Author | James Alan Gardner |
---|---|
Country | Canada |
Language | English |
Series | League of Peoples |
Genre | Science fiction |
Publisher | Eos |
Publication date | 1999 |
Media type | Print (Hardcover, Paperback) |
Pages | 384 |
ISBN | 978-0-380-80208-1 |
OCLC | 40818013 |
Preceded by | Commitment Hour |
Followed by | Hunted |
Vigilant is a science fiction novel written by the Canadian author James Alan Gardner, published in 1999 by HarperCollins Publishers under its various imprints. [1] The book is the third volume in Gardner's "League of Peoples" series, after Commitment Hour (1998).
By the mid-25th century, humanity is integrated into a pan-galactic civilization called the League of Peoples, dominated by species of intelligent life evolved far beyond the human level. The benefits of this association are major advanced technologies, including effective interstellar travel, genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and terraforming. The League's cardinal rule is that sentient beings who do not sufficiently respect life are not allowed to travel between solar systems.
Faye Smallwood lives on the colony planet of Demoth, which humans share with the flying squirrel-like Oolom. During her adolescence, the Oolom population was nearly wiped out by a plague before her father discovered a cure for it; at 40, her residual survivor guilt leads her to join the Vigil, a Demoth-wide organization of ombudsmen. As a result, she finds herself enmeshed in an ancient mystery involving murderous androids and biological weapons.
At the SF Site , Rich Horton praised Gardner's depiction of Faye as "less than perfect but still likable", and called the book "enjoyable" and "fast-moving", but faulted it for its "elaborate edifice of motivations and plots" (while conceding that the "coincidences are generally well explained", and that the book has a "fairly tightly constructed denouement"). [2]
At the New York Times , Gerald Jonas described Faye as "engaging", with an "unquenchable spirit and pure heart", but noted that the narrative "stops for nothing, not even common sense", and that it is "wish-fulfillment fantasy of a high order". [3]
Pat Cadigan is an American science fiction author, whose work is most often identified with the cyberpunk movement. Her novels and short stories all share a common theme of exploring the relationship between the human mind and technology.
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the world's largest publishing companies and is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Corp. The name is a combination of several publishing firm names: Harper & Row, an American publishing company acquired in 1987—whose own name was the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company—together with UK publishing company William Collins, Sons, acquired in 1989.
Damien Francis Broderick is an Australian science fiction and popular science writer and editor of some 74 books. His science fiction novel The Dreaming Dragons (1980) introduced the trope of the generation time machine, his The Judas Mandala (1982) contains the first appearance of the term "virtual reality" in science fiction, and his 1997 popular science book The Spike was the first to investigate the technological singularity in detail.
James Alan Gardner is a Canadian science fiction author.
Victoria Strauss is the author of nine fantasy novels for adults and young adults, including the Stone series and the Way of Arata series. She has written hundreds of book reviews for magazines and ezines, including SF Site and Fantasy magazine, and her articles on writing have appeared in Writer's Digest and elsewhere. In 2006, she served as a judge for the World Fantasy Awards.
Kelley Eskridge is a writer of fiction, non-fiction and screenplays. Her work is generally regarded as speculative fiction and is associated with the more literary edge of the category, as well as with the category of slipstream fiction.
Jonathan Strahan is an editor and publisher of science fiction. His family moved to Perth, Western Australia in 1968, and he graduated from the University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Arts in 1986.
Expendable is a science fiction novel by the Canadian author James Alan Gardner, published in 1997 by HarperCollins Publishers under its various imprints. It is the first book in a series involving the "League of Peoples", an assemblage of advanced species in the Milky Way galaxy. There is a "sub-series" involving just the character Festima Ramos, and sometimes the female Oar.
Alma Alexander is the pen name of Alma A. Hromic, a fantasy writer whose novels include the "Worldweavers" young adult series, The Secrets of Jin-Shei and its sequel The Embers of Heaven, The Hidden Queen, and Changer of Days. She is a native of Yugoslavia and grew up in various African countries, including Zambia, Eswatini, and South Africa, also spending time in England and New Zealand before moving to the United States. She lives in Bellingham, Washington with her husband.
Far Horizons: All New Tales from the Greatest Worlds of Science Fiction is an anthology of original science fiction stories edited by Robert Silverberg, first published in hardcover by Avon Eos in May 1999, with a book club edition following from Avon and the Science Fiction Book Club in July of the same year. Paperback and trade paperback editions were issued by Eos/HarperCollins in May 2000 and December 2005, respectively, and an ebook edition by HarperCollins e-books in March 2009. The first British edition was issued in hardcover and trade paperback by Orbit/Little Brown in June 1999, with a paperback edition following from Orbit in July 2000. The book has also been translated into Spanish.
Ascending is a science fiction novel by the Canadian writer James Alan Gardner, published in 2001 by HarperCollins Publishers under its various imprints. It is the fifth novel in Gardner's "League of Peoples" series. It is a direct sequel to the first novel in the series, Expendable, in that it picks up the dual story of Festina Ramos, Explorer turned admiral, and the transparent glass woman Oar, where the earlier novel left off.
Hunted is a science fiction novel written by Canadian author James Alan Gardner, and published in the year 2000 by HarperCollins Publishers under its various imprints. The novel is the fourth in Gardner's "League of Peoples" series, after Expendable (1997), Commitment Hour (1998), and Vigilant (1999).
Trapped is a science fiction novel written by the Canadian author James Alan Gardner and published in 2002 by HarperCollins Publishers under its various imprints. The book is the sixth installment in Gardner's "League of Peoples" series of novels, set in the mid-25th century. While the majority of the novels in the series take place in outer space, Trapped is set on "Old Earth", and does not feature the series' continuing character Festina Ramos.
Radiant is a science fiction novel by the Canadian author James Alan Gardner. It was published in 2004 by HarperCollins Publishers under their Eos Books imprint. It is the seventh novel in Gardner's "League of Peoples" series. Like the six preceding novels, Radiant is set in the middle of the 25th century; like most of them, it takes place in outer space and on alien planets, and features the continuing character Festina Ramos.
Rodrigo Garcia y Robertson is an American writer of historical and fantasy fiction. He holds a Ph.D in history and taught at UCLA and Villanova University before becoming a full-time writer. In addition to his eight novels, he has had numerous short stories published in fantasy and science fiction anthologies. He lives in Mount Vernon, Washington.
Lisa Mason is an American writer of science fiction, fantasy, and urban fantasy. She lives in Piedmont, California with her husband, the artist and jeweler Tom Robinson. She is a Phi Beta Kappa scholar and graduate of the University of Michigan, the College of Literature, Sciences, and the Arts, and the University of Michigan Law School. She practiced law in Washington D.C. and San Francisco. To have more time to write, she transitioned to Matthew Bender and Company, a national law book publisher, where she started as a legal writer and rose to an executive editor. Many of her novels take place in the vicinity of San Francisco, California, either in the future or in the past through time travel. Her early works are recognized as cyberpunk. She has also written paranormal romance, historical romantic suspense, comedy, and a screenplay.
Brenda Hiatt is an American, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of romantic adventure novels, including traditional Regency romance, time travel romance, historical novels, contemporary humorous mystery, and most recently young adult science fiction romance. She has authored and published over 20 such novels in a writing career that started in 1988.
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Fran Van Cleave is an American author of libertarian science fiction, born in Boston and educated as a pharmacist. She was an active member of the Libertarian Futurist Society for many years and served as director of the society in 2005. Van Cleave's works include adventure stories with young protagonists, influenced by the Heinlein juveniles. In addition to fiction, Van Cleave has published articles on scientific topics in Analog Science Fiction and Fact.