Beyond the Tomorrow Mountains. [Library Binding]

Sylvia Louise. Engdahl (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1973

Children of the Star trilogy, Book Two. Once Noren gained admission to the City where technology was hidden, he thought he had discovered how to make metal and Machines available to everyone and end the rule of the Scholars. But he soon learned it was not as simple as he had believed. Was it right to let people go on believing in the promises of a Prophecy that might not come true after all?

Editorial Reviews

Review

“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

“Andre Norton fans will definitely be interested in the books of Sylvia Louise Engdahl. The present book [on a preceding list of 20 recommended as the best original novels of the year] is a sequel to This Star Shall Abide which I unfortunately missed when it appeared. I’ll try to make up for it by not missing any more.” —Locus

“Offers depth and provocative ideas for the mature reader who wants more than just action.” —Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

“Engdahl’s science fiction I cannot praise highly enough. Anyone truly interested in books of philosophical and moral depth for young people should fix her name in his mind.... The questions posed are not easy, the answers are rarely pat, but surely in a time of moral, social, economic and ecological crisis they are extremely relevant.” —Provident Book Finder, Scottsdale, Pennsylvania

“The author asks some thought provoking questions.... The ideas of power, heresy, self-knowledge, and acceptance are thoroughly examined in a book that is a testimony to the human spirit.” —News-Gazette, Martinez, California

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

From the Author

This novel is the second volume of a trilogy and is included in the out-of-print omnibus edition Children of the Star . It is also available in a Kindle edition. The omnibus was issued as adult science fiction, although these novels were originally published as Young Adult; the second and third are best liked by readers of high school age or older.

Product Details

• Library Binding
• Publisher: Atheneum (April 1973)
• ISBN-10: 0689300840
• ISBN-13: 978-0689300844
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,712,880 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm the author of eight science fiction novels, most recently two adult novels, STEWARDS OF THE FLAME and its sequel PROMISE OF THE FLAME. There's a lot of information about them at www.stewardsoftheflame.com. My six Young Adult novels (which are also enjoyed by adults) were originally pubished by Atheneum in the 1970s but have all been reissued by different publishers, in both hardcover and paperback, in the 21st century. CHILDREN OF THE STAR contains my trilogy THIS STAR SHALL ABIDE (aka HERITAGE OF THE STAR), BEYOND THE TOMORROW MOUNTAINS and THE DOORS OF THE UNIVERSE -- although these were originally published as YA novels, the omnibus was issued in 2000 by Meisha Merlin as adult SF. A new hardcover edition of my YA novel ENCHANTRESS FROM THE STARS, a Newbery Honor Book, was published by Walker in 2001 and an updated hardcover edition of the related novel THE FAR SIDE OF EVIL (which is for older teens) in 2003; both are also available in Firebird paperback editions. The updated hardcover edition of JOURNEY BETWEEN WORLDS, a romance for teenage girls, was published by Putnam in 2006 and is also available as a Firebird paperback.

I now work as a freelance editor of nonfiction anthologies. These appear in my list of titles but they consist of reprinted material by other authors; I write only the introductions.

Besides my main website about my writing and the Stewards of the Flame website, I maintain a large Space subsite -- which can be reached either from my home page or by going directly to www.sylviaengdahl.com/space/ -- and "Space Quotes to Ponder" (www.spacequotes.com) which is a collection of quotations from well-known people, and some not well known, about why it's essential for our species to expand into space.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is very provoative, February 23, 2005

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Beyond the Tomorrow Mountains. (Library Binding)

This book is really the first I've encountered that's really dealt with matters that are important,what is the reason for life, and why must we die. If you're not interested in that, that's fine. After all, the trauma the main character goes through is written with beautifull language, and the story of this civilazation is enough to endure the deep thinking. This is not your average science fiction thriller; if you're looking for a shallow book with green aliens with stalks and tentacles, you had better move on. This book is a thrilling reading experience, that kept me up till one on a school day reading it. Please, find out the joy for yourself!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Atheists need faith too, April 12, 2010

By 

Jerry L. Harrington "leebase" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Beyond the Tomorrow Mountains (Kindle Edition)

"Beyond the Tomorrow Mountains" by Sylvia Engdahl is the sequel to one of my high school favorite reads "This Star Shall Abide". In the first book we are introduced to Noren who values truth above all things. He's born in a village on a world with a strict caste system. Education is limited for those born in his caste. At the top of the heap are the "Scholars" who "know everything" and then there are the Technicians who can use machines....which are holy.

Noren is a heretic for believing that there's nothing special about Technicians and Scholars that he couldn't be himself, if only he had access to the knowledge. The first book is all about Noren's journey as a heretic who values the truth -- who comes to learn that the Prophecy is essentially true and that the Scholars have a very good reason for the way things are -- culminating in Noren becoming a Scholar himself.

The problem is that mankind's sun went nova destroying the six worlds of humanity. The world they are living on has no metals, no trees -- nothing that can be used to maintain society. Even the soil and water are poisonous. All they have is the technology they brought with them and it has to last for generations until they can figure out how to create metal from nuclear fusion. In order to preserve the technology, and yet grow the population -- they created a caste system. It's a horrible thing, and all the Scholars feel it's horrible, but the alternative is the extinction of the human race.

It's a book that filled my mind as a high schooler with the thoughts of truth and whether or not it's better to know and face pain or be happy and ignorant.

This second book could have been subtitled "Atheists need faith too". It lacks all the charm of the first book. Noren, now a scientist, is faced with the fact that creating metal is impossible by all known theories. Not just "we don't know how", but "we know it can't be done". He is paralyzed by this realization and is stripped of all the faith that he had (not faith in God, but faith that the Scholars would succeed). Sylvia is does a wonderful job of putting you into Noren's mind of despair. So good a job, that the reader is filled despair. And it goes on and on and on. If you like despair, you'll like this book. There is a payoff for those who don't slit their throats by the end of the book. Noren does find faith. Not faith in any type of god or religion, but just faith enough that it's better to try to live and die than just to give up and die.

I will be pressing on to read the third and final book just because Sylvia learned after writing the first two that she overlooked a possible solution to the no-metal delimma. Let's hope that the theme of the third book isn't "everyone should endure a time of great despair" :) The first book I'd recommend. It would (and did) stand alone fine as a single book. This second one -- I'm not sure who I'd recommend the book to. Atheists looking for a reason to live, perhaps.

Lee

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Contents..., August 31, 2005

By 

Judy Smith "judylynnsbooks" (jamestown, ky United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beyond the Tomorrow Mountains. (Library Binding)

Noren had accepted the fact that the society on the planet on which she lived had to have three distinct groups: villagers who know little and farmed; Technicians who worked the complicated machines that kept the land fertile and the water safe; and Scholars who alone knew that existence on the Machines, brought with them from elsewhere and irreplaceable until specific scientific advances were made. Noren, once a villager, was now a Scholar because he had proved his right to be one. He knew the secrets kept by scholars and he had dedicated himself to helping achieve the scientific advances that would allow machines and learning to come to all people. But he still had doubts about his society and himself. Confronted with questions about the universe that seemed to have no answer; and problems on his own planet that seemed equally unanswerable, despair overcame hope. And when his depression was further fed by a series of incidents that seemed to herald the final disaster for his people, he gave up entirely. Yet that was not the end, for Noren learned at last the secret of surviving evn the most desolate crisis. Noren's world is not our world, but his problems are unmistakenly the problems of all living creatures. 257 pages.