The Forever Hero: Dawn for a Distant Earth, the Silent Warrior, in Endless Twilight

The Forever Hero (1988) is an omnibus edition of this trilogy. It includes Dawn for a Distant Earth, The Silent Warrior, and In Endless Twilight. Sometime in the distant future, Earth has achieved the stars and colonized many planets. However, the home world continued to suffer from ecological problems caused by wars and pollution. When the ecollapse finally occurred, Earth became a hellhole of poisoned land and sea, savage weather, and toxic ground fogs. The population dropped from billions to a few thousands. The Earth colonies formed a Federation and later an Empire and somehow lost contact with Earth. After countless years, an Imperial scout rediscovered the planet and the ISS Torquina was sent to survey the world. They found a wasteland of scattered ruins, mostly uninhabited and almost uninhabitable. The remaining animals were generally inedible due to toxin levels, as were many plants. In Dawn for a Distant Earth (1987), the Torquina finds two populations on the planet: shambletowners and devilkids. The Torquina crew captures an injured devilkid and tests his abilities. He is extremely strong with a high intelligence and a blinding fast reaction time. The boy takes the name MacGregor Corson Gershwin and is educated as an Imperial, becoming an ISS officer and pilot. He returns to Old Earth as a flitter pilot supporting the scientists studying the ravaged world. In The Silent Warrior (1987), Gershwin turns down the opportunity to become Commandant of the new Recorps and instead leaves Old Earth to take command of an underpowered and overtasked cruiser, the Fleurdilis, to make initial contact with a previously unknown alien species. Later, he is assigned as the Commander of an underutilized and obsolescent refitting center and salvage yard. He marries Allison and they have a son, Corson. Gershwin also becomes active as the trustee of the OER Foundation founded by Caroljoy, his first lover. In the third novel, In Endless Twilight (1988), Gershwin contributes to a revolution on Byzania to protect his house trees project. The success of that mission leads him to concentrate on psywar, preparing the populace for a radical change of viewpoint. The Empire finally decides to eliminate Gershwin, but they can't find him. However, they do move against the OER Foundation. This trilogy may be prequels to the Ecolitan Matter series. Many of the planet names are the same, the governmental institutions are similar, and the technology is comparable. However, the connection, if any, is never made clear. One of the inconsistancies is the Imperial capital. In this trilogy, New Augusta is a planet, whereas in the Ecolitan series New Augusta is a city on Terra. Since this trilogy ends with the planet New Augusta left unprotected from outsystem raiders, maybe the Imperial refugees fled to the newly reclaimed Old Earth and established a new capital city named for the old capital planet. Another puzzlement is the succession of political

In this book, Modesitt uses an earthling as his hero. What is unique about this hero is his flaws. Too often, in my opinion, I read of a 'perfect' hero; however, I rather enjoyed reading of the mistakes this hero made and how he dealt with them. As in most science fiction books, a leap of imagination is required, but with the leap made, this book is well worth a read by any reader willing to see it through to the end.

I read this series back when it first came out. It's not for kids because of the complex story line. You have to pay attention to keep up with it. If your lookin for a light read, this isn't it. Personally, I loved it when I read it and it still comes to mind regularly. This is the SF series that I judge all others I've read by. Way to go Mr. Modesitt. Thanks for a great read.

Modesitt has proven to be one of the most prolific science fiction writers of the past two decades, and never disappoints. It is wonderful that Tor has released his late-80's trilogy "Dawn for a Distant Earth", "The Silent Warrior" and "In Endless Twilight" as this newly formed compendium, and re-reading the novels has created an even deeper appreciation of both Modesitt's writing talents and the plot lines of all three novels, which seemed a bit disparate on first reading. It is "space opera" in the best sense of the word, and deals with Earth as an eco-disaster in a far flung Imperial Empire, and the books are definitely a bit testosterone heavy on the "hairy-chested" sf writers scale, but it works so well for Modesitt that you find yourself wrapped up in the adventure.If you like David Feintuch's "Seafort" chronicles or the tales of Miles Vorkosigan in Lois McMaster Bujold's works, then this set of stories is sure to appeal to you. In fact, there are bits that ring of Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" and Joe Haldeman's "Forever War" as well. It is far future military sci-fi, but with a much more character based perspective than many in the genre-and definitely worth the read. Highly recommended.

The Forever Hero was my first introduction to Modesitt. If you have never read Modesitt, but have read H. Beam Piper you will recognize the common traits of the protagonist. The uncommon man who does whatever it takes to reach his goal. He focuses, melds his enviroment to attain his goal and succeeds. Modesitt takes Piper's common man a little bit further, in the sense of accomplishing goals at any cost, irregardless of the collateral body count!This book is actually a reissue of the original trilogy (Dawn For A Distant Earth/The Silent Warrior/In Endless Twilight), long out of print. I have been waiting to get my hands on it to reread it. Another iteration of this character type is seen in the Ecolitan series of books.Since I gave the trilogy to someone long ago, I have been left rereading the Ecolitan series, now at last I will have this series to reread! Now all we need is for the Timediver/Timegod books to be reissued :)