[elaysee]

James Alan Gardner's Expendable is 99¢ at Amazon US and Kobo right now.

I've read this book multiple times and recommend it highly. Many of you may have picked up series books three and onward in the recent Great Open Road Giveaway.

IMPORTANT PRO TIP: the series is set in the same universe, but book two has a different setting and very different feel from Expendable and most of the later books. I'm convinced that Gardner's later books were in the giveaway because people read Expendable, think "wow!" and head to "Commitment Hour" and decide he's a one-hit wonder. Move straight on to book three, Vigilant, instead.

Blurb which doesn't capture Festina's great narrative voice:

Spoiler:

In Expendable, the first volume of the League of Peoples, Festina Ramos is assigned to escort an unstable admiral to planet Melaquin. Little is known about Melaquin, for every explorer who’s landed there has disappeared. It’s come to be known as the “planet of no return,” and the High Council has made a habit of sending troublesome admirals there in an attempt to get rid of them. It’s clear that this is intended to be Ramos’s last mission, but she doesn’t plan on dying, no matter how expendable she may be.