Background

Thomas Windom is a child born into a future where the actions and lives of all human beings are predicted and controlled by a supercomputer named MAC III. His early childhood is spent locked away in his parents' home as an illegal child. When he takes his first look outside on his seventh birthday, he is discovered by an elderly neighbor and removed by 'men in black' and placed in an Outcaster orphanage for illegal children. His parents tortured to death, Thomas grows up in the orphanage and learns to survive despite being a nonentity. Death and love come to him early, and often. He spends his teenage years learning about 'projections' and everyone's place in the world in relation to the inevitable Wardate that looms over the entire planet. As an adult, he learns of and accepts his place in the world and his role in the War.

Sources

fantasticfiction.co.uk page on Sea of Glass

fantasticfiction.co.uk page on Barry B. Longyear