Starman's Quest

by Robert Silverberg

"Starman's Quest" by Robert Silverberg is a science fiction novel published in 1958. Seventeen-year-old Alan Donnell has lived his entire life aboard a spaceship, where time dilation makes him biologically young but three hundred years old in Earth time. Trapped between two worlds—the isolated community of spacefarers and an Earth that has moved on without them—Alan must choose his path. When he discovers clues to a legendary faster-than-light drive, he embarks on a quest that could reunite his fractured family and bridge the gap between starmen and Earth.