The Memory of Earth
Homecoming Volume I

Orson Scott Card

Nafai lives on Harmony in his father's home with his brother and half brothers. Harmony's planetary history goes back billions of year in it's current political and technological state. Harmony has no wheeled vehicles. When entering the city of Basilica, either a thumbprint or retinal scan is needed for the computer to identify citizens of the city. War is nonexistant. Individual violence continues as usual. Worship of the Oversoul is performed differently between the men and the women. Women enter a sacred lake for visions. Men beat themselves in a form a self-flagellation.

But something is changing. War wagons have started to be used. Conspiracy is spreading further than the people within any city or nation.

Nafai sees what is happening around him but doesn't understand it. When his father, Wetchik, has a religious vision of Basilica in flames, his mother, Rasa, an important official in the city, agrees that trouble is coming. Nafai finds himself questioning the Oversoul, the object of the planet's worship, their God. He wonders if his older brothers are involved in a conspiracy against his father. He believes the Oversoul may be speaking to him.

This is a first novel of a series for Card. Harmony descended from humans on Earth after mankind tried to destroy itself. It has a lot of openings and beginnings, one or two bits of closure. The genetic manipulation of these people has a very interesting twist. The series has a lot of places to go.

The Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card