Rating: 
Summary: this book was formative in my life
Review: The first book in this trilogy, This Star Shall Abide, literally helped determine the course of my life. It took years before I realized I was following a similar course to that of its main character, a course I first read of when I was in about fifth grade. The main character, Noren, is unflinching in his search for Truth with a capital T, a search that demands that he face the hardest of questions and challenge the heirarchical status quo of the world he was born into. You don't have to like or even be interested in science fiction to love this story. It's about the highest strivings of the best of humans. It's a terrific model in many ways for the right way of approaching the world. It's smart, it's cleverly constructed, and it's challenging. The second book I find a little thinner in its reverberations in my life, although my personal struggles -- which on the second book's subject also mirror the main character's -- have led me to essentially the same conclusions. The story grows richer each time I reread it. I only found out today that there WAS a third installment in the saga. I look forward to reading it.
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