Envoy of the Flame

by Sylvia Engdahl

Overview

Ardith Moran is elated by the prospect of contact with extraterrestrial civilizations, elated enough to stake her life on her conviction that they exist after the exploratory expedition's leaders turn back. The last thing she expects is to fall in love with an alien, much less for their love to play a key role in saving Earth from tyranny and eventual ruin. As a member of the Anthropological Service, he is willing to make sacrifices and expects her to do the same. Can she, influenced by the legacy of the now-legendary Captain of Estel, convince Earthborn people that they can't retreat from the universe? Or will Earth's authorities succeed in killing her to suppress the evidence only she and her fellow envoys can provide?

Please note: The original edition of this book published in June 2021, which has a woman's face on the cover, has been withdrawn. This is a revised edition published in September 2022.

The first two bools in this trilogy, Defender of the Flame and Herald of the Flame, need not be read before this one, as it is complete in itself. However, the backstory it contains includes major spoilers for them. Please note that unlike Engdahl's YA novels, these are adult science fiction and contain some material inappropriate for readers below high school age.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940164907891
Publisher:	Ad Stellae Books
Publication date:	06/10/2021
Series:	The Captain of Estel , #3
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
File size:	458 KB

About the Author

Sylvia Engdahl is the author of eleven science fiction novels. She is best known for her six traditionally-published Young Adult novels that are also enjoyed by adults, all but one of which now have indie editions. That one, Enchantress from the Stars (available from its current publishers) was a Newbery Honor book, winner of the 2000 Phoenix Award of the Children's Literature Association, and a finalist for the 2002 Book Sense Book of the Year in the Rediscovery category. Her Children of the Star trilogy, originally written for teens, was reissued by a different publisher as adult SF.

More recently she has written five independently-published novels for adults, the Founders of Maclairn duology and the Captain of Estel trilogy. Although all her novels take place in the distant future, in most cases on hypothetical worlds, and thus are categorized as science fiction, they are are directed more to mainstream readers than to avid science fiction fans.

Engdahl has also issued an updated edition of her 1974 nonfiction book The Planet-Girded Suns: Our Forebears' Firm Belief in Inhabited Exoplanets, which is focused on original research in primary sources of the 17th through early 20th centuries that presents the views prevalent among educted people of that time. In addition she has published several collections of essays.

Between 1957 and 1967 Engdahl was a computer programmer and Computer Systems Specialist for the SAGE Air Defense System. Most recently she has worked as a freelance editor of nonfiction anthologies for high schools. Now retired, she lives in Eugene, Oregon and welcomes visitors to her website at www.sylviaengdahl.com. It includes a large section on space colonization, of which she is a strong advocate, as well as essays on other topics and detailed information about her books.