Sequel to the national best seller, Nebula Award finalist, and Compton
Crook Award winner Fire with Fire. Science fiction adventure on a
grand scale.
When reluctant interstellar diplomat and intelligence operative Caine
Riordan returns from humanity's first encounter with alien races, sudden
war clouds burst. With Earth's fleet shattered by a sneak attack and its
survivors fighting for their lives, Caine must rely upon both his first
contact and weaponry skills to contend with the non-humanoid enemy. And
when the technologically superior attackers sweep aside the solar
system's last defenses, and traitorous corporations invite the invaders
to land "security forces," humanity fights back with its best weapons:
cunning, inventiveness, and guts.
But as Earth hurtles towards a final trial by fire that is certain to
scar its collective memory, Caine discovers that there may also be large
and disturbing gaps in that memory. Clues point to a much earlier
inter-species apocalypse, buried in humanity's own prehistory. Which
raises a terrifying possibility: What if the aliens' invasion of Earth
is not one of conquest, but preemption? And what if their harrowing
memories of a long-past cataclysmic war makes them willing to do
anything to keep it from reigniting? Even if that means exterminating
the human race?
