THIS STAR SHALL ABIDE

by Sylvia Louise Engdahl ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 16, 1972

Unlike Noren, the heretic turned repentant, you may not be fully convinced that the elite corps of knowledge-bearers founded by the First Scholar was totally necessary. But the recorded dreams which show Noren how it was for that first generation which escaped the Six Worlds after the Sun turned nova -- besides being one of the most elaborate justifications for benevolent dictatorship ever created -- present a satisfyingly fantastic post-disaster scenario comparable to John Christopher's White Mountains trilogy. Noren's progression from rationalist unbeliever in a primitive rural village (where the locals must depend on mysterious Technicians to dispense machines and prepare the land for sowing) to Scholar (himself a guardian of the system) is both logically and consistently suspenseful. Who, except for readers of This Far Side of Evil (1971), would have guessed that the Mother Star prophecy is both literally true and a complicated system of social engineering? The first of a projected two volume series, This Star will Abide a good deal longer than most here today, gone tomorrow sci-fi.

Pub Date: April 16, 1972

ISBN: 0615348343

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1972

Categories: FICTION