Homeworld
First volume of the To The Stars trilogy. In this story of post-Twentieth Century Earth, Man has recovered from the disaster wrought by the Wasters who used up the planet's reserves of fossil fuels and overpopulated the planet. The all-powerful oligarchical governments which guided the people through the bad times have retained their powerful positions. The population of Britain is divided into two classes, the executive class and the proles. Unemployment runs at 90% among the proles, while the upper-class lives comfortably.
Jan Kulozik is an engineer from the upper class. Rescued from a boating accident by an Israeli spy-sub, he learns of Israel, the only remaining democratic state, where all men are equal. He begins to question his own role as a "slave master", and becomes involved with the Israeli underground back in England.
Homeworld is a bleak future vision, a post-microchip version of Orwell's 1984, where the all powerful security forces watch every move and plot lives as though they are pawns in a chess game.
Harry Harrison
Harry Harrison (born Henry Maxwell Dempsey, 1925–2012) was an American science fiction (SF) author, best known for his character the Stainless Steel Rat and for his novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966). The latter was the rough basis for the motion picture Soylent Green (1973). Harrison was (with Brian Aldiss) the co-president of the Birmingham Science Fiction Group.
Aldiss called him "a constant peer and great family friend". His friend Michael Carroll said, "Imagine Pirates of the Caribbean or Raiders of the Lost Ark, and picture them as science-fiction novels. They're rip-roaring adventures, but they're stories with a lot of heart."
To the Stars
To the Stars consists of three books. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.