Hunted

League of Peoples #4

by James Alan Gardner

For the children of Admiral Alexander 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 fiery 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 was killed, along with the alien hive-queen.

For the next twenty years, Edward was exiles 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 him into a forgotten past--and, with the assistance of another Expendable, the greatest Explorer 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.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera, Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Ebooks, Canada

327 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2000

About the author

Raised 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.

Reviews

[Lois · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was funny and fun.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dang. These are mystery-thrillers, at core, but I still love 'em. Like Moon's Vatta's War series, the interest is more universal... I would not like military SF w/ intrigue in any other hands, but Moon did it right imo. And Gardner does these right.

Now this one has a detail that intrigues me especially effectively. That oft-encountered smell of buttered toast? I experience a frequent olfactory illusion of, yes, buttered toast. I've no idea what causes mine... but I'm pretty sure it's not what's described by Gardner, thank goodness!

"[She] herself didn't realize she was an awful hypocrite; she thought this was as genuine as anyone ever got. I'd seen the same thing in diplomats: honestly believing they were paragons of truth because they thought that everybody else was a bigger liar than they were."

[Baal Of · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fuckload of fun, and this may be my favorite of this series so far, edging just past Expendable. the world building was great, and the alien races seemed both reasonably realistic and actually alien. The twists fit well within the established events, and never felt like cheats. I loved the idea of the queens requiring a year of fine tuned development via the venom glands, an extreme extension of royal jelly used by honey bees. The characters were well developed, and it was fun to have Festina Ramos around again. The book was sprinkled with all kinds of interesting science fiction and tech concepts, which is something I always look for in my SF. Hopefully the remaining books will be of the same quality.

[Derek Newman-Stille · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edward is a man with an intellectual disability who grew up being treated as a child by his sister and as an embarrassment by his father. He was taken under the claws of the queen of the Mandasars, a race of strictly hierarchical lobster-like aliens until their planet went to war. He was then made part of the Explorers, who are better known as Expendables because they are sent into risky situations that no one else is sent into. The Expendables are all made up of people with disabilities and “disfigurements”, people who didn’t fit into their society’s ideas of beauty, and it is because of these disabilities that the Explorers are treated as expendable people. James Alan Gardner’s Hunted begins with Edward being taken to a new planet but when the entire crew of his spaceship except for him dies as they cross into open space, he is placed at the centre of several conspiracies with galactic consequences and implications for what it means to be human. As Edward’s body and mind begin to change, he comes face to face with his own identity and questions what it is to be himself and who he is as his selfhood becomes unfamiliar.

Hunted, much like Gardner’s Expendable, is an exploration of disability and what it means to be disabled. Few authors examine disability in future settings, erasing the idea of a future for disabled people. Most science fiction authors treat the future as a period in time when all disabilities are “cured” and erased. This has implications for the disabled community because this negates the important role we play in our current society and even the possibility of us having a role in our future. Much of Sci Fi’s treatment of disability is eugenicist in nature, treating disabled bodies as ‘mistakes’ that are meant to be rectified out of existence. For disabled readers, this has implications about our identities and reinforces ableist practices and ideologies in our current cultural circumstances.

Although there are some challenges to the way that Gardner constructs disability in Hunted, he powerfully presents disability as an essential part of Edward’s identity and illustrates Edward’s fear of becoming something different and losing his disability. Gardner also recognizes the way that disabled people tend to form our own communities and Edward is placed in the context of other disabled Explorers Festina Ramos (who has a reddish mark on part of her face) and Kaisho (who is a wheelchair user and has a symbiotic relationship with sentient glowing moss). Characters have complicated relationships with their disabilities just as disabled people do, but both Edward and Festina embrace their disabilities are part of their identities, not wanting to change them.

To read a longer version of my review, visit Speculating Canada at https://speculatingcanada.ca/2021/03/...

[Carolyn F. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love any of the books that have to do with the Explorers and this book was chock full of Explorers including Festina. I love the story of Edward and how he is so kind and trusting - unlike his family. In this fictional world, I only wish good things for him. I can't wait to read the next book in the series. Hopefully it has Explorers in it.

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unique plot sort of a Tale of Two Cities redux with brothers, sisters, aliens and intergalactic travel all stirred in for good measure.

Didn't appeal to me on the same level as the others in the series I have read but I was furiously turning the pages late at night anyway!

A step toward the human->insectoid love scenes and politics that China Miéville will later take full tilt in Perdido Street Station and Embassytown.

Next on my list is Trapped . . .

[Kayte · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a surprise hit for me. I grabbed this book and started reading it when my son wanted me to read him a grown up book (which I try to do sometimes so it’s boring for him, and he’ll fall asleep). I haven’t even read the 3rd book in this series, but I was so drawn in after the first chapter, I had to keep reading.
The whole book really made me what to keep reading. I loved the mandasars, and the Balrog, all of it. Good characters, a fun read, with some good twists and turns. No complaints.

[Robert (NurseBob) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each successive novel in Gardner's "Expendable" series is better than the one before and this is no exception. Great political world-building with believable aliens (prognosticating glow-in-the-dark moss?!) and a self-deprecating sense of humour which has you rooting for the good guys right from page one. But who, exactly, ARE the good guys is something the author keeps close to his chest with a Machiavellian plot whose double-, triple-, and quadruple-crosses eventually lead to a spectacular ending that plays in your head like a Hollywood blockbuster. Great fun!

[Andrew Brooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

How the mighty fall

I was pretty impressed with the story at first. Previous novels in the series had also been impressive, and I was pretty sure that this one would be good...which it was at first, but then towards the end, sadly, the author succumbed to the modern habit of skewering the plot for ACTION & DRAMA!...

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this series years ago, but didn't realize I had missed one. This was a very enjoyable read, as they all are, with good characters and world building. Highly recommended, especially for teens.

[Zeta Syanthis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love how deliciously /alien/ these stories are. This has all the aspects of humanity at its best and at its worst, but it also has a completely different species that helps color the universe a bit more vibrant than just humanity on its own.

[Emily VA · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stayed up until 1:30 in the morning to finish it, so it must have been good!

Festina’s back! And the other characters were interesting, and the plot was interesting, and I enjoyed it a lot. :)

[Göran Svensson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably one of the best books I have read. Very funny, I laughed through the whole book. Everything is fantastic; story, people, grammar, plot twist. You can't go wrong whit this one!

[Ralph McEwen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting plot and characters.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

More cool aliens. These are controlled by their own pheromones.

[Sytze Hiemstra · Rating 3 out of 5]

ok SF

[Onionboy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was good, but it didn't draw me in like book #3. The story was a bit too widespread. Who the main character really was kept evolving, which made it harder to connect with the story.

[Christa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Innovative imagination

Oh shit! This entire series has created a fresh universe for the reader to explore. 10/10 recommend. Looking forward to ‘next’!

[Tim Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Readers familiar with earlier novels by James Alan Gardner know of one of the overriding concepts of his fictional universe, that of the League of Peoples. A powerful organization of alien intelligences, some of them are not wholly unlike humans; they grow food, travel in spaceships, have children, and so forth. Others though are vastly more powerful and apparently incorporeal and nearly omniscient and omnipresent. Unseen by the lesser sentient races, they largely leave humans and other such races to their own devices, not really caring what they do. They only have one ironclad law; no one committing a non-sentient act can travel between star systems. Non-sentient acts include committing murder, ordering murder to be committed, or knowingly aiding a murder or murderers. Anyone guilty of such acts is instantly terminated when they leave the star system in which the act was committed. There is no escape from this sentence. It occurs instantly and without exception. Cross the line, you die.

Enter the main character of _Hunted_, Edward York, a member of the Outward Fleet Explorer Corps. Like all other Explorers, something is a bit wrong with him. Unlike other Explorers, his defect is mental. It seems Edward, while a physically perfect specimen, is a bit slow mentally. Not retarded or anything, but perhaps a bit childlike in some of his perceptions (though still possessing hidden depth and much underestimated by those around him).

Edward was with his sister stationed for a number of years on the planet Troyen, home to a sentient race of man-sized (and larger) insect-like beings known as the Mandasar. As the planet plunged into civil war, Edward's sister, a diplomat by the name of Sam, died and Edward was sent into exile in an outpost on one of Troyen's moons, blamed by Admiral York - Edward's dad - for her death.

Marooned there for twenty years, Edward finally is allowed to leave the system. Happy and at the same system sad to leave the Troyen system, Edward is bewildered by the strange, almost Bacchanalian party thrown the officers and crew of the ship as it leaves the system. Bewildered by their wild party, Edward is uncomfortable and tries to escape the amorous attentions of the female crewmembers. The ship's crew partying like it is their last day alive, it turns out that they were right. The League executes everyone on the ship with the exception of Edward, everyone on the ship dropping dead to the ground instantly as the vessel leaves the Troyen star system.

Why? What did they do to deserve execution? Did they commit some atrocity? Were they smuggling something that the League forbade? Would Edward be blamed for the tragedy?

Edward doesn't have much time to ponder things, as it becomes apparent upon his arrival at his destination - the planet Celestia - that there are those who would like Edward to disappear as well. Perhaps merely into exile once again, perhaps a bit more permanently.

Not accustomed to having to be such a man of action, left to his own devices, and to be fugitive from some dark forces present within the Fleet, Edward seeks to remain free and uncover the truth of what happened. Picking up friends along the way, including a household of Mandasars and the greatest of the Explorers, the heroine Admiral Festina Ramos, Edward undergoes an epic quest to defeat a dark conspiracy and uncover very surprising secrets about his past.

Gardner continues to shine as a science fiction author. As with _Vigilant_, the reader is treated to a gripping novel set in the same universe as the first novel (_Expendable_) told from the point of view of another, new character, not the protagonist of the earlier novels. A new alien race is introduced - the Mandasars - and they are vividly portrayed. While making them an insect caste race was interesting in and of itself - with a worker caste, an intellectual caste called gentles, and a warrior caste, each physically and mentally specialized for its assigned roles - Gardner really developed their culture as well, describing nuances of language and pheromone communication, Mandasar architectural styles, etc.

I liked how the conspiracy got deeper and darker as the book progressed, with a very surprising and extremely powerful enemy at its heart. I also enjoyed how we find out more and more about Edward's past, that there was more to him than first appeared, and how we got to find out more about his life on Mandasar before the civil war (among other things he was married to the planet's Queen!). Other alien races are vital players in addition to the Mandasar and while not as vividly portrayed are both interesting and vital to the storyline.

I really enjoy this series and Gardner is becoming one of my favorite science fiction authors.

[Michael Burnam-Fink · Rating 4 out of 5]

With Hunted, Gardner returns to the core of the series: the high crimes of Admirals and the dark secrets of the League of Nations.

Edward York is a genetically perfect clone of his father, the Admiral York, with a slight flaw in his brain that's rendered him embarrassingly stupid. Packed away to the Explorer Corps, he's spent 20 years on a small observation post around the planet Troyen, home to the insectile Mandasar. When a ship taking him to nearby Celestia crosses the line, everybody else is killed by the powerful intelligences of the League, and it's up to poor slow Edward to figure out the crime and save the day.

What he finds is a decades-long conspiracy to foment civil war, create a slave race, work around the League laws on murder, and exploit the unique biochemistry of the Mandasar to save humanity. The biochemical mystery is fantastic, a real cool take on the insectile hive alien, and mutual influence on thoughts via pheromones. We also get some important setting detail. The human Technocracy seems kind of blisteringly incompetent, even given anti-government slander. Turns out that this is because they actually are: in the past 400 years since humanity joined the League of People, their intelligence scores and physical abilities have declined, and no one know why. Admiral York's plan to create biological kings is insane, but may be necessary. Of course, he love of war seems rather misplaced, given that in-setting God is Real, and he smites people who even think of transporting weapons with a mighty hand.

My one concern was that Edward would prove to be some kind of magical retard (to borrow a phrase from Tropic Thunder, but as viewpoint character he's not nearly as stupid as he claims to be. While he's no Miles Vorkosigan, he puts the pieces together decently enough.

[Stuart Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best so far. A full fledged scifi space story. Spaceships, travel between worlds, alien warfare, high level conspiracy, and the Aliens in control of the League of Peoples actually do something.

The main character, Edward York, is mentally challenged and has basically been his genius twin sister's pawn his entire life. She gets killed, he gets exiled, and then at the moment of his return to civilization everybody dies. Then Admiral Festina Ramos shows up, and people start trying to kill him. Edward's condition makes this play like an amnesia story, where things he should know already have to be relearned and it turns into a search for clues to the mystery of the Queen's venom.

This is the best presentation of a slow witted character I've read since "Flowers for Algernon." Being slow doesn't necessarily mean that he can't use multisyllabic words, throws tantrums, or otherwise acts like a child. Edward is aware of his condition and just isn't able to make the logical connections that most people can, so he's always a step behind. Not a bumbling, slur speeched moron that can't tie his shoes, just a slow guy that's always a step behind. Which made him easier to connect with than the other characters because the plot/conspiracy is mighty complex and I was as lost as Edward much of the time.

Excellent story, nicely done.

[astaliegurec · Rating 5 out of 5]

James Alan Gardner's "Hunted" is the fourth in his "League of Peoples" series and, so far, it's the best of them. Except for the continuing escalation in Kindle formatting errors (especially the near-constant substitution of the word "die" for the word "the" -- the publisher needs to run this through a grammar checker as well as a spell checker to catch these scanning/OCR errors), there's nothing much I can say that's negative. And, just like the previous books, this one is well-written, easy to read, and interesting. I rate it at an Excellent 5 stars out of 5.

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)

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third of James Alan Gardner's books featuring Festina Ramos. Like the second one she is a main character but not the main character.

The book is similar to the fish two in style and type of story, which I guess isn't surprising, what is may be surprising it is still very enjoyable. I thought after two books Gardner might have let the standard slip or changed direction slightly, but not this is still a very good read, if you like the first two.

I always like well thoguht out aliens and this does feature one. Not being a biologist I can't say if its based on any Earth species, but it does have queens and workers which might be a giveaway.

Overall I found this a good exciting read that I could not put down and will now be looking for number 4.

[Cher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely clever story, with absolutely wonderful world-building and characterization, but the author gives the reader too many hints of what's to come, so you can guess what's going to happen next a few hundred pages ahead. I would have given it more stars but I found myself becoming very impatient with the reading of it. Somehow the suspense wasn't there for me because I could guess the major surprises well before they were revealed. Maybe that was intentional, as the main character was meant to be "not too bright," but it profoundly negatively effected my reading experience.

[Kate Atonic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard to explain why this is my least favorite without a bunch of spoilers, but it felt like the story slogged, then we got a big info-dump via flashback memory, more slogging, Scooby-doo bad-guys admit to being evil and wrap up all the loose ends with a monologue. Still enjoyed the ride, especially how sweet/bashful York interacted with women.

I really enjoy reading this series, funny without being vapid, smart without being preachy, and justice is served to all bad guys. I was able to guess the ending, but enjoyed the ride along the way.

[Maurean · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I first began reading this (and read the description of the Mandasars) I thought this was going to be a hokey second-rate sci-fi novel that I wasn't going to enjoy. Well...

I was pleasantly surprised!! I was really drawn to these characters, and the storyline had so many twists and turns that I found it difficult to put down. This was the only book I've read by this author, but the characters were so intriguing, I think I'll look for "Expendable", and get to know Festina a bit better!

[Booknerd Fraser · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, how I love me a good League of Peoples novel. This one is really good. Strange aliens, a twisty plot with inventive turns. And more feisty Festina Ramos. The only flaw is that the arc - though not the destiny - of the main narrating character is little too close to that of "Vigilant". Otherwise, tons of fun.

[Ilya Kalimulin, PhD · Rating 3 out of 5]

Классная книжка, содержит небольшое количество сатиры:

"Адмиралтейство рисковать не станет. Они доверяют лишь немногим – придуркам, которые сами хотят стать адмиралами и сделают все что угодно, лишь бы проникнуть в круг приближенных."

[Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A philosophical debate between individualism and authoritarianism is contained in this sci-fi book about a man who's the last connection to the queen of an alien race. Awesome.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as Expendable, but entertaining anyway.