Hugo Award winner Ben Bova continues his grand tour of the human
settled solar system with a fan-pleasing look at life in the Outer
Planets, among the moons of Neptune.
In the future, humanity has spread throughout the solar system, on
planets and moons once visited only by robots or explored at a distance
by far-voyaging spacecraft. No matter how hostile or welcoming the
environment, mankind has forged a path and found a home.
In the far reaches of the solar system, the outer planets--billions of
miles from Earth, unknown for millennia--are being settled. Neptune, the
ice giant, is swathed in clouds of hydrogen, helium, and methane and
circled by rings of rock and dust. Three years ago, Ilona Magyr's
father, Miklos, disappeared while exploring the seas of Neptune.
Everyone believes he is dead--crushed, frozen, or boiled alive in
Neptune's turbulent seas.
With legendary space explorer Derek Humbolt piloting her ship and
planetary scientist Jan Meitner guiding the search, Ilona Magyr knows
she will find her father--alive--on Neptune.
Her plans are irrevocably altered when she and her team discover the
wreckage of an alien ship deep in Neptune's ocean, a discovery which
changes humanity's understanding of its future...and its past.