A mysterious message from a star more than seventy light-years away will bring together the paths of Goma and Kanu, descendants of the famous Akinya family, which once helped people penetrate the outer reaches of space. However, the Gliese 163 system, where the mysterious signal came from, hides much more surprises than it might seem at first glance.
Has the human race really been brought here by an age-old desire to find answers to the great questions of the universe, or are they merely pawns in a gigantic chess game played by civilizations so old and powerful that the original inhabitants of planet Earth would be beyond their discernment - if they didn't have a few valuable qualities?
Alastair Reynolds brings the saga of Poseidon's children to a close in a spectacular finale and proves once again that he is hard pressed to find competition in the modern space opera genre in the new millennium.