(Partly Found... Probably?) Two Books 'Muties'/Mutes

[Pugshoes]

I told my son about two books I read more than 30 years ago and want to get a copy of them now- one is a pretty generic 'mutant' novella:

The hero of the story is raised on a deck of a semi-derelict colony starship- there is a medieval society. The 'lower decks' are full of mutant humans that this guy's tribe is at war with. something happens to force him to travel to the mutant area and he ends up making friends with some of them. Then eventually he decides he has to find the bridge- the end of the story is -he gets to the bridge and is able to see the starship is orbiting a planet...

Anyone any ideas?

The other book was about a human boy who was raised in an advanced alien society where there were no other humans- he wa a begger etc. then he is sold as a slave to a travelling circus that travels from solar system to system - he is a freak in a cage - eventually he escapes- dont remember how- he finds out from rumour that he is from "Earth" and eventually travels back to Earht to find it populated by a decadent society...

 

[iansales]

The first one is Brian Aldiss' Non-Stop, available in the SF Masterworks series. The second one sounds a bit like Robert Heinlein's Citizen of the Galaxy, although I may have that wrong as it's been decades since I read it...

 

[Pugshoes]

Ian Thanks- you were right about teh first one- it was indeed Non-stop- I got a copy from Amazon!

The 2nd book is not Citizen of the galaxy thought- similar, but not the same...I'll have to keep digging...

 

[DanielH]

Iansales may have misremembered the title, because it IS a heinlein book. It's Orphans of the Sky, not Citizen of the Galaxy.

Cheers

[edit]Ah, nuts. I got confused about which book you said wasn't a match. It's surprising how much Orphans of the Sky is like Non-Stop however.

 

[j d worthington]

Actually, the description of the first book fits much more closely with "Universe", the first part of Orphans of the Sky (the second part of that book takes the protagonist beyond, to the point where he convinces the mutants of the need to convince the rest of the travelers of the truth that they are in a vessel traveling through space -- not that the Ship is the Universe -- and the consequent problems he encounters in this attempt). Non-Stop, while similar in many respects, doesn't quite fit the description given... which is odd, as the response indicates that it is nonetheless the book you were looking for.....

 

[High Eight]

The second book sounds a bit like Earthblood by Keith Laumer and Rosel George Brown. Does the hero become a pirate at one point?

Earthblood and Other Stories by Keith Laumer and Eric Flint - WebScription Ebook