The Road to Corlay Hardcover – January 1, 1978 by Richard Cowper  (Author), Jr. John Middleton Murry 
 
On the Eve of the Fourth Millennium a slowly-building civilization, struggling out of the rubble of the Drowning, was crushed beneath the sceptre of a powerful and repressive Church. But on the Eve of the Fourth Millennium the sound of a magical pipe was heard, and the air was filled with songs of freedom and enlightenment. And on the Eve of the Fourth Millennium the Boy appeared, bringing the gift of sacrilege, a harbinger of the future, heralding the arrival of the White Bird of Dawning. It is the coming of a New Age. A glorious future bearing the presents of the past!
 
Pocket Books hardcover, published exclusively for and by the Science Fiction Book Club. Not available new in stores. First printing Dec. 1979 (code J47), 211 pages, cover art by Gary Viskupic. 8vo (8.5" x 5.75") 1980 Locus Poll Award, Best SF Novel (Place: 7). Nominated, 1979 British Fantasy Award, August Derleth Fantasy Award; 1979 Nebula Award; 1980 Balrog Award. Includes as a prologue the story Piper at the Gates of Dawn, originally published separately (nominated, 1976 Nebula Award; 1977 British Fantasy Award; 1977 Ditmar Award; 1977 Hugo Award. 1977 Locus Poll Award, Best Novella (Place: 2).) This story is only present in US editions. The novel's first edition was a Gollancz hardcover, published in 1978 in the UK, followed by a 1979 paperback published by Pan (also UK). This was followed by a Sept. 1979 Pocket Books mass paperback edition, and this Dec. 1979 Pocket Books / Science Fiction Book Club hardcover. This is the first (and only) US hardcover edition. This book is first in a series, followed by A Dream of Kinship and A Tapestry of Time (only published in mass paperback by Pocket in the US.) Richard Cowper is a pen name of English author John Middleton Murray, Jr.
 
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