''Sea of Glass'' is an American

dystopian A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopiaCacotopia (from κακός ''kakos'' "bad") was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 1818 Plan of Parliamentary Reform (Works, vol. 3, p. 493). ...

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

Barry B. Longyear Barry B. Longyear (born May 12, 1942) is an American author who resides in New Sharon, Maine. Career Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Longyear is known best for the Hugo- and Nebula Award–winning novella '' Enemy Mine'' (1979, ''Isaac Asimov ...

. A

bildungsroman In literary criticism, a ''Bildungsroman'' (, plural ''Bildungsromane'', ) is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood ( coming of age), in which character change is impo ...

, it follows the life of Tommy, growing up in a dire future. It was originally published in 1986.

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, born without official approval into an overpopulated world. 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 are publicly tortured to death as a punishment for illegal breeding. 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.

Sources

fantasticfiction.co.uk page on Sea of Glassfantasticfiction.co.uk page on Barry B. Longyear
1987 science fiction novels Dystopian novels American bildungsromans Novels about artificial intelligence Novels about orphans {{1980s-sf-novel-stub