Daybreak--2250 A. D. (Original Title: Star Man's Son)

182 pp. Complete and unabridged novel. "It has been almost 200 years since the global destruction wrought by nuclear war. The tools of man's technology lie rusting alongside broken roads between ruined cities. In the mountains, the descendants of people who were training to colonize other worlds when war broke out, struggle to survive. After decades of isolation, members of the tribe who have earned the title "Star Man" have ventured back into the lowlands. While trained in combat, they are not warriors. They are seekers of lost knowledge, consecrated to the task of recovering their past. Andre Norton's book "Daybreak: 2250 A. D., originally titled "Star Man's Son," foretells a cautionary tale of the future, one in which humans still have not learned the lessons of the past. The tribe known as The Eyrie are the descendants of scientists and engineers who were sent into the mountains to prepare for life on other worlds. When the affairs of man turned critical, their mission of discovery became a quest for survival. Wary of radiation-induced genetic mutation, the tribe in those first few years took drastic steps to maintain the purity of the human race. In their fear, the Eyrie have isolated and even killed those with characteristics that drift from the norm of humanity. That fear became, over time, a cultural prejudice against anyone who came from the lowlands. Onto this stage steps a young man named Fors. He is the son of an honored explorer, a Star Man, who took to wife a woman of one of the Plains tribes. That union bequeathed to the son hair of silver, the visible flag of mutation. Ostracized by his tribe, he has been denied the honor of following in his father's footsteps. After a youth filled with rejection and bitter prejudice, climaxed by the loss of his last opportunity to be a Star Man, Fors leaves the mountain stronghold of his people and sets out alone on a trail that will change the history of not only his tribe, but all that remains of the human race."