The First Protector

The First Protector

Tor, 2000. Novel, 104,500 words.

Most film/TV tie-in novelizations are no better than they could be, given their source material and the Old Pulp Pros generally hired for such transitional hackwork.  Once in a long while, however, we have something worthy like Gene Roddenberry's (posthumous!) TV series, Earth: Final Conflict, and its best print analogue, The First Protector.  White tells the story of Ma'el, a Taelon scientist marooned in ninth-century (A.D.) Ireland.  Ma'el and several boon companions, including Captain Seosadn Uí Nuallain,* set out on a world-spanning quest for knowledge that will strongly affect future human-Taelon relations.  "Since this will be the last James White novel, it is fitting that it is one of his best" (Morgan Llywelyn, speaking truth).

*Better known to history as secret-immortal Joe Nolan, of the Belfast Science Fiction Group.

Synopsis by graham Andrews

First Publication:

Tor books, 2000, hardback. 

Publication History:

Tor Books, 2000, paperback.

Ebury Press, 2000, paperback, ISBN 0-09-187330-4, £ 5.99

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