So it was that, even though I knew “The Originist” would never be received as standing on its own, I poured a novel’s worth of love and labor into it. In the long run, I proved my own law—I wrote this story at the expense of a purely Orson Scott Card novel that will probably never be written. Yet I think it was worth doing—once—partly to prove it could be done well (if in fact I did it well), and partly because I’m proud of the story itself: because of the achievement of it, because of what the story says, and because it is a tribute to the writer that I firmly believe is the finest writer of American prose in our time, bar none.
LOW LIFE…HIGH TECH
“We’re dead,” says Doggy.
“Give them time to cool,” says I.
“They’ll never cool,” says he. “There’s no chance they’ll forgive this even if they know the whole truth, because look at the names they give the cards to, it’s like they got them for the biggest boys on the borderline, the habibs who bribe presidents of little countries and rank off cash from octopods like Shell and ITT and every now and then kill somebody and walk away clean. Now they’re sitting there in jail with the whole life story of the organization in their brains, so they don’t care if we meant to do it or not. They’re hurting, and the only way they know to make the hurt go away is to pass it on to somebody else. And that’s us. They want to make us hurt, and hurt real bad, and for a long time.”
I never saw Dog so scared….
—from “Dogwalker”
Plus many more science fiction stories by Orson Scott Card.
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.
FLUX
Copyright © 1992 by Orson Scott Card
Previously published as book two of Maps in a Mirror by Orson Scott Card (Tor, 1990)
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
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Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, Inc.
ISBN: 978-1-4299-5696-3
Tor Books by Orson Scott Card
Note: Within series, books are best read in listed order.
—–
ENDER UNIVERSE
Ender Series
Ender Wiggin: The finest general the world could hope to find or breed.
Ender's Game
Ender in Exile
Speaker for the Dead
Xenocide
Children of the Mind
Ender's Shadow Series
Parallel storylines to Ender's Game from Bean: Ender's right hand, his strategist, and his friend.
Ender's Shadow
Shadow of the Hegemon
Shadow Puppets
Shadow of the Giant
Shadows in Flight
The First Formic War Series
One hundred years before Ender's Game, the aliens arrived on Earth with fire and death.
These are the stories of the First Formic War.
Earth Unaware
Earth Afire
Ender novellas
A War of Gifts
First Meetings
The Authorized Ender Companion by Jake Black
A complete and in-depth encyclopedia of all the persons, places, things, and events in Orson Scott Card's Ender Universe.
Danny North is different from his magical family. And when he discovers his gift, it is greater than he ever imagined—which could earn him a death sentence.
The Lost Gate
The Gate Thief
THE TALES OF ALVIN MAKER SERIES
Visit the magical America that might have been, marvel as the tale of Alvin Maker unfolds.
Seventh Son
Red Prophet
Prentice Alvin
Alvin Journeyman
Heartfire
The Crystal City
HOMECOMING SERIES
Earth has been rendered uninhabitable. But it is still vital.
The Memory of Earth
The Call of Earth
The Ships of Earth
Earthfall
Earthborn
WOMEN OF GENESIS SERIES
Fiction exploring the human side of Biblical women.
Sarah
Rebekah
Rachel & Leah
THE COLLECTED SHORT FICTION OF ORSON SCOTT CARD
Experience Card's full versatility, from science fiction to fantasy, from traditional narrative poetry to modern experimental fiction.
Keeper of Dreams
The Changed Man
Cruel Miracles
Flux
Monkey Sonatas
STAND-ALONE FICTION
Hart's Hope: Dark and powerful fantasy.
Lovelock (with Kathryn Kidd): A startling look at the ethics of bioengineering.
Pastwatch: In this novel of time travel, can the past be changed?
Saints: A novel of the early days of the Mormon Church.
Songmaster: An SF classic and a haunting story of power and love.
The Worthing Saga: The tale of a seed ship sent out to save the human race.
Wyrms: The story of a young woman's journey to confront her destiny, and her world's.
The Folk of the Fringe: When America is destroyed, it's up to those on the fringes to rebuild.
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