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Sea of Glass
A boy, who has known nothing in his brief life but love and darkness, forces open a window and sees for the first time the outside world, which also sees an illegal immigrant by birth. Arrested, his parents tortured to death, we see through Thomas Windom's eyes a race preparing to deal with overpopulation in the only manner left.
388 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
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413 people want to read
About the author
Barry B. Longyear
121 books77 followersBarry Brookes Longyear was an American science fiction author who resided in New Sharon, Maine.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
January 18, 2009
5.0 stars. One of those rare books that has you thinking about it LONG after you are finished with it. Beautifully written but deeply disturbing. One of the best dystopian SF novels I have read. Highly recommended.
August 3, 2021
This one is an aggressively-dystopian, near-future novel of overpopulation leading to an oppressive, brutal society. (You know computers had already taken over the world by the 1980's, right?) It's a bit dated now, but still has a good message and interesting story with an ending that seems just a bit forced. Some of the violent scenes are quite graphic.
March 31, 2013
It is amazing how many people read the words in this book, but missed the meanings.
"Sea of Glass" merges Orwell's "1984" and Azimov's "Foundation" in a very well written work. Extremely dark, vicious, and generally more applicable to today's world, Longyear exposes the truth that a 'Big Brother' and thought crime are not needed to oppress a people. Indeed, they can be oppressed without even knowing it.
People denounce the violence as gratuitous only because they cannot see its blatantly transparent purpose in the creation of an "anti-villain". The violence is as relentless as Longyear's vision. If you only come away thinking it is some outcry against technology or over-population then you have missed the very heart of this book. Try again.
In "1984" Big Brother felt that he must beat an "I love you" out of his victims in order to have true domination. In "Sea of Glass" Mac-III only cares that certain objective be met. In "Foundation" Azimov proposed that people were difficult to manipulate through statistical projection (he called it Psycho-History), especially when they know, and Longyear rightly shows that it doesn't matter at all as long as the outputs are known for that given input.
Longyear has written a devastatingly relentless book which equals 1984 yet will never get the recognition it deserves. And in short, it is one of the few books I dust off every couple of years and read again.
"Sea of Glass" merges Orwell's "1984" and Azimov's "Foundation" in a very well written work. Extremely dark, vicious, and generally more applicable to today's world, Longyear exposes the truth that a 'Big Brother' and thought crime are not needed to oppress a people. Indeed, they can be oppressed without even knowing it.
People denounce the violence as gratuitous only because they cannot see its blatantly transparent purpose in the creation of an "anti-villain". The violence is as relentless as Longyear's vision. If you only come away thinking it is some outcry against technology or over-population then you have missed the very heart of this book. Try again.
In "1984" Big Brother felt that he must beat an "I love you" out of his victims in order to have true domination. In "Sea of Glass" Mac-III only cares that certain objective be met. In "Foundation" Azimov proposed that people were difficult to manipulate through statistical projection (he called it Psycho-History), especially when they know, and Longyear rightly shows that it doesn't matter at all as long as the outputs are known for that given input.
Longyear has written a devastatingly relentless book which equals 1984 yet will never get the recognition it deserves. And in short, it is one of the few books I dust off every couple of years and read again.
January 13, 2021
This was my first book by Longyear, who made a big splash in the 1980s, winning the Hugo, etc. SOG is something of a 'modern' 1984 or at least definitely in that genre. This also hearkens back to the overpopulation mania reflected in many works of fiction from the era, such as Make Room! Make Room! (which was referenced in the book several times, or at least the movie version of it).
Published in 1987, SOG follows Tom, from his early childhood to the conclusion of the book. Set in the not too distant future, the story largely revolves around the great changes made in 1998 to control the population on Earth to save the human race. Tom is an 'outcaster'-- someone born illegally. While Longyear never goes into too much detail as to how a child could be born legally, the penalties for illegal birth are extreme. Tom was forced to live in a house with the windows painted black and never be seen, else he would be taken away and his parents slowly executed on live TV. One day, Tom accidentally scrapes some of the black paint away from his attic window and sees the sun and sky for the first time; he is so excited (he is only 7) that he actually opens the window! Unfortunately for Tom and family, his neighbor sees him and he and his family are soon captured.
Tom is taken to a prison for outcasters, who are forced to labor on a farm in Upstate NY (everyone must earn their keep after all). The outcasters wear red-piece garments and are known as 'redbirds'. Redbirds have no right and age from just a few years old to late teenages (e.g., from when the 1998 law was passed). The guards are horrible and abuse is rampant. The redbirds strike back covertly and this is where the novel gets really brutal; one example involves killing a guard by pounding a stake up his ass, hammered in by 7 year old Tom...
It gradually emerges in the story that the world is divided into two large camps-- the Compact, comprising of most of the Americas and Europe versus the Otherworld. The Compact, in a vow to save the planet and the human race, places much of its political decisions in the hands of a supercomputer (known as MAC III). Each chapter is prefaced by a count down when the Compact must go to war with the Otherworld to stop the rampant population explosion or humanity is doomed. The exact time and date for the future war is determined by a complex process of projections managed by MAC III and is subject to change given various events, etc. This does not really concern Tom that much, living in a forced labor camp that would do the Nazis proud. It seems, however that the almost all knowing MAC III has bigger plans for Tom...
Other reviewers have commented on the brutality of the book and that is definitely there, with multiple scenes of wanton rape, murder and torture, but these play a key role in the story, giving the reader the social conditions of the world for better or worse, and what lengths MAC III deems necessary to control the world's population. The idea that humanity will "fuck it self to death" (as referenced in the book) is not new, nor is the idea of a computer mastermind orchestrating major political decisions, but Longyear puts these ideas together in a unique way. The almost constant reference to movies and texts before MAC took over (circa 1998) will definitely seem dated, especially as the book was published in the late 80s, so the movie references all date from before then. I really liked this part, but then, I was familiar with the classic science fiction and other movies he quotes from. I think, like Ready Player One, people familiar with older cultural references will like this more than others who don't.
Longyear writes well and comes off as something of a wordsmith-- do not expect standard prose here by any means. He also delves deeply into morality, especially concerning the taking of life 'for the greater good'. Tom, like the main protagonist of 1984, is really a tragic figure but one the reader can empathize with quite readily. I would probably rate this higher than 4 stars, but it just feels a little too dated (the main rivals to the Compact are spearheaded by the USSR for example). Still, a really good read!
Published in 1987, SOG follows Tom, from his early childhood to the conclusion of the book. Set in the not too distant future, the story largely revolves around the great changes made in 1998 to control the population on Earth to save the human race. Tom is an 'outcaster'-- someone born illegally. While Longyear never goes into too much detail as to how a child could be born legally, the penalties for illegal birth are extreme. Tom was forced to live in a house with the windows painted black and never be seen, else he would be taken away and his parents slowly executed on live TV. One day, Tom accidentally scrapes some of the black paint away from his attic window and sees the sun and sky for the first time; he is so excited (he is only 7) that he actually opens the window! Unfortunately for Tom and family, his neighbor sees him and he and his family are soon captured.
Tom is taken to a prison for outcasters, who are forced to labor on a farm in Upstate NY (everyone must earn their keep after all). The outcasters wear red-piece garments and are known as 'redbirds'. Redbirds have no right and age from just a few years old to late teenages (e.g., from when the 1998 law was passed). The guards are horrible and abuse is rampant. The redbirds strike back covertly and this is where the novel gets really brutal; one example involves killing a guard by pounding a stake up his ass, hammered in by 7 year old Tom...
It gradually emerges in the story that the world is divided into two large camps-- the Compact, comprising of most of the Americas and Europe versus the Otherworld. The Compact, in a vow to save the planet and the human race, places much of its political decisions in the hands of a supercomputer (known as MAC III). Each chapter is prefaced by a count down when the Compact must go to war with the Otherworld to stop the rampant population explosion or humanity is doomed. The exact time and date for the future war is determined by a complex process of projections managed by MAC III and is subject to change given various events, etc. This does not really concern Tom that much, living in a forced labor camp that would do the Nazis proud. It seems, however that the almost all knowing MAC III has bigger plans for Tom...
Other reviewers have commented on the brutality of the book and that is definitely there, with multiple scenes of wanton rape, murder and torture, but these play a key role in the story, giving the reader the social conditions of the world for better or worse, and what lengths MAC III deems necessary to control the world's population. The idea that humanity will "fuck it self to death" (as referenced in the book) is not new, nor is the idea of a computer mastermind orchestrating major political decisions, but Longyear puts these ideas together in a unique way. The almost constant reference to movies and texts before MAC took over (circa 1998) will definitely seem dated, especially as the book was published in the late 80s, so the movie references all date from before then. I really liked this part, but then, I was familiar with the classic science fiction and other movies he quotes from. I think, like Ready Player One, people familiar with older cultural references will like this more than others who don't.
Longyear writes well and comes off as something of a wordsmith-- do not expect standard prose here by any means. He also delves deeply into morality, especially concerning the taking of life 'for the greater good'. Tom, like the main protagonist of 1984, is really a tragic figure but one the reader can empathize with quite readily. I would probably rate this higher than 4 stars, but it just feels a little too dated (the main rivals to the Compact are spearheaded by the USSR for example). Still, a really good read!
January 12, 2011
I read this many years ago but it is a quite good Science Fiction novel.
xx-dnf-skim-reference
November 9, 2021Started to read, and realized that it would be just too ugly for me. Sorry, but I have a 'weak stomach' and a need for more warmth and hope in my reading. Brilliant writing style, though.
Tried because I want more re' Enemy Mine
Nov. 2021
Tried because I want more re' Enemy Mine
Nov. 2021
October 8, 2025
How am I supposed to understand that Tommy is wrong, that MAC-III is bullshit, that blowing up half the human population isn’t the responsible thing to do? I read a review that said Sea of Glass was of the ilk and on the level of Orwell’s 1984. ‘How, the fuck, so?’ would be my question. Tommy’s struggle is to resolve the basic existential problem, ‘why am I here and what’s the point?’. As the reader, I am only passively interested in Tommy’s progress towards answering this resolutely un-resolvable question. My question, as the reader is, ‘Is this MAC-III prognosticator-world-shaper thing for real?’
By the third act of the book,
If reality is just that deterministic and manipulable, if all it takes is building an AI that’s powerful enough to compute all the ambiguity away, where does my moral feeling about pre-emptive nuclear annihilation fit into an interpretation of this story? I think it doesn’t fit in at all. In reading 1984–granted it’s been a while–the notion that that dystopia is far from the best of all possible worlds is obvious. In Sea of Glass, it’s quite the opposite. It posits that, if we had the know-how to build such an entity as MAC-III, it would be insane not to.
A note on the writing as well. I observed a lot of praise for Longyear’s writing, one reviewer even called him ‘quite the wordsmith’? The book is an easy read with short chapters which is admirable, but that’s as far as I’ll go. I found myself wondering often if this was the author’s first book, if it went farm-to-table, i.e. directly from brain to publishing without much oversight like a novel-length blog post. I digested the events of Tommy’s life with incredulity. I especially felt like the narration by Tommy, the seven-year-old vigilante assassin, was impossible to take seriously. By the way there’s a couple of very, very, weird child sexuality bits dropped into act two which were implausible and serve the plot none-at-all, which made me think the author is just brain-dumping his inner demons and fantasies in the middle of his amoral story.
Positive reviews of this book are thought-provoking, but the book itself mostly gave me the ick.
By the third act of the book,
If reality is just that deterministic and manipulable, if all it takes is building an AI that’s powerful enough to compute all the ambiguity away, where does my moral feeling about pre-emptive nuclear annihilation fit into an interpretation of this story? I think it doesn’t fit in at all. In reading 1984–granted it’s been a while–the notion that that dystopia is far from the best of all possible worlds is obvious. In Sea of Glass, it’s quite the opposite. It posits that, if we had the know-how to build such an entity as MAC-III, it would be insane not to.
A note on the writing as well. I observed a lot of praise for Longyear’s writing, one reviewer even called him ‘quite the wordsmith’? The book is an easy read with short chapters which is admirable, but that’s as far as I’ll go. I found myself wondering often if this was the author’s first book, if it went farm-to-table, i.e. directly from brain to publishing without much oversight like a novel-length blog post. I digested the events of Tommy’s life with incredulity. I especially felt like the narration by Tommy, the seven-year-old vigilante assassin, was impossible to take seriously. By the way there’s a couple of very, very, weird child sexuality bits dropped into act two which were implausible and serve the plot none-at-all, which made me think the author is just brain-dumping his inner demons and fantasies in the middle of his amoral story.
Positive reviews of this book are thought-provoking, but the book itself mostly gave me the ick.
March 26, 2025
I predict I will be thinking about this book for years. It indulges in themes of dystopia and purpose, sobering the minds of those who read it. Thomas, the main character, is brilliantly ambiguous in his morals. In this book he faces the all-knowing MAC III computer, a computer that runs the government as efficiently as possible, to avoid a looming war between the compact nations and the otherworlds; a war that will kill billions.
Thomas constantly struggles with the idea that everything that happens in the world happens because the MAC made it so. The MAC computer knows everything about everyone, and how everyone will react to certain situations. This way, it can tell the government to make thousands of tiny micro-adjustments in order to achieve it's goal of Nothing in Longyear's brilliantly crafted world happens unless the MAC has a reason for it, down to even the smallest thing, like where a man rides his bike. Everything is manipulated.
We follow Thomas from childhood to adulthood, and his myriad of disturbing experiences, such as hammering a wooden stake up a rapist guard's ass as a child in the orphanage.
Where I think the true gold lies in this book, is in the later half, when Thomas starts to become this phantom that you as the reader can't seem to grasp. It's always unclear where his morals lie, but at the end we see him give in to MAC's plan for him, and he destroys half the world by pressing two triggers, and initiating the great war.
Thomas constantly struggles with the idea that everything that happens in the world happens because the MAC made it so. The MAC computer knows everything about everyone, and how everyone will react to certain situations. This way, it can tell the government to make thousands of tiny micro-adjustments in order to achieve it's goal of Nothing in Longyear's brilliantly crafted world happens unless the MAC has a reason for it, down to even the smallest thing, like where a man rides his bike. Everything is manipulated.
We follow Thomas from childhood to adulthood, and his myriad of disturbing experiences, such as hammering a wooden stake up a rapist guard's ass as a child in the orphanage.
Where I think the true gold lies in this book, is in the later half, when Thomas starts to become this phantom that you as the reader can't seem to grasp. It's always unclear where his morals lie, but at the end we see him give in to MAC's plan for him, and he destroys half the world by pressing two triggers, and initiating the great war.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 29, 2020
_Sea of Glass_ by Barry B. Longyear receives five stars from me due to the interesting story, and excellent writing.
This is a dystopian novel, and fits very well in the genre. While unfortunate, I found parts of the novel unsatisfying; however, dystopian novels tend to leave one with that feeling. I liked and disliked the main character. I liked his survival skills, his quest for knowledge, his desire to do the right things. I disliked the number of long rants and dissertations that he undergoes in his interior monologues. These, however, are important and fill in many gaps readers may have while putting readers into that world where understanding why is a question all have.
Dystopian novels scare me at times, more than horror really. What scares me about this: how people so easily accept what they are told to do and don't question it. That scares me the most as it is too real.
Aside: this is dystopian. However, there are many readings that could be done: Marxist readings could get to the bottom of the dystopian society; psychoanalysis could examine Thomas with interesting commentary; religion and socially could add a perspective on this. For me, this makes the book richer.
Recommended: Highly
This is a dystopian novel, and fits very well in the genre. While unfortunate, I found parts of the novel unsatisfying; however, dystopian novels tend to leave one with that feeling. I liked and disliked the main character. I liked his survival skills, his quest for knowledge, his desire to do the right things. I disliked the number of long rants and dissertations that he undergoes in his interior monologues. These, however, are important and fill in many gaps readers may have while putting readers into that world where understanding why is a question all have.
Dystopian novels scare me at times, more than horror really. What scares me about this: how people so easily accept what they are told to do and don't question it. That scares me the most as it is too real.
Aside: this is dystopian. However, there are many readings that could be done: Marxist readings could get to the bottom of the dystopian society; psychoanalysis could examine Thomas with interesting commentary; religion and socially could add a perspective on this. For me, this makes the book richer.
Recommended: Highly
May 17, 2020
In Barry B. Longyear’s Sea of Glass, it tells a story about Thomas Wisdom. Thomas, born out of wedlock, had to live his childhood in secret. When he was discovered by his neighbour, he was taken away from his parents to an orphanage for illegal children but his parents were tortured to death. The world Thomas lives in is controlled by a supercomputer called MAC III. This entity controls the fate of everyone under its power, and knows the date of a war that’s coming.
This novel touches on topics like our existence and purpose in this world, as we follow Thomas from childhood to adulthood, questioning about the war itself, his own morals, and the supercomputer.
This novel touches on topics like our existence and purpose in this world, as we follow Thomas from childhood to adulthood, questioning about the war itself, his own morals, and the supercomputer.
August 23, 2018
Grim and dark but gripping all the same. One gets the sense that Longyear was battling his own demons throughout the writing of this book. Let's hope he won.
July 15, 2020
Well-written book full of horrible events. Fortunately, this dystopian future is the product of an earlier time's neuroses, and nothing to worry about today.
September 24, 2023
Very of its time but the world building and depth of character is incredible. Far from an easy read, grab a box of tissues.
August 3, 2024
Ending felt a bit rushed, lots of interesting ideas
June 5, 2016
This future-dystopian novel has held up well since it was written in 1987. The doomsday clock device of an unavoidable war reflects the cold war geopolitical back drop (and cleverly referencing various films like "Dr. Strangelove" from the perspective of a film buff) of that time exacerbated by a projected explosive population growth; but it could easily pertain to other modern problems like global warming or terrorism or water scarcity. It felt current and didn't get hung up on gadgets and descriptions of convenience technology. Not much beyond air cars and implantable neural networks.
I liked that the chapters counted down to zero in anticipation of a hard stop ending (that may or may not come!). The first 1/3 was riveting, the middle 1/3 purposely meandering, and the back 1/3 a bit rushed yet surprising in its culmination. There are one or two twists of plot that didn't transition all that well and left me scalp-scratching, but overall plenty of grist for the mill thematically. The message is still a fresh one in the wake of Snowden, Ebola/Zika, ISIS, Putin/Crimea, the global economic collapse of 2008, etc. Do we really control our own fate? Do we know why we do what we do as individuals or collectively? How are we being manipulated today? Is anything other than realpolitik but a pipe dream in international affairs??
I liked that the chapters counted down to zero in anticipation of a hard stop ending (that may or may not come!). The first 1/3 was riveting, the middle 1/3 purposely meandering, and the back 1/3 a bit rushed yet surprising in its culmination. There are one or two twists of plot that didn't transition all that well and left me scalp-scratching, but overall plenty of grist for the mill thematically. The message is still a fresh one in the wake of Snowden, Ebola/Zika, ISIS, Putin/Crimea, the global economic collapse of 2008, etc. Do we really control our own fate? Do we know why we do what we do as individuals or collectively? How are we being manipulated today? Is anything other than realpolitik but a pipe dream in international affairs??
February 27, 2010
I'm not sure what I think of this book. The first three-quarters are quite different from the rest. Most of the story tells of Thomas Windom, a boy who became an orphan, called an Outcaster, when his parents were executed for unauthorized procreation, and the cruelty he and the other Outcaster faced at the forced labor camp. Then the story becomes a twist of his thoughts and counter thoughts as he tries to understand the world and his role in it. I found it difficult to parse out all the elements. Does he conclude that free will doesn't exist, that an all-knowing, all-powerful computer/god is in control of our choices, even our counter choices?
January 11, 2011
This book starts out as a rather disturbing story about how a society has responded to the problem of overpopulation. The book follows the life of Tommy Windom. Through each stage of the character's life different he becomes imprisoned in different ways: either within his home or a concentration camp or simply from his own fear. The story is not just a dystopia but also takes on the role of a modern existentialist novel that questions whether our future is predetermined (in this case, by a computer) or whether our actions can have any meaning whatsoever.
December 22, 2023
I cannot recall ever reading a more powerful story than this. It combines an engrossing existentialism reminiscent of Ionesco’s Hermit with a shockingly vivid violence that arouses a panoply of emotional responses from the reader: anger, bewilderment and amazement. Every detail has been thoroughly worked out; no loose ends in the unrelenting logic of events. Not a pleasant story but an unforgettable one that is both tragic and heroic. I've read it twice now, and plan to read again sometime in the future.
A masterpiece of Science Fiction.
A masterpiece of Science Fiction.
July 2, 2024
(9 December, 2012)
Needlessly graphic violence and a underdeveloped ending ruined a very good, if unoriginal, idea: 'super-computer, seen and unseen, controls everything on Earth, what next?' storyline with a protagonist, Thomas Windom, struggling to determine if he is an independent (a?)moral agent or mere puppet. I could live with the violence not the denouement.
Needlessly graphic violence and a underdeveloped ending ruined a very good, if unoriginal, idea: 'super-computer, seen and unseen, controls everything on Earth, what next?' storyline with a protagonist, Thomas Windom, struggling to determine if he is an independent (a?)moral agent or mere puppet. I could live with the violence not the denouement.
February 27, 2015
First read this novel about 25 years ago.
Can't believe how much of it had stayed with me.
Another novel which has disappeared due to the cold war being a part of the plot. Not that it changes the main themes in the book which are still relevant.
Excellent, thought provokng novel but one for the strong heart and strong stomach.
Can't believe how much of it had stayed with me.
Another novel which has disappeared due to the cold war being a part of the plot. Not that it changes the main themes in the book which are still relevant.
Excellent, thought provokng novel but one for the strong heart and strong stomach.
September 24, 2015
Excellent coming of age novel, uses classic YA dystopian tropes, but the horrors of a labour camp for illegally born children is a bit too harrowing for younger readers. Much of the novel is about free will and determinism, but the author's overly optimistic opinions of computer predictions jarred slightly with me. Overall, a good thought provoking page turner.
July 25, 2011
Viciously violent, graphic and packed full of moral and psychological questions. The ending feels a bit rushed and anticlimactic in comparison to the lead up. Had it an ending that matched the first part of the book, it would have scored higher.
June 4, 2012
I despise it when authors (or artists of any creative medium) feel it necessary to censor their words in order to cater to the social norms of popular culture. But the violence depicted in this book, I believe, was overly vicious and graphic, most of it completely unnecessary.
July 22, 2014
Such a great and disturbing book. Survival of the species, civilization, population, politics, phychohistory. Awesome. This figuratively had me on the edge of my seat guessing where it was going and to think about the nature of morality. And it didn't end how I thought it would.
December 28, 2023
It was okay. Well written but the themes are a little muddled and the last 3rd really plods its way to a rushed ending. I liked the first half but eventually it felt like a slog and I only finished the book out of a sense of responsibility. Three stars instead of two since it started strong.
October 9, 2007
This is truly a great book. Dark and horribly disturbing, it does well what 1984 and This Perfect Day only attempted.
Read
August 4, 2008Read ??/??/??
October 23, 2009
Read it a long time back. I remember it only vaguely now. But I seem to recall that I liked it then
December 12, 2009
This book was shorted one star only b/c the ending was a bit of a let-down. Still, it was worth every second. I am planning on reading this author's other works.
March 29, 2013
Loved it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews