ASCENDING. New York: Eos An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2001]. Octavo, boards. First edition. Gardner's principal work in the SF genre has been the creation and expansion of his League of Peoples / Festina Ramos sequence, "which begins with his first novel, EXPENDABLE (1997), and continues with VIGILANT (1999), HUNTED (2000), ASCENDING (2001), TRAPPED (2002) and RADIANT (2004). It is a sequence of some ambition, and its central dilemma –- how should the human race respond to an offer of uplift from an alien civilization which can only be granted if violence is abjured -– promises an outcome of some complexity. The novels themselves, however, feature members of the para-military Explorers Corps, comprised of operatives whose various disabilities stigmatize them, so that their high-risk missions can be accomplished without causing any guilt back home if they perish in the course of duty. This not very plausible sociodynamic may have been somewhat damaging in earlier volumes, but Gardner's increasing sophistication and attention to character development has given weight to the sequence." - John Clute, SFE (online). The SFBC edition was simultaneous with the Eos paperback edition. Issued by the Science Fiction Book Club. A fine copy in fine dust jacket. (#145731).
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