The Hidden Flame: Box Set: Stewards of the Flame + Promise of the Flame

by Sylvia Engdahl

Ominbus edition of the duology.

Book One: Stewards of the Flame
When burned-out starship captain Jesse Sanders is seized by a dictatorial medical regime and detained on the colony planet Undine, he has no idea that he is about to be plunged into a bewildering new life that will involve ordeals and joys beyond anything he has ever imagined, as well as the love of a woman with powers that seem superhuman. Still less does he suspect that he must soon take responsibility for the lives of people he has come to care about and the preservation of their hopes for the future of humankind.
This controversial novel, winner of a bronze medal in the 2008 Independer Publisher (IPPY) Book Awards, deals with government-imposed health care, with end-of-life issues, and with the so-called paranormal powers of the human mind. Despite being set in the distant future on another world, it appeals not just to science fiction fans but to a wide range of readers who question the dominant medical philosophy of today’s society, or who value personal freedom of choice.

Book Two: Promise of the Flame
Three hundred people, isolated on a raw new planet in the hope of fulfilling a dream, the dream that their psi powers will become the foundation of a culture that can someday shape the future of humankind. If they don’t starve first. If they don’t lose heart in the face of hardships beyond any they imagined. And if their kids can be reared to believe in the dream and advance both their technology and their psi powers from one generation to the next.
Starship captain Jesse Sanders hasn’t expected to be responsible for the settlement. Peter is the leader, the visionary on whose inspiration they all depend. But Peter has his hands full, not only with maintaining morale but with grueling ordeals of his own. So the job of ensuring the colony’s survival falls on Jesse. And in the end, he must stake his life in a desperate attempt to prevent the loss of all they have gained.

Kindle Edition

Published October 11, 2015

About the author

Sylvia Engdahl is the author of eleven science fiction novels, six of which, including the Newbery Honor book Enchantress from the Stars, are YA books also enjoyed by many adults. Although she is best known as an author for Young Adults, her most recent novels, the Founders of Maclairn duology (Stewards of the Flame and Promise of the Flame) and the Captain of Estel trilogy (Defender of the Flame, Herald of the Flame, and Envoy of the Flame) are adult science fiction and are not appropriate for readers below high school age. For FAQs about them and more, visit her website.

She has also written a nonfiction book, The Planet-Girded Suns: Our Forebears' Firm Belief in Inhabited Exoplanets, of which updated and expanded paperback and ebook editions were published in 2012, and three collections of her essays. Most of the nonfiction books listed under her name were edited, rather than written, by her as a freelance editor of anthologies for high schools.

Engdahl says, "I never listed more than a few of the books I read here and now the list is so outdated that i have removed all but a very few that are still among my favorites, plus ebooks I produced for my mother and for my friend Shirley Rousseau Murphy. For current lists of good books on the subjects I care about, please visit the Opinion section of my website."