A visionary novel with complex characters and a thought-provoking plot. With aliens already embedded in society, we witness a wildly original insight into the tipping point between the salvation of humanity and its destruction. This is galactic politics with the human touch, written with peaks and troughs in the narrative tension - simple prose with wry humour.
When Kanoa listened to Owen talk about the vastly expanded boundaries of the universe, he felt the thrill of the unknown, like a five-year-old shaking wrapped presents on a birthday morning, anticipating things wished for and things beyond imagination. A day ago he had thought himself surrounded by beings like himself; today he was in a boat not made on Earth, surrounded by people not born on Earth, journeying to the middle of the ocean to call on the ghost of his father. And then the thrill became a tingling frisson of fear, and the deep breath of wonder he had been about to draw thickened in his chest and choked his throat closed.
