by humankind. It's survival of the fittest as two opposing species struggle to save their respective peoples and only one will come out alive. Who will be the ultimate ruler of the universe, Wyrm or Human? An epic battle will played out in the small confines of an icy, mountain top cave. Quite an unforgettable and fascinating story.