Kimberly Tainter

Woodlands is where city-dwellers go to die if they're dumb enough, and where those who can't live among the populace stay to remain hidden. As a child, Nyssa entered the Woodlands, forced into them by a past she can't remember. Years later, she is dragged out of them as an adult with no concept of what it means to be "normal". Armed with a new witch bestie who refuses to leave her alone, Nyssa slowly begins building a life for herself in Teragona.

Andrew Wiggin is told that he can no longer live on Earth, and he realizes that this is the truth. He has become far more than just a boy who won a game: he is the Savior of Earth, a hero, a military genius whose allegiance is sought by every nation of the newly shattered Earth Hegemony. He is offered the choice of living in isolation on Eros, at one of the Hegemony's training facilities, but instead the 12-year-old chooses to leave his home world and begin the long relativistic journey out to the colonies.