Children of the Star: The Complete Trilogy

An omnibus edition containing the complete trilogy This Star Shall Abide (known in the UK as Heritage of the Star), Beyond the Tomorrow Mountains, and The Doors of the Universe.

Noren can see that his world is not as it should be--it is wrong that only the Scholars, and their representatives the Technicians, can use metal tools and Machines. It's wrong that only they have access to the impenetrable City, which he has always longed to enter. Above all, it is wrong for the Scholars to have sole power over the distribution of knowledge. Unable to believe in the Prophecy that promises these restrictions will someday end, he declares it to be a fraud and defies the High Lew under which they are enforced. His family and the girl to whom he is betrothed reject him. Yet he cannot turn back from the path that leads him to the mysterious fate awaiting heretics. And the more he learns of the grim truth about his people's deprivations, the less possible it seems that their world can ever be changed. It will take more drastic steps than he has imagined to restore their rightful heritage.

Of the hardover editions of these novels Kirkus Reviews said, "The fascination of both [the first two] volumes lies in Engdahl's ability to create a many-layered society with a tragic past and a doubtful future that depends on its ability to cope with a harsh, brutal environment." The three were "originally marketed as young adult books, but there is nothing juvenile about them," said the San Jose Mercury News when they were republished in one volume as adult science fiction. "Engdahl tells an important and pertinent story,"

Thu classic trilogy has made a lasting impression on young people of several geberations. See the description page for This Star Shall Abide for more reader reviews.

Although these three novels were originally published in hardcover as Young Adult books, the second and third are primarily of interest to older teens and adults; the omnibus edition, first published in 2000, was therefore issued as adult science fiction.

From the reviews of This Star Shall Abide

Winner of a Christopher Award, given for “affirmation of the highest values of the human spirit.

"Tension-filled, beautiful and haunting." --Commonweal

"Both logically and consistently suspenseful.... This Star will Abide a good deal longer than most here today, gone tomorrow sci-fi." --Kirkus Reviews

From the reviews of Beyond the Tomorrow Mountains

"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."  --Booklist

From the reviews of The Doors of the Universe

"Engdahl can make a reader forget her characters are on another planet, forget that they may not be human in precisely the way the people on this planet are, forget the problems Noren is facing are simply fiction. . . . Humanity, she says, transcends the definitions of outward form and physical location."   --Ypsilanti Press

"Although it is the third book of a trilogy, The Doors of the Universe stands powerfully by itself as a quest for survival on a planet that is basically alien to the Six Worlds’ life forms. This is much more than an adventure story. It is one man’s realization of the need for change and his slow acceptance of the responsibility to lead that change. . . . One never gets bored with the story and it haunts the reader long after it is finished." --Journal of Reading