The New York Review of Science Fiction
"Commencement is a strong first novel, one that fits into established niches while at the same time ringing new changes...


Jack McDevitt, author of Infinity Beach
"Roby James writes with passion and intelligence. If Ronica has a Class A talent, so does Roby.


The New York Review of Science Fiction
"...fits into established niches while at the same time ringing new changes on what readers might think are standard themes...."


Jack McDevitt, author of Infinity Beach
"Roby James writes with passion and intelligence. If Ronica has a Class A talent, so does Roby."


Book Description
Ronica McBride possesses The Sting–Class A psychic powers that guarantee her position as a future leader of the interplanetary Com. Raised in a protected environment, her future seems secure--until she awakes on a wilderness planet with no memory of how she got there–and without her Sting. Abandoned among primitives, Ronica is forced to cope for herself for the first time in her life. She finds she must grow to survive, must uncover the realities behind the "truths" she was taught. Because in this nightmarish new world, every day is a struggle for survival--and the forces that caused her to be banished from the Com are not done with her...


From the Publisher
Two reasons I knew this was a good one: the day I started this manuscript, I spent a whole day at home devouring page after page and then cursed myself for not bringing the whole manuscript home. Then came Christmas. I left town, and didn't get back to the second half of the book until January--but when I picked it up again my first day back, it was just as vivid as before, and I was dumped right back into the story. A good sign!

This book is extremely well written, for a first novel or any novel whatsoever--I was fully involved with Ronica, the main character, and her struggles. Roby James has a flair for writing not only gripping action scenes but vivid interpersonal scenes--something that SF/Fantasy writers often fall flat with. Her characters stick with you after you've finished the book...even if you're an editor who reads two or three books a week.

We put a cover on this book that was a little out of the ordinary, and its one of my favorite covers--mostly because it still looks speculative, but it's a book no one would be embarassed to be seen reading even if they didn't feel comfortable reading SF/Fantasy. It's a grown-up cover, and we didn't do many of those at the time.

After this book was published we got lots of wistful e-mail from readers, asking when and if there would be a next book from Roby James. Luckily, there was--it's Commitment.

                                --Ellen Key Harris, Editor, Del Rey Books

ANNOTATION

Only the rare Class A talents could use the Sting--and it was that unparalleled power over other minds that made Ronica the most valuable resource in the Com. Then, Ronica found herself lost on a strange planet without her memory or her talent, and slowly discovered that everything the Com had taught her was a lie. Original.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

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.