Defender of the Flame — Sylvia Engdahl

Starship pilot Terry Radnor is elated to be among those chosen to defend the secret colony Maclairn against enemies who pose a threat to the spread of paranormal human mind powers. He commits himself wholly to the goal of that world, not guessing how far his effort to protect it will take him from everything else he cares about--his promising career as a Fleet officer, contact with people who share his newly-discovered psi capability, his wife and unborn child. Torn away against his will, he is forced into exile from all that has previously mattered to him, and must build a new risk-laden life far from Maclairn, grounded without hope of fulfilling his earlier pledge. Yet a mysterious and extraordinary destiny has been predicted for Terry, and fate leads him to an even stranger one than anybody could have imagined.

This is the first book in the Rising Flame duology. While it follows the Hidden Flame duology--consisting of Stewards of the Flame and Promise of the Flame, which tell of the founding of Maclairn--it is an independent and quite different story set two hundred years later that can be read alone. Though it is not a Young Adult book and is not appropriate for readers below high school age, it will be of special interest to adults and mature teens who have enjoyed Engdahl's YA novels Enchantress from the Stars and The Far Side of Evil since it deals with some of the psi powers depicted in those books and takes a similar view of humankind's place in the universe.