Beyond the Tomorrow Mountains

✍ Scribed by Sylvia Engdahl

• Publisher: Atheneum
• Year: 1973
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 157 KB
• Category: Fiction

✦ Synopsis

Noren knew that his world was not as it should be -- it was wrong that only the Scholars, and their representatives the Technicians, could use metal tools and Machines. It was wrong that only they had access to the mysterious City, which even in boyhood he had longed to enter. Above all, it was wrong for the Scholars to have sole power over the distribution of knowledge. The High Law imposed these restrictions and many others, though the Prophecy declared that someday knowledge and Machines would be available to everyone. Noren was a heretic. He had now come to believe in the Prophecy's fulfillment, yet the more he learned of the grim truth about his people's deprivations, the less possible it seemed that their world could ever be changed. Was it right to keep on promising them a brighter future?

This is the second book of the Children of the Star trilogy. It is preceded by This Star Shall Abide (issued in the UK under the title Heritage of the Star) and followed by The Doors of the Universe, also available as ebooks. The three are independently readable, although reading them out of order will spoil the suspense of the preceding ones. This book was originally published in hardcover by Atheneum as Young Adult fiction, although unlike This Star Shall Abide it is rarely of interest to readers below high school age. In 2000 the entire trilogy was republished as adult science fiction in one volume, in both hardcover and softcover editions, by Meisha Merlin.

Review

"Engdahl has carefully worked out the social structure and ecology of a scientific society that has been transferred to a planet without metals. What's more, she wrestles with deeply adult problems of an apparently meaningless universe and of a people's right to know facts that may destroy everything they hold dear." --Psychology Today

"Introspective readers will identify with Noren and his doubts and sense of despair while the general science fiction buff will appreciate the further experiences of Noren within the credibly developed society on a planet unlike Earth." --ALA Booklist

"In a tribute to the intelligence of teenagers the author asks some thought-provoking questions.... The ideas of power, heresy, self-knowledge, and acceptance are thoroughly examined in a book that is a testimony to the human spirit." --News-Gazette, Martinez CA

"The well-developed characters will interest many young adolescents whose thoughts and questionings are similar to Noren's." --School Library Journal

"Offers depth and provocative ideas for the mature reader who wants more than just action." --Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

From the Author

The one-volume edition of the trilogy, Children of the Star, is now back in print. (It is available in paperback only; the Kindle editions of the three novels are separate.) There is a detailed FAQ about the story at my website, but it contains spoilers so shouldn't be read until you've read all three books.

Library : Science Fiction
Universes : Children of the Star [02]
Formats : EPUB
ISBN : 9780689300844