White Star

Original title: Seren Wen ar Gefndir Gwyn.

This novel was originally published in Welsh in 1992 and won the Welsh Book of the Year Award. Gwern, Pilgrim, and Saffron Tinker are an unlikely trio of heroic revolutionaries, even though they're fighting to defend High Country's independence from the encroaching empire of the Heartless Bodies. Gwern kicked the whole war off by screwing up Exile State software. Their journey takes them across Sunless Summer to the badlands, mainly on a diet of ice locust sandwiches. Gwern manages fifteen minutes as a fighter pilot but winds up bailing out over enemy territory where his sustaining leafy dream of home, hearth, his sweetheart, and his son crisps to a cinder. This is a glorious mix of picaresque, SF allegory, pastoral romance, and fantasy.