The Sting was what made Ronica McBride special-that, and the years the interstellar government called the Com had invested in teaching her how to use it. Class C talents could use the power called gathering to control their own bodies; the less common Class Bs used pathfinding to alter the inner workings of mechanical things; but only the rare Class A could use the Sting-and it was that unparalleled power over other minds that made Ronica the most valuable resource in the Com. Newly graduated and ready to use her Class A talent, Ronica McBride should have had the worlds at her fingertips. But instead she was lost on an unknown planet, hurt, alone, with no memory of how she had gotten there-and she had lost her Sting. Gathering and pathfinding were tools, not weapons. Without her Sting, Ronica could not stop the Stonehouse dwellers who rescued her from promptly trading her away to the chief of a primitive tribe. And as Ronica struggled to find a place for herself on the wilderworld, accept her loss of talent, and regain her missing memories, she began to discover that everything the Com had taught her was a lie... Book 1 of the Starfire Saga. "Commencement... fits into the established niches while at the same time ringing new changes on what readers might think are standard themes." -New York Review of Science Fiction "Roby James writes with passion and intelligence." -Jack McDevitt, Nebula Award Winner "Look out, Robert Jordan!" -Barnes & Noble Booksellers Newsletter
About the Author: Roby James started reading when she was four, writing when she was nine, and always got "talks too much" as a comment on her report cards. She fell in love with science fiction years before the field become respectable and with her husband about eight months before he became respectable. She has been running the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon since 1975 (before rafting became fashionable); her wilderness experiences taught her that life does exist without technology. That was a valuable lesson, because right after she got her M.B.A., she ditched corporate America, where employers thought she should think the way they did just because they were paying her. She is grateful that science fiction, white-water rafting, self-employment, minimalism, and monogamy have all reached the mainstream now, because she's always wanted to be part of the gang. More books from Roby James are available at: http: //ReAnimus.com/store/?author=Roby James