Reading order
The Worthing tetralogy reading order
4- 7.77.7 / 1059 ratings
- Score
- 4 volumes
- Volumes
- 1979–1990
- Published
- about 25 h
- Reading time
- Completed
- Status
- Science fiction
- Genre
Quick answer
Publication order
4 volumes1979–1990Completed
- Orson Scott Card’s early science fiction about Jason Worthing, a starship captain who can read minds, and the world he founds: in a future empire kept going by Somec, a drug that lets the rich sleep through the centuries, he leads a colony far from it, and its descendants live for generations in a world where some god-like power took away all pain, until it stops.
- Capitol and Hot Sleep are early versions; The Worthing Saga collects and reworks them and is the one with enough ratings.
- Start there.
A plan for the whole series
4 volumes, 1,366 pages, about 25 hours. At 45 min a day that is about 5 weeks.
Stages
2 stages, with 1 short book from outside the series between them. You finish around December 5, 2026, 4 days later than in one go.
- Stage 117 habout 3 weeksby November 20, 2026
- Short breakThe Fire Next Time · James Baldwin · 120 pp. · score 8.8
- Stage 28 h11 daysby December 5, 2026
- The end of the series
We count 1.1 min per page, the pace of an average novel reader. Faster? Move the slider.
How this plan is calculated
The plan comes from the pages and ratings of each volume: we split the series into stages of about three weeks’ reading, size each break to the stage before it, and read the chance of finishing from how many readers rate the last volume compared with the first. How we work out the plan →
Every volume in order
Order checked by hand · Order and years: Wikidata (CC0). Spotted an error? Tell us. · Data updated October 29, 2026
Extras, short stories and spin-offs
Not needed to follow the main story — read them after the series or skip them.
- A Thousand Deaths1978
- Killing Children1978
- Lifeloop1978
- Breaking the Game1979
- Second Chance1979
- Skipping Stones1979
- The Stars That Blink1979
- When No One Remembers His Name, Does God Retire?1979
- A Sleep and a Forgetting1979
- The Tinker1980
- Worthing Farm1990
- Worthing Inn1990
- And What Will We Do Tomorrow?
Frequently asked questions
Which The Worthing tetralogy book is the longest?
“The Worthing Saga” is the longest at 463 pages; the shortest is “The Worthing Chronicle” with 264 pages.
What should I read after The Worthing tetralogy?
After the main series: A Thousand Deaths, Killing Children, Lifeloop, Breaking the Game.
