Is anyone please able to help me; I'm trying to track down a book I read as a kid and thoroughly enjoyed.  It was a single book (not a series).  I haven't seen it advertised or in a library since (trust me; it still was good!)

 

All I can remember from it are the following

 

* Lead character is a historian; hired to document early history of a new planetry colony.

* Wormhole/similar distorts time and his ship arrivesd many millenia in the future (Hi honey, I'm home! Sorry I'm late!).

* Colony is now ruled by a totalitarian government with populace surviving in a domed city (as in half-circles, not as in about to expire!)

* Populace is divided into different castes/guilds that they are born into.

* He and his party escape in snowmobile-type craft across a desert. They run out of air (painful!) and their skin blisters and forms a weeping crust which engulfs them.

* They emerge from a metamorphosis with brand new shiny skin and continue across desert to another colony where people live free and in harmony with nature and themselves.

* They forgo this bliss and come back and totally kick totalitarian butt.

 

I hope this hasn't been a plot spoiler; not much there I've rememberd that could spoil anything though I guess!  Hopefully enough to jog some memories.  Any help appreciated!

 

 

~tom.