Patience, a fifteen-year-old girl, is the only daughter of the rightful king the Heptarch. Her father, Peace, willingly lives as a slave to the usurper King Oruc, serving him as a faithful diplomat and assassin. Despite his genuine belief that King Oruc is "the best Heptarch the world could hope for at this time", Peace ensures that Patience learns the skills she will need as future Heptarch through the stern lessons of her tutor Angel. From an early age, Patience is fluent in dozens of languages, trained in diplomatic protocols and assassination techniques, and taught to be guarded and watchful at all times.

When she is thirteen, Patience learns of an ancient prophecy that - as the seventh seventh seventh daughter of the Starship Captain, the first human to set foot on Imakulata - she is destined to give birth to Kristos, who will bring either eternal salvation or eternal destruction to the world. An entire religion has been constructed around the legends of the Starship Captain and his descendants. Thousands of people, called Vigilants, stand ready to aid Patience in reclaiming the Heptarchy and fulfilling the prophecy at the center of their religion.

Wyrms (1987) is a science fiction novel by Orson Scott Card. The story examines desire, wisdom, and human will. Card describes a version of the tri-partite soul, similar to that articulated by Plato in The Republic.

Wyrms is set on Imakulata, a far-future planet that was colonized by humans thousands of years before the book begins. Ore for producing hard metal is rare on Imakulata, having been destroyed by the Starship Captain - the first human to step foot on the new world - while his ship was in orbit.

The genetic code of species on Imakulata is malleable, displaying dramatic evolutionary changes in only a few generations. As one character notes, "every creature's genetic molecule, which is the mirror of the will, obeys the slighest command to change."

Orson Scott Card (born August 24, 1951) is an American author who writes in several genres, but is primarily known for his science fiction. His novel Ender's Game (1985) and its sequel Speaker for the Dead (1986) both won Hugo and Nebula Awards, making Card the only author to win both of American science fiction's top prizes in consecutive years.

-- Reviewed by T.J. Powers