| Looking for title of two old sci-fi novels
Around 1989 I read a series of books about a planet that had a nuclear war (or some such catastrophe) and now people were in pockets around the planet and these groups were visited by wise men who helped guide their development. One of the characters gets moved from the lowly people to the wise men category, leaving behind the love of his life. He always means to go back to her but he gets so sucked into the new and fascinating world of technology that he doesn't make time for her. You find out that the wise men are watching and guiding and kind of doing social experiments on the people.
The second is a series I read in the late 80's or early 90's, it is about a society divided in two, one half can use magic items but can't make them and the other half can make them but can't use them. I vaguely remember it being the story of a girl who was kidnapped and forced to work in the opposite society (or something like that). She runs away, discovers things about the new culture she is in. The item I remember most about this series is the post-script by the author saying that the novels are an analogy for what was happening with all these fancy electronic things being made in 3rd world countries. People here can't make them but can't seem to live without them and people that make them can't afford them or conceive of using them.
Thanks for any help you can give.
 | 
Linear Mode
