L.E. Modesitt, Jr.s first major work was a trilogy of SF adventure novels published as paperback originals in the 1980s: Dawn for a Distant Earth, The Silent Warrior, and In Endless Twilight. Together they form The Forever Hero.
Thousands of years in the future, Earth is a desolate ruin. The first human ship to return in millennia discovers primitive remnants of humanity. And among them is a boy of immense native intelligence and determination who grows up to become the force behind a plan to make Earth flower again.