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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 439623" data-attributes="member: 508">I highly recommend James Alan Gardner.  His novels (Expendable, Commitment Hour, Vigilant, Hunted, Ascending) are all set in the same universe, but other than making sure you read Expendable first, you can really pretty much read them in any order.  I really like his universe: there's a Star Trek-like Federation ("The League of Peoples," I think), but they're being observed by an unseen, superadvanced race that oversees all sentient life in the Galaxy.  They pretty much let everyone do what they want, with one exception: if you kill another sentient being, you will die if you leave your solar system.  They'll see to it, your body just shuts down for no know reason if you leave your system.  So go ahead, be a murderer if you want, just don't spread your disease to other worlds.  This one simple little fact puts a whole new spin on the culture of the sentient species: lots of harmless stun attacks, very little lethality.The other main idea is the Explorer Corps.  Humanity needs a group of "Star Trek red shirts" to go down and check out the new planets (humanity is expanding to other systems in a big way), but the psychologists have learned that when good-looking and well-loved crewmembers get killed checking out new worlds it can be a real bummer for the rest of the crew.  The solution?  Draft all of the non-perfect people into the Explorer Corps.  If an Explorer with a malformed arm, a missing jaw, or just a really bad skin condition gets killed, the good-looking crew doesn't seem to get as bummed out.  Expendable is the story of Festiva Ramos, a young woman whose only deformity is a purple birthmark covering one of her cheeks.  Easily correctible, but if they go around correcting defects like that, where would they get their Explorers?  All in all, this is an excellent series.  I'm already looking forward to Gardner's next book.Johnathan</blockquote>

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