Beyond the Tomorrow Mountains

by Sylvia Engdahl

Children of the Star trilogy, Book Two

A YA science fiction novel enjoyed both by older teen readers and by adults.

Noren knows 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 is wrong that only they have access to the mysterious City, which even in boyhood he longed to enter. Above all, it is wrong for the Scholars to have sole power over the distribution of knowledge. The High Law imposes these restrictions and many others, though the Prophecy declares that someday knowledge and Machines will be available to everyone. No longer the heretic he once was, Noren has come to believe in the Prophecy's intended fulfillment. Yet 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. Is it right to keep on promising them a brighter future?

Although this novel was originally published in hardcover by Atheneum as Young Adult fiction, unlike the first one in its series it is rarely of interest to readers below high school age. To see more reader reviews, look at those for the omnibus edition, Children of the Star: The Complete Trilogy, which was issued as adult science fiction.