The unmissable follow-up space opera to the highly acclaimed Children of Time and Children of Ruin from Arthur C. Clarke award-winner Adrian Tchaikovsky. They dreamed of a new home. They woke to a nightmare. On Imir, Captain Holt founded a new colony on an empty world. In the process, he created hope and a new future for humanity. But generations later, his descendants are struggling to survive. As harvests worsen and equipment fails, strangers appear in a town where everyone knows their neighbour. Now the inexplicable lurks in the woods and the community fears it's being observed - that they're not alone. They'd be right, as explorers from the stars have arrived in secret to help this lost outpost. Confident of their superior technology, and overseen by the all-knowing construct of Doctor Avrana Kern, they begin to study their long-lost cousins from Earth. Yet the planet hides deeper mysteries. It seems the visitors aren't the only watchers. And when the starfarers discover the scale of their mistake, it will be far too late to escape. A far-reaching space opera spanning generations, species and galaxies, Adrian Tchaikovsky's follow-up to Children of Time and Children of Ruin is an unparalleled narrative of alien contact and human discovery.