Sea of Glass :

Rating:
Summary: Sea of Glass
Review: A realistic rendering of earth as it could become. Barry Longyear is making us face over population. Sea of Glass should have won a Hugo and the Medal of Honor award. Sea of Glass is a must read.

Rating:
Summary: Sea of Glass
Review: An interesting character in an exciting world kept me enthralled from the start. This is one of those books that you will annoy your friends by talking about it all the time.

Rating:
Summary: All the elements of a Fantastic SF novel.
Review: An interesting character in an exciting world kept me enthralled from the start. This is one of those books that you will annoy your friends by talking about it all the time.

Rating:
Summary: Chilling and Disturbing
Review: Barry Longyear's writing is often of a more dismal place, or disturbing time, but this more than most. (My vote for his best book!) This work will keep you reading and every time you stop you will ask yourself, "Could this be? Will we live in such a world?". The main character is an orphan of sorts, he never should have been born, in world where lottery decides who may or may not have a child. He must now make the best of his life and find his place in the plan to rescue mankind from itself...

Rating:
Summary: Sea of Glass
Review: Chilling is what I call Sea of Glass. I read it first in 1987. Wonderful to since it back in print. I recommend "Infinity Hold" original published in 1989. It is also back in print.

Rating:
Summary: Sea of Glass
Review: Chilling is what I call Sea of Glass. I read it first in 1987. Wonderful to since it back in print. I recommend "Infinity Hold" original published in 1989. It is also back in print.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic, chilling
Review: Longyear effectively conveys a grim, totalitarian future where the hero is ultimately destroyed by his own ideals. A 1984 feel along with a taste of metafiction - chronologically told, as the character gets older, the vocabulary and structure of the sentences becomes more complex. A must-read.

Rating:
Summary: Sea of Glass
Review: One of the best, least known Science Fiction works of the 20th C. This book is required reading for anyone who loves the genre. Thankfully it is back in print.

Rating:
Summary: I think Mr. Longyear has some "issues" he was working on
Review: This is a hard book to make heads or tails of. It's a horrific story of institutionalized child abuse that will give you flashbacks and nightmares if you've suffered similar childhood trauma. It is definitely not for the faint of heart, there is enough description of horrifying sexual and physcial abuse of very small pre-pubescent children (7+ yrs old) described in these pages to make even Andrew Vachss turn pale. The sex and violence in a paper-thin vaguely plotted cautionary tale about big government and over-population feels mostly like a lurid movie of the week or true crime novel that purports to educate but really aims to tittilate. I don't think it's a coincidence that this book was first published in the late 80s (1987) when the "Ritual Abuse" accusations were at their peak in the public awareness, but individuals will interpret that fact however it fits best into their beliefs about what was "really" going on during that period in American history. It's interesting to me that Mr. Longyear took a 10 year gap between "Sea of Glass" and his next book. Read at your own risk. The book freaked me out the first time I read it, and 10 years and 75k worth of therapy later, it still freaks me out.

Rating:
Summary: A book that makes you think and think hard.
Review: This is brutally realistic rendering of society as it could become. One of my favorite sci-fi books of all time, I reread it every year or two to keep it fresh in my mind. Very well written with deep emotion, it involves you from the opening line and holds nothing back. This one should have won the Hugo.