Five hundred years after a handful of human starshiptravelers got lost in a hostile universe, their descendants arestill struggling for survival. As hard as life is on The Raft—aplatform remnant of the ship’s hull—it’s even harder in TheBelt—a string of shacks circling the iron-rich core of a deadstar. Every Belter has heard the story of the legendary starshipbut most of them don’t believe it. But Rees, a lowly mine-rat,does. He wonders why the sky is angry red instead of the bluehis parents remembered. Why food from The Raft gets lessand less nutritious. Why fewer and fewer stars form everyday. In his quest to find answers, Rees travels from boyhood tomanhood, from the outermost edges of his world into itsmysterious heart. And along the way he discovers there’s moreat stake than his simple curiosity: Life in his enigmatic universeis about to become impossible. . . .
“Good hard SF of a kind rarely seen nowadays, withexotic science and engineering worked out in loving detail. . . .
The people who inhabit Baxter’s strange world are well drawnin their pain and confusion, their friendships and enmities.”
