The First Protector

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.