Hunted

In the 25th century, under the leadership of the League of Peoples, war and crime are a thing of the past and life is held sacred. That is, as long as you're healthy and beautiful. But those who are deformed, flawed or misfit in any way are destined - or is "doomed" a better word? - to become Explorers, crews assigned to probe worlds so hostile, the chances of returning are somewhere between slim and none. In the fourth volume of the League of Peoples series, Alexander York is one of the High Council's most iron-fisted admirals. When his children Samantha and Edward were born, he paid top dollar to have their DNA altered to insure they grew up perfect physical and mental specimens. But when Edward ended up with a faulty brain, his father sentenced him to join the Expendables, a band of misfits and the deformed mandated to explore the most dangerous parts of the galaxy. Accompanying his sister on a mission to Troyen, an anguished planet and home to the Mandasar, Edward finds himself in the middle of a civil war and is ultimately exiled. As violence escalates, Edward struggles to navigate a treacherous path with the assistance of none other than Festina Ramos - the greatest Explorer of all. Amazon.com Review Edward York is an illegal clone, genetically engineered for perfection--but something went wrong. His twin sister, Ambassador Samantha York, is a gorgeous genius, but the physically perfect Edward is condemned by his faulty brain to service in the human Navy's Outward Fleet Explorer Corps, a collection of misfits who call themselves the Expendables, and with good reason. After Edward fails to save his sister's life on the war-torn planet Troyen, he is sent away on a Navy starship in which all other crew and passengers die in the same instant, leaving Edward alone--and trapped with unknown, destructive nanotechnology. If that isn't trouble enough, his fate is mysteriously tied to that of Troyen's native race, the Mandasar, in a complex interstellar web of conspiracy and treachery. And his only allies may be five young Mandasar; a human-alien symbiont with motives of her own; and the most infamous Expendable in the Corps, the hated Admiral Festina Ramos. In addition to Hunted , James Alan Gardner has written two previous novels featuring Festina Ramos, Expendable and Vigilant ; his novel Commitment Hour is set in the same universe. --Cynthia Ward From Publishers Weekly The latest title in Gardner's loosely linked League of Peoples series (Expendable; Vigilant) brings back a few familiar characters but focuses on Edward York, the son of Admiral Alexander York. Edward's secret is that he and his sister were genetically engineered before birth to be perfect. Unfortunately, something went awry, and Edward is a bit slow intellectually, so his father secures him a position in the Explorer Corps, the branch responsible for contacting new life forms. The catch is that Explorers (or Expendables) often die in the process. Despite his handicap, Edward manages to figure things out in his own way, as he becomes enmeshed in a civil war on Troyen, a planet with a long and complicated political and social history. Gardner's plot is rewardingly complex as well, bringing in elements and characters from his previous books, but his wry dialogue and engaging characters propel the narrative. Edward turns out to have some surprising abilities, which enable him to charm both humans and the large, lobster-like natives of Troyen and, when he learns the truth about those he's cared for, to deal with the consequences. (July) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. For the children of Admiral Alexader York, perfection wasn't just expected, it was guaranteed -- written into their DNA before they were born. But while Samantha grew into the physical and mental marvel their father had bought and paid for, her twin brother Edward proved a disappointment. Genetic tinkering had raised Sam above the common herd, but Edward's faultless body housed a faulty brain. It took all the Admiral's influence to get Edward commissioned in the Outward Fleet Explorer Corps -- a fiercely independent band of misfits who referred to themselves proudly as Expendables. Accompanying Sam on a mission to the troubled planet of Troyen, home to the alien Mandasar, Edward found himself in the midst of a civil war. There, in an instant of horrifying insanity, Sam is killed, along with the alien hive-queen. For the next twenty years, Edward is exiled to a lonely outpost on one of Troyen's moons, blamed by the Admiral for Sam's death -- and blaming himself as well. But when escalating violence forces the evacuation of the system, Edward embarks on a perilous journey home that will lead hin into a forgotten past -- and, with the assistance of another ex-Expendable, the greatest Explorere of them all, the legendary Admiral Festina Ramos, into a future thick with conspiracy and betrayal. For there lurks a dark secret powerful enough to bury the hopes of human and Mandasar alike ... or give them a new and brighter beginning