The Starchild Trilogy is a series of three books written by Frederik Pohl

Frederik Pohl

Frederik George Pohl, Jr. is an American science fiction writer, editor and fan, with a career spanning over seventy years — from his first published work, "Elegy to a Dead Planet: Luna" , to his most recent novel, All the Lives He Led .He won the National Book Award in 1980 for his novel Jem...

 and Jack Williamson

Jack Williamson

John Stewart Williamson , who wrote as Jack Williamson was a U.S. writer often referred to as the "Dean of Science Fiction" following the death in 1988 of Robert A...

. In the future depicted in this series, mankind is ruled by a brutal authoritarian totalitarian government known as the Plan of Man, enforced by a computerized surveillance state

Surveillance state

The surveillance state is a government's surveillance of large numbers of citizens and visitors. Such widespread surveillance is most usually justified as being necessary to prevent crime or terrorism....

.

The books in the series were:

• The Reefs of Space (1964)
• Starchild (1965)
• Rogue Star (1969)

An omnibus edition titled The Starchild Trilogy was first published in 1980.

Reception

Algis Budrys

Algis Budrys

Algis Budrys was a Lithuanian-American science fiction author, editor, and critic. He was also known under the pen names "Frank Mason", "Alger Rome", "John A. Sentry", "William Scarff", and "Paul Janvier."-Biography:...

praised The Reefs of Space as "a most rewarding piece of science fiction . . . full of inventions [and] the constant generation of science-fiction ideas and science-fiction characters." However, he criticized its ending as "anticlimactic" and for its failure to resolve themes involving several prominent characters.