The Longest Way Home

Caught in the midst of a rebellion while visiting a friend thousands of miles from home, Joseph, the young heir to the great House Keilloran, finds himself fighting for survival in enemy territory, through which he must travel while facing terrible dangers. By the author of The King of Dreams.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School-A coming-of-age story set on a distant planet. Joseph has been trained all his life to be the next Master of his House (a sort of feudal state). The indigenous species and the humans seem to have worked out a stable, amicable system for sharing the planet, but while Joseph is visiting relatives on a faraway continent, "the Folk," a human worker caste, suddenly rebel, killing all the Masters. Joseph flees to the forest, determined to find his way home. He is aided (and sometimes hindered) by the planet's sentient species, including free Folk who are concerned with neither Masters nor revolution. Most of what Joseph thought he knew is called into question, and he gains a new understanding of his world. From his training, he has the confidence and nobility to deal with a variety of situations. From his friends along the way, he receives metaphysical instruction, sexual initiation, and an introduction to political philosophy. In one memorable episode, a starving Joseph-once a spoiled princeling who thoughtlessly hunted-must club a friendly animal; here, Silverberg masterfully conveys the reality of death, and all of the emotional pain and ethical conflict that such a choice presents to a person of conscience. At the end of Joseph's journey, readers will be left wondering how he will deal with the dilemma of being in charge of a social system that he now understands cannot last. This engaging, entertaining book is a fast read with many thoughtful themes.Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VACopyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Caught in a rebel uprising while visiting his relatives in House Getfen, 15-year-old Joseph, heir to House Keilloran, flees a massacre and undertakes a journey across his world to reach his home. In danger from pursuing rebels, Joseph also finds himself exposed to the unfamiliar world of the Indigenes, a race of nonviolent sentient beings who coexist with the dominant human race. The latest novel by sf veteran and master raconteur Silverberg (The Majipoor Chronicles) relates the coming-of-age of a young man raised in luxury who learns resilience and compassion in the face of adversity. A good choice for most sf and YA collections. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

To complete his education, Joseph Master Keilloran, 15, is visiting the northern continent of his world, a place rather like Earth that is settled by humans who remember Earth's ancient history. As an adult, Joseph will become a Master; that is, a landowner belonging to a caste superior to that of the Folk, who are serfs. But one night Joseph awakens to the rebellion of the Folk, who kill all their masters. Joseph escapes into the deep forest, where he is faced with a long journey through what suddenly has become hostile territory. He is befriended and abused by the planet's several intelligent species, which include a strange, gravely kind bird, and a village of aborigines who have an intriguing religion. He becomes a sort of barefoot doctor as he makes his way slowly south, enduring many hardships and nearly starving. In the most desperate incident, tenderhearted Joseph is forced to slaughter and eat a harmless mammal that is rather like a dog. Such sad adventures bring Joseph to maturity, as does a brief romance with a Folk girl and a sojourn in a Folk prison camp. This is especially fine work by the always reliable Silverberg, and it promises an agreeable series of successors. John MortCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Robert Silverberg has won five Nebula Awards, four Hugo Awards, and the prestigious Prix Apollo. He is the author of more than one hundred science fiction and fantasy novels -- including the best-selling Lord Valentine trilogy and the classics Dying Inside and A Time of Changes -- and more than sixty nonfiction works. Among the sixty-plus anthologies he has edited are Legends and Far Horizons, which contain original short stories set in the most popular universe of Robert Jordan, Stephen King, Ursula K. Le Guin, Gregory Benford, Greg Bear, Orson Scott Card, and virtually every other bestselling fantasy and SF writer today. Mr. Silverberg's Majipoor Cycle, set on perhaps the grandest and greatest world ever imagined, is considered one of the jewels in the crown of speculative fiction.

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