Country United States Publication date 1986 Pages 375 Originally published 1986 Page count 375 Cover artist Ron Walotsky | Language English ISBN 978-0-312-00780-5 | |
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Genres Novel, Science Fiction, Dystopia, Speculative fiction Similar The Tomorrow Testament, Infinity Hold, The Enemy Papers, Saint Mary Blue, City of Baraboo | ||
Sea of Glass is a dystopian science fiction novel by Barry B. Longyear.
Background
Thomas Windom is born into a future where the actions and lives of all human beings are predicted and manipulated by a supercomputer called MAC III. His early childhood is spent hidden in his parents' home as an illegal child. When he takes his first look outside on his seventh birthday, he is discovered by a neighbor who reports him to the police. These 'men in black' come and place him at Outcasters, an orphanage for illegal children. His parents tortured to death, Thomas grows up in the brutal orphanage and learns to survive despite being a nonentity. Death and love come to him early and often. He spends his teenage years learning the deterministic science of 'projections' and everyone's place in the world in relation to the inevitable Wardate (a time predicted by MAC III) that looms over the entire planet. As an adult, Thomas questions fate, determinism, morality, and MAC III as he struggles to understand his own place in the world and role in the War.