Sylvia Engdahl
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 those few have access to the impenetrable City, which he has always
...The books in this trilogy have been retitled to make plain that they are a separate and quite different story from Sylvia Engdahl's other novels with "Flame" in their titles, set centuries later, which can be read independently.
Book One: PASSAGE TO DESTINY
(Originally published as Defender of the Flame)
Starship pilot Terry Radnor is elated to be among those chosen to defend the secret colony Maclairn against enemies who
...Three hundred people in a starship low on life support — they must land fast, or they'll run out of air. Captain Jesse Sanders is their only pilot. How can he choose where to locate their colony with no chance to explore the raw new world? How can he shuttle them all to the surface within a few short hours? And when the site proves less than adequate, how can he live with the knowledge that his own astrogation error was what got them into
...Crime is considered illness, untreated illness is crime; ambulance crews are the only police. Dead bodies stay on "life support" forever. Can anyone gain freedom?
When burned-out starship captain Jesse Sanders is seized by a dictatorial medical regime and detained on the colony planet Undine, he has no idea that he is about to be plunged into a bewildering new life that will involve ordeals and joys beyond anything he has ever imagined, as
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