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League of Peoples #7
Radiant
Admiral Festina Ramos and the Expendables, an expertly trained scout group from the elite Explorer Corps, battle a highly advanced alien intelligence during a mission that leads them to the secret origins of the Explorer Corps and Festina's own destiny. By the author of Trapped and Commitment Hour. Reprint.
416 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published July 15, 2004
49 people are currently reading
311 people want to read
About the author
James Alan Gardner
65 books279 followersRaised in Simcoe and Bradford, Ontario, James Alan Gardner earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Applied Mathematics from the University of Waterloo.
A graduate of the Clarion West Fiction Writers Workshop, Gardner has published science fiction short stories in a range of periodicals, including The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and Amazing Stories. In 1989, his short story "Children of the Creche" was awarded the Grand Prize in the Writers of the Future contest. Two years later his story "Muffin Explains Teleology to the World at Large" won an Aurora Award; another story, "Three Hearings on the Existence of Snakes in the Human Bloodstream," won an Aurora and was nominated for both the Nebula and Hugo Awards.
He has written a number of novels in a "League of Peoples" universe in which murderers are defined as "dangerous non-sentients" and are killed if they try to leave their solar system by aliens who are so advanced that they think of humans like humans think of bacteria. This precludes the possibility of interstellar wars.
He has also explored themes of gender in his novels, including Commitment Hour in which people change sex every year, and Vigilant in which group marriages are traditional.
Gardner is also an educator and technical writer. His book Learning UNIX is used as a textbook in some Canadian universities.
A Grand Prize winner of the Writers of the Future contest, he lives with his family in Waterloo, Ontario.
A graduate of the Clarion West Fiction Writers Workshop, Gardner has published science fiction short stories in a range of periodicals, including The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and Amazing Stories. In 1989, his short story "Children of the Creche" was awarded the Grand Prize in the Writers of the Future contest. Two years later his story "Muffin Explains Teleology to the World at Large" won an Aurora Award; another story, "Three Hearings on the Existence of Snakes in the Human Bloodstream," won an Aurora and was nominated for both the Nebula and Hugo Awards.
He has written a number of novels in a "League of Peoples" universe in which murderers are defined as "dangerous non-sentients" and are killed if they try to leave their solar system by aliens who are so advanced that they think of humans like humans think of bacteria. This precludes the possibility of interstellar wars.
He has also explored themes of gender in his novels, including Commitment Hour in which people change sex every year, and Vigilant in which group marriages are traditional.
Gardner is also an educator and technical writer. His book Learning UNIX is used as a textbook in some Canadian universities.
A Grand Prize winner of the Writers of the Future contest, he lives with his family in Waterloo, Ontario.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
August 30, 2019
Radiant closes out the League of Peoples series in classic style. Youn Suu is an explorer disfigured by a weeping sore on her cheek and a narcissistic mother. When a diplomatic mission goes awry, she is infested with the hyper-intelligent Balrog spores, teamed up with Admiral Festina Ramos, and sent to rescue a survey team from the post-human Unity clade.
What we have is a mystery of a deadly alien world and a transcendence program gone horribly awry, as framed though Youn Suu's Buddhism, and her fear of being overtaken by the Balrog and its purpose. The story closes by suggesting that the Explorer Corps embodies certain archetypal heroes, agents for the higher races of the League of Peoples, solving problems that are not yet clear. The xenological mystery is both spooky and a hell of a lot of fun. Even if the the essential questions of the setting never quite come together, I enjoyed the League of Peoples series as a fun space opera jaunt.
What we have is a mystery of a deadly alien world and a transcendence program gone horribly awry, as framed though Youn Suu's Buddhism, and her fear of being overtaken by the Balrog and its purpose. The story closes by suggesting that the Explorer Corps embodies certain archetypal heroes, agents for the higher races of the League of Peoples, solving problems that are not yet clear. The xenological mystery is both spooky and a hell of a lot of fun. Even if the the essential questions of the setting never quite come together, I enjoyed the League of Peoples series as a fun space opera jaunt.
July 9, 2018
My first Gardner book, and I loved it. The main character- Ugly Screaming Stinkgirl- was a devout Buddhist, and each chapter opened with a definition of certain Buddhist terms. Due to an ugly lesion on her cheek, she seems to be excluded from a "normal" life of girl/woman/wife/mother, so joins the space Explorers. She excels at the Explorer Academy and at one point is sent to a planet which has just sent out a distress beacon, with her insane partner Tut, where they meet a famous admiral, Festina Ramos, who coincidentally has a lesion on her cheek. Can anyone say KARMA? It's a lot of fun, and enjoyable romp.
August 26, 2020
_Radiant_ is yet another excellent installment in the League of Peoples books by James Alan Gardner, easily one of the best if not the best. I would recommend reading the other books in the series first but if one doesn't I don't believe it would be too confusing.
Unlike some of the more recent volumes, particularly _Trapped_, our heroine of the entire series, Admiral Festina Ramos, has a major starring role almost from the beginning. True to form to the other volumes however the narrator is a person that that book has introduced. Our other hero this time around is a member of the Explorer Corps as well, a woman by the name of Youn Suu from the planet Anicca, a Buddhist planet settled by people from Southeast Asia. Like other members of the Explorer Corps, her brilliant mind, a non-hazardous and non-handicapping deformity, and her lack of acceptance of society drove her into the Explorer Corps.
At the start of the book Youn Suu is serving on the Technocracy ship _Pistachio_ with her Explorer Corp partner, Tut (a remarkable and unique individual). The ship is dispatched to free a Cashling planet (the Cashling being a whiney, can-barely-do-anything-for-themselves, hedonistic species introduced earlier in the series) from the Balrog, an enigmatic, powerful alien that superficially resembles red moss but known by Festina and others to be incredibly intelligent, calculating, and powerful. The red moss has thoroughly engulfed one of the Cashling cities, a place by the name of Zoonau, leading the aliens to scream for protection from the Technocracy. Knowing that the Balrog won't knowingly harm let alone kill anyone, its massive presence is nonetheless unwelcome. The _Pistachio_ is dispatched to deal with the situation.
It soon turns out that the Balrog were basically acting as they did, when and where they did, to engineer so that both Youn Suu and Festina Ramos would be at the same place and at the same time along with the Balrog, both being needed to deal with a far greater crisis; a request to rescue colonists on the world of Muta, a world being explored and tentatively settled by the Technocracy's chief rival, the Unity. The world was once known to have been inhabited by the Fuentes (also introduced earlier in the series), a race that around the human year 4000 BC ascended to a god-like non-corporeal form, having destroyed virtually all traces of their civilization, their buildings, structures, roads, everywhere they existed. Except on Muta.
The planet attracted first one race known as the Greenstriders, a race - in a move very much out of character for the species - that sold the planet to the Unity. Something it seems had not only scared the Greenstriders into selling this world (they were otherwise never, ever known to part with land once they acquired it) but also destroyed apparently in a matter of seconds every single Unity outpost. All contact was lost and attempts to reestablish it had not been successful.
What caused their sudden disappearance (all the more remarkable when a survey from orbit reveals no physical destruction to their campsites)? Festina, Youn Suu, and Tut investigate, uncovering the answers to mysteries both ancient and modern. There is lots of action in the book, more than in some of the earlier volumes, and the mystery that unfolds in _Radiant_ ties into larger issues of the history and cosmology of the League of Peoples universe.
This I think is the arguably the best book of the series, much better than the earlier volume _Trapped_. Gardner continues to impress me as a writer and I hope that others discover him as well.
Unlike some of the more recent volumes, particularly _Trapped_, our heroine of the entire series, Admiral Festina Ramos, has a major starring role almost from the beginning. True to form to the other volumes however the narrator is a person that that book has introduced. Our other hero this time around is a member of the Explorer Corps as well, a woman by the name of Youn Suu from the planet Anicca, a Buddhist planet settled by people from Southeast Asia. Like other members of the Explorer Corps, her brilliant mind, a non-hazardous and non-handicapping deformity, and her lack of acceptance of society drove her into the Explorer Corps.
At the start of the book Youn Suu is serving on the Technocracy ship _Pistachio_ with her Explorer Corp partner, Tut (a remarkable and unique individual). The ship is dispatched to free a Cashling planet (the Cashling being a whiney, can-barely-do-anything-for-themselves, hedonistic species introduced earlier in the series) from the Balrog, an enigmatic, powerful alien that superficially resembles red moss but known by Festina and others to be incredibly intelligent, calculating, and powerful. The red moss has thoroughly engulfed one of the Cashling cities, a place by the name of Zoonau, leading the aliens to scream for protection from the Technocracy. Knowing that the Balrog won't knowingly harm let alone kill anyone, its massive presence is nonetheless unwelcome. The _Pistachio_ is dispatched to deal with the situation.
It soon turns out that the Balrog were basically acting as they did, when and where they did, to engineer so that both Youn Suu and Festina Ramos would be at the same place and at the same time along with the Balrog, both being needed to deal with a far greater crisis; a request to rescue colonists on the world of Muta, a world being explored and tentatively settled by the Technocracy's chief rival, the Unity. The world was once known to have been inhabited by the Fuentes (also introduced earlier in the series), a race that around the human year 4000 BC ascended to a god-like non-corporeal form, having destroyed virtually all traces of their civilization, their buildings, structures, roads, everywhere they existed. Except on Muta.
The planet attracted first one race known as the Greenstriders, a race - in a move very much out of character for the species - that sold the planet to the Unity. Something it seems had not only scared the Greenstriders into selling this world (they were otherwise never, ever known to part with land once they acquired it) but also destroyed apparently in a matter of seconds every single Unity outpost. All contact was lost and attempts to reestablish it had not been successful.
What caused their sudden disappearance (all the more remarkable when a survey from orbit reveals no physical destruction to their campsites)? Festina, Youn Suu, and Tut investigate, uncovering the answers to mysteries both ancient and modern. There is lots of action in the book, more than in some of the earlier volumes, and the mystery that unfolds in _Radiant_ ties into larger issues of the history and cosmology of the League of Peoples universe.
This I think is the arguably the best book of the series, much better than the earlier volume _Trapped_. Gardner continues to impress me as a writer and I hope that others discover him as well.
January 23, 2021
Great book; Absolutely terrible proofing
Gardner's Technocracy series is always a satisfying read. I can recommend the print editions enthusiastically and without reservation. I cannot do the same with these ebook editions. They are plagued with almost every form of simple textual error I can conceive : typos, wrong words, extra words ( and even paragraphs ), errors that would have been caught with a simple grammar check, errors that could be corrected with a spell check. I do not know what services Open Road Media is providing Gardner, but it is obviously not editorial or proofreading.
The errors are glaring enough, that even on this, my first time reading the book, I was jolted out of my flow to report the errors. And that level of carelessness was consistent and evident throughout the entire series. At one point I thought that they were using a German spell/grammar checker ( on an English book! ) because "the" was almost universally being replaced by "die".
Using your customers as testers is a deplorable practice in the software industry that I've become inured to. It is NOT acceptable from a book publisher. Especially one that is merely republishing books in a different format.
Gardner's Technocracy series is always a satisfying read. I can recommend the print editions enthusiastically and without reservation. I cannot do the same with these ebook editions. They are plagued with almost every form of simple textual error I can conceive : typos, wrong words, extra words ( and even paragraphs ), errors that would have been caught with a simple grammar check, errors that could be corrected with a spell check. I do not know what services Open Road Media is providing Gardner, but it is obviously not editorial or proofreading.
The errors are glaring enough, that even on this, my first time reading the book, I was jolted out of my flow to report the errors. And that level of carelessness was consistent and evident throughout the entire series. At one point I thought that they were using a German spell/grammar checker ( on an English book! ) because "the" was almost universally being replaced by "die".
Using your customers as testers is a deplorable practice in the software industry that I've become inured to. It is NOT acceptable from a book publisher. Especially one that is merely republishing books in a different format.
December 7, 2022
And that's it for this round. Definitely need to reread the series.
"Buddhist doctrine. :One's body is not ones self. Neither are one's emotions, perceptions, desires, or even one's consciousness.: All those things are partial aspects, not one's absolute essence. We have no absolute essence. We're ever-changing aggregates of components that constantly come and go."
" ... gods are something you defy, not something you become."
" So what? What to do?... Simple. You did what you could, in the here and now. Nothing else was possible. The past was past. Remember, but let it go. The future was not yet with us. Wise people planned and prepared, but didn't obsess. All anyone has is the present. Live there."
" I'm uncomfortable with feeling beleaguered." (maybe a play on League of Peoples, maybe not; maybe I'll figure it out when I reread."
"Buddhist doctrine. :One's body is not ones self. Neither are one's emotions, perceptions, desires, or even one's consciousness.: All those things are partial aspects, not one's absolute essence. We have no absolute essence. We're ever-changing aggregates of components that constantly come and go."
" ... gods are something you defy, not something you become."
" So what? What to do?... Simple. You did what you could, in the here and now. Nothing else was possible. The past was past. Remember, but let it go. The future was not yet with us. Wise people planned and prepared, but didn't obsess. All anyone has is the present. Live there."
" I'm uncomfortable with feeling beleaguered." (maybe a play on League of Peoples, maybe not; maybe I'll figure it out when I reread."
February 8, 2012
Not my favorite of James Alan Gardner's League of Peoples series but only because some of the other entries in this series were more captivating for me. Enjoyed the series thoroughly.
May 24, 2021
I love this series. At a superficial level, you have a fast-paced space opera with bug-eyed monsters, cool tech, lone wolves protecting the flock against bureaucratic incompetence/greed, and each book has a different main character with a distinct voice. The author manages to enrich the narrative with interesting religious/philosophical points and mythology without being pedantic or preachy. The author’s ideas on non-binary gender identity, polyamory, and same-sex relations were pretty advanced for the waning years of the 1900’s (heh heh) and presented matter of factly (think of Uhura on Star Trek) instead of “THE GAY CHARACTER” whose main personality trait is to be gay. He’s a male author that manages to write genuinely strong women, not sex-crazed Rambo-esque soldiers (fixated on what their boobs are doing).
Lt. Admiral Festima Ramos (recurring heroine across all the novels) is easily recognized because off a lurid red birthmark across her pale cheek. Explorer first Class Ma Youn Suu has a disfiguring white birthmark on her dusky cheek. A lot is done with this obvious foil, comparing Western hero-tropes and philosophy versus Eastern, but they share a lot of common ground - bravery, compassion, ingenuity, and the esprit d’corps (and morbid insider jokes) of soldiers. When Suu was born, she was given a protective name of Stinky Pink Screaming Girl, a tradition designed to make any wandering devils or demons uninterested in the infant. As an adult, she is appalled by Ramos’ foul language, particularly at the diplomatic corps she refers to as Dipshits, but Suu realizes that all the bluster is just another way to keep the demons at bay.
Lt. Admiral Festima Ramos (recurring heroine across all the novels) is easily recognized because off a lurid red birthmark across her pale cheek. Explorer first Class Ma Youn Suu has a disfiguring white birthmark on her dusky cheek. A lot is done with this obvious foil, comparing Western hero-tropes and philosophy versus Eastern, but they share a lot of common ground - bravery, compassion, ingenuity, and the esprit d’corps (and morbid insider jokes) of soldiers. When Suu was born, she was given a protective name of Stinky Pink Screaming Girl, a tradition designed to make any wandering devils or demons uninterested in the infant. As an adult, she is appalled by Ramos’ foul language, particularly at the diplomatic corps she refers to as Dipshits, but Suu realizes that all the bluster is just another way to keep the demons at bay.
May 1, 2025
It was another good book in a very enjoyable series. I was a little worried that some of the things they built up later in the book would not pay off, but they did, at least pretty well. I felt like a fitting end to a series, but not so final that there isn't room for more someday as well.
The author felt he had to add a disclaimer answering "Why all the Buddhism", and explaining it up top probably helped, but I felt like it really didn't have to be justified; the story made it apparent.
It would be very difficult to explain this plot without looking crazy, but when reading the book, it works.
The author felt he had to add a disclaimer answering "Why all the Buddhism", and explaining it up top probably helped, but I felt like it really didn't have to be justified; the story made it apparent.
It would be very difficult to explain this plot without looking crazy, but when reading the book, it works.
October 13, 2019
Bravo. A great book that takes us on a final (boooooooo) romp through the League of Peoples universe. This time, through the perspective of a Buddhist explorer who, and this really isn't a spoiler since it happens in the opening of the book, gets "infected" with the Balrog. Like Book 2, this book is one of the heavier multicultural books in the League of Peoples universe and is all the better for it.
December 25, 2019
Interesting new characters, plus Festina (who is the best), plus more than one moment that made literally LOL, plus a semi-satisfying step forward in the overall arc of the past few books.
Wish there were more in the series.
Wish there were more in the series.
November 21, 2017
Gardner's expendable series is a favourite of mine. His characters and setting are great. Nice to see him being published again.
February 12, 2022
Awesome sci-fi.
July 17, 2024
This is the seventh, of the "League of Peoples" series.
It is also the last.
Sob!
It is also the last.
Sob!
April 4, 2025
Entertaining, but didn't draw me in as much as others in the series.
July 5, 2020
Past me felt this was only a 2-star but didn't say why. My re-read I felt it more a 3 star, and I may even re-read it again if I ever get around to reading the other books in this series ...
This book revolves around an explorer named Youn Sue, a buddhist, with a facial deformity on her cheek that secretes fluid regularly. She's an interesting character, enjoys creating sculptures, loves dancing. Her partner is Tut, a fellow who managed to get his face (and .. .ahem... other parts) gilded with gold and is a little insane. Not enough to keep him from being an explorer, but he's definitely off his rocker.
Youn Sue and Tut have had to depart to a world with a couple of diplomats in tow to help deal with an invasion by a sentient moss that calls itself the Balrog. It departs peacefully, but only after it infects Youn Sue with it's spores. They quickly spread through out her body, and can't be removed due to the whole Thou Shalt Not Kill Sentient Life rule. Since they're not hurting her or killing her, she's now a host... whether she likes it or not. While on the planet, they meet the character from the first book, Festina Ramos...
I think what bugged me the most was that Festina has had some of her backstory changed and is now a bit of a Mary Sue. I liked her a lot in the first book, she was flawed, she had a lot of stories about how her mom was upset that she was flawed but how her name meant Happy and she was often asked why she wasn't when she had everything. She also has issues with carrying some weighted things and needed Oar or her Partner. In this book suddenly she's adopted and is super genetically strong and so I'm not sure if the author retconned it, or if it was learned/revealed in one of the previous books... but I don't like this Festina as much.
The population of Muta, a beautiful world that has had attempts to colonize it from various races, has sent out a Mayday. Ramos takes over the ship as her flagship and has them all go out to see if there are rescues/survivors needed... only to discover absolutely no one. They head down to find out why and where they went, but they're very aware the Balrog clearly has plans of it's own.
This book revolves around an explorer named Youn Sue, a buddhist, with a facial deformity on her cheek that secretes fluid regularly. She's an interesting character, enjoys creating sculptures, loves dancing. Her partner is Tut, a fellow who managed to get his face (and .. .ahem... other parts) gilded with gold and is a little insane. Not enough to keep him from being an explorer, but he's definitely off his rocker.
Youn Sue and Tut have had to depart to a world with a couple of diplomats in tow to help deal with an invasion by a sentient moss that calls itself the Balrog. It departs peacefully, but only after it infects Youn Sue with it's spores. They quickly spread through out her body, and can't be removed due to the whole Thou Shalt Not Kill Sentient Life rule. Since they're not hurting her or killing her, she's now a host... whether she likes it or not. While on the planet, they meet the character from the first book, Festina Ramos...
I think what bugged me the most was that Festina has had some of her backstory changed and is now a bit of a Mary Sue. I liked her a lot in the first book, she was flawed, she had a lot of stories about how her mom was upset that she was flawed but how her name meant Happy and she was often asked why she wasn't when she had everything. She also has issues with carrying some weighted things and needed Oar or her Partner. In this book suddenly she's adopted and is super genetically strong and so I'm not sure if the author retconned it, or if it was learned/revealed in one of the previous books... but I don't like this Festina as much.
The population of Muta, a beautiful world that has had attempts to colonize it from various races, has sent out a Mayday. Ramos takes over the ship as her flagship and has them all go out to see if there are rescues/survivors needed... only to discover absolutely no one. They head down to find out why and where they went, but they're very aware the Balrog clearly has plans of it's own.
June 17, 2007
Radiant is, I believe, the 6th book in Gardner's Expendable series, but they're not the sort of books that you necesserily have to read in order. I read one a long time ago, and have been looking for the others for a while, and I finally just gave up and read whatever was at hand. I'm glad I did, because I really enjoyed it.
The premise of the Expendable books is that humanity's lot in life has been bettered to the point that everyone lives comfortable lives, and don't really know what danger or unpleasantness is. The people who do the dirty work, the ones who go on the dangerous missions - ie, the people who have all the fun - are the Explorer Corps. The Explorer Corps are made up of people who are in some way funny looking - ie, unfit for normal society, but perfectly fit to be exposed to the dangers of the universe. In Radiant, Youn Suu is an Explorer who unwillingly gets involved in the schemes of an omnipotent alien moss called the Balrog. It's hard to describe this book in detail without giving away some of the more interesting plot twists, so I won't try. But it's exciting, compelling and interesting. I really enjoyed my glimpse into Garnder's future, and I loved loved loved the final reveal.
The premise of the Expendable books is that humanity's lot in life has been bettered to the point that everyone lives comfortable lives, and don't really know what danger or unpleasantness is. The people who do the dirty work, the ones who go on the dangerous missions - ie, the people who have all the fun - are the Explorer Corps. The Explorer Corps are made up of people who are in some way funny looking - ie, unfit for normal society, but perfectly fit to be exposed to the dangers of the universe. In Radiant, Youn Suu is an Explorer who unwillingly gets involved in the schemes of an omnipotent alien moss called the Balrog. It's hard to describe this book in detail without giving away some of the more interesting plot twists, so I won't try. But it's exciting, compelling and interesting. I really enjoyed my glimpse into Garnder's future, and I loved loved loved the final reveal.
April 26, 2021
According to James Alan Gardner's home page (which you can find near the bottom of his page on Wikipedia), it seems likely that this book (Radiant) will be the last of the Festina Ramos books. I'm hoping, though, that he'll be able to continue with his "League of Peoples" theme with a new setting. Anyway, as with the rest of the series, this is another well-written, interesting, well-characterized books. Unfortunately, it doesn't tie up all the loose ends in the series, but it does tie together many of the disparate items from earlier books. So, even though we don't have a nice neat bundle, this book (and the series as a whole) is a definite read and I rate it at an Excellent 5 stars out of 5. Hopefully, he'll continue his work with his new publisher.
The seven books currently in Gardner's League of Peoples series are:
1. Expendable (League of Peoples)
2. Commitment Hour (League of Peoples)
3. Vigilant (League of Peoples)
4. Hunted (League of Peoples)
5. Ascending (League of Peoples)
6. Trapped (League of Peoples)
7. Radiant (League of Peoples)
The seven books currently in Gardner's League of Peoples series are:
1. Expendable (League of Peoples)
2. Commitment Hour (League of Peoples)
3. Vigilant (League of Peoples)
4. Hunted (League of Peoples)
5. Ascending (League of Peoples)
6. Trapped (League of Peoples)
7. Radiant (League of Peoples)
January 6, 2017
While not my favorite in the League of People's series, this book is definitely worth a read. It focuses largely on Youn Suu, an Explorer deemed so due to her festering pus filled cheek, and her journey with Admiral Festina Ramos onto another potentially doomed planet of unknown malady.
This book harkens back to Commitment Hour in the sense that there are religious undertones, and overtones in the sense that Youn is Buddhist and uses that to navigate her life and her experiences. I'm not necessarily religious, but Gardner doesn't dwell and moreso uses it to direct the story and draw it back to a character Festina dealt with in a previous book.
Enjoyable, as all of Gardner's books are, but by far not the most entertaining.
This book harkens back to Commitment Hour in the sense that there are religious undertones, and overtones in the sense that Youn is Buddhist and uses that to navigate her life and her experiences. I'm not necessarily religious, but Gardner doesn't dwell and moreso uses it to direct the story and draw it back to a character Festina dealt with in a previous book.
Enjoyable, as all of Gardner's books are, but by far not the most entertaining.
June 15, 2010
Ah I accidentally read the 5th book before reading the 2nd, 3rd & 4th. I'm just OCD enough to hate doing that. Of course this book is a stand alone and that didn't interfere with my enjoyment at all, but there were some references to Admiral Ramos' deeds that I can only assume were in another book.
Plenty of suspense and mystery as we don't really understand what the danger is on this planet for a good while. But seriously, wouldn't you immediately think about the scientific ascension used by the jelly blobs?
Plenty of suspense and mystery as we don't really understand what the danger is on this planet for a good while. But seriously, wouldn't you immediately think about the scientific ascension used by the jelly blobs?
October 6, 2011
More like 3.5 stars. The novel is very well plotted, but suffers by a repeat of plot that happens in a lot of the League of Peoples books - narrator has weird experience and refused to tell Festina about it. Well, here our narrator does, but not soon enough. And, yes, I think even the author realized he may have laid on the Buddhism a little thick, but I agree with him that a varied "multicultural" future is better than some bland uni-culutural polyglot. I'm looking forward to see where he takes this next.
December 26, 2014
This is the fifth book in the Festina Ramos series. Certainly enjoyable, not up to the first 3, but at least as good as the 4th one. Its told from the point of view of Youn Suu, an explorer who meets Ramos when she is sent down on a mission. Whilst on the mission she comes under the influence of the Balrog. From then on its an adventure story on a mysterious planet where the population has lost contact.
As I said its an enjoyable, fairly easy read. Similar to the other books. Wish there were more in the series.
As I said its an enjoyable, fairly easy read. Similar to the other books. Wish there were more in the series.
December 6, 2016
Festina Ramos answers a Mayday and finds the entire population of a planet missing. She gets trapped there and faces certain doom unless she can solve the puzzle laid out for her by godlike aliens. An exceptionally large amount of mysticism ensues. Much exploration of buddhist belief systems and what it means to be human. Interesting if you are unfamiliar with Buddhism and Eastern religions, could be boring otherwise. It's Jurassic World with more godlike aliens that act like petulant children.
October 5, 2013
Sadly the last tale in the Expendable series. It is a great story about the nature of heroes. It also reveals much of the hidden plot of the series. The only downside is that it reveals a potential even greater mystery that will never be explored.
For a full review of this book check out my video.
For a look at the series as a whole check out this video.
For a full review of this book check out my video.
For a look at the series as a whole check out this video.
April 8, 2014
Very good book. I'm so pissed that Gardner didn't write any more books after this, since it so much seems like he is setting up a major resolution and the end of this book. Can't he write one more book that would tie up so many loose ends and actually show us what the higher powers really want from humans and the Explorer Corps?!?
December 1, 2008
I am learning that I REALLY like james Alan Gardner... After reading Commitment Hour a year ago I found this at the second hand PB store and wow. I have set aside all the other "in progress" books while I concentrate burning through this one.
August 25, 2014
My favorite so far. Answers! Or at least plausible explanations! And continuing the tradition of broken but strong point-of-view characters. Unfortunately, it was published in 2005, and looks to be the last in the series.
December 1, 2007
read 11.14.04
August 2, 2010
Entertaining but not wonderful. Expendables is still the best book James Alan Gardner has written.
July 21, 2011
Enjoyable last League of Peoples book. This was probably the most interesting since Expendable.
July 19, 2012
Not nearly as good as some of the others in the series. My favorite League of Peoples books are Expendable and Hunted.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews