RADIANT

With this Buddhist-tinged military SF novel featuring Admiral Festina Ramos and the Expendables (skilled, dispensable scouts), Aurora Award–winning Canadian author Gardner (Expendable , etc.) makes a well-earned leap from paperback to hardcover. Explorer Third Class Youn Suu, a scout for the elite Explorer Corps, and her partner Tut set out to rescue the Cashlings from the Balrog, an alien intelligence capable of knowing its enemy's best-laid plans. Accompanied by Admiral Ramos, Youn and Tut travel to an eerie planet that holds the answer to the mystery of the hidden origins of the Explorers. Filled with believably flawed, emotionally involving characters, this entertaining novel of brawn and brains thoughtfully explores questions of honor, culpability and the price of survival. Agent, Richard Curtis. (Aug. 3)