Form: Novel
Year: 2001
Publication history:
- 2002 : The Longest Way Home (hc) , Eos, 304 pp., 97858-X
- 2002 : The Longest Way Home (hc) , Easton Press
- 2002 : The Longest Way Home (hc) , Gollancz (UK), 213 pp., 07351-9
- 2002 : The Longest Way Home (tpb) , Gollancz (UK), 213 pp., 07352-7
- 2003 : Le Long Chemin de retour (tpb) , Laffont (France), ISBN 222109574X (in French tr. Martin H. Greenberg)
- 2003 : The Longest Way Home (pb) , Eos, 385 pp., ISBN 0-380-81487-0
A remarkable odyssey of survival and self-discovery in a perilous alien world in transition.
The privileged heir of a Great House ten thousand miles away, Joseph Keilloran awakens to the din of his world imploding. Frightened and alone, surrounded by enemies who would kill him without question, Joseph must now make his way across a strange, dangerous, and wondrous continent--a desperate journey toward a home that may no longer exist.
In the far future on a planet known to its inhabitants as Homeworld, there are two distinct classes of humans: the dominant class, known as Masters, and an underclass known as Folk, essentially slaves to the Masters. In addition, the planet has given rise to a number of native species of varying intelligence, all of whom have never seemed to take offense to (or even much interest in) the humans who have colonized their planet. For over a thousand years, the Folk have accepted their lot without rebellion. Until now.
Fifteen-year-old Joseph, a Master from the southern continent, is visiting distant relatives on the northern continent when the Folk rebel with extreme violence. All Masters are killed, with Joseph narrowly escaping into the forest all alone. He is a very long way from home, and does not know if his home will be there by the time he can travel the ten thousand miles to return.
Read a short exceprt here.