With much of Earth’s own population long having since departed for other planets, and with them the tech which makes such a journey possible, life here’s serene and simple, particularly for Fullin, this gifted musician whose own talent commands many times the wages of a fisherman or farmer. Tober Cove is an absolutely wonderful place to be. “Commitment Hour” is the second novel in the “League of Peoples” series and was released in 1998. However it will not be, if Festina can possibly help it. This is obviously meant to be the final mission for both Derigha and Ramos. Now she and Yarrun Derigha, her partner, just been ordered to escort the unstable Admiral Chee to Melaquin (the feared “Planet of No Return”) which has swallowed up countless Explorers before them without any trace. Out here, there are a thousand different, and horrible, ways to die.įestina Ramos belongs to this well-trained, always dwindling ranks of ECMs (Expendable Crew Members). The flawed, the ugly, the misfit, the deformed, they’re the unwanted, flung out to the furthest corners of the galaxy to investigate hostile planets and odd, savage creatures. Under the League of Peoples’ benevolent leadership, there is very little crime, no war, and life’s sacred. “Expendable” is the first novel in the “League of Peoples” series and was released in 1997. Also, worst case scenario for a book is that the reader feels as though they wasted a few bucks, however the best case scenario is that somebody’s changed permanently for the better. He can always come back and rewrite it tomorrow, or the next day.

Unlike doctors and many others, if he has a bad day, nobody suffers. James finds that writing has the best safety net in the whole world.

In whatever spare time he has, he teaches kung fu to kids and (unsuccessfully) his rabbit. Along with writing, he is strongly interested in geology and math. He was raised in Bradford and Simcoe, Ontario, he earned Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Applied Mathematics from the University of Waterloo.

His book, called “Learning UNIX” is used as a textbook in some Canadian universities. James is also a technical writer and an educator. James won the Aurora Award, the grand prize of the 1989 Writers of the Future contest, and has been nominated for the Nebula and Hugo Awards. James Alan Gardner is a 1989 graduate of the Clarion West Science Fiction Writers Workshop, and has had many science fiction stories and novellas appear in publications like Amazing Stories, Issac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Expendable by James Alan Gardner