author : L. Neil Smith

Just when the 21st century thought it was safe to throw Marxism on the ash heap of history once and for all, the global economy collapsed, and the Total State turned out to be the comeback kid.

Of course, collectivization only made the worldwide depression worse. But then the People’s Astronomers discovered an asteroid with valuable minerals that could rejuvenate the world economy. So three aged NASA shuttles were pulled out of mothballs and sent to the asteroid.

However, someone else was there first. And they weren't human, even if they were from a parallel Earth. The Elders were “nautiloids,” like intelligent giant squids. Worst of all, they were capitalists!

For conducting an investigation on the Elders’ planet is not an easy task. The Elders—large squid-like Superbeings—had ‘Appropriated’ species from all across the omniverse, plucking sapient races from alternate Earths, where they had faced extinction, or simply fascinated their new omnipotent benefactors.

While the Elders’ had introduced the Appropriated Persons and their descendants to a world where there were no wars, and gifted them with lifetimes that averaged a thousand years—at least—it had long been determined that the peaceful beings should not have taken these species from their Earths; there was a sense of unease rising within the populace.

Eichra Oren’s primary role as an Assessor of p’Na was to assess the actions of his clients, and determine whether they had atone for them—at the edge of his sword, or otherwise—but what of the Elders’ actions? Those directly involved with the Appropriation had long since ended their lives, when the moral implications of their actions had been made clear to them. But what about the rest of the Elders?

Why were there whispers of new Appropriations? And who was the mysterious new race threatening Earth?

Fichra and Sam were determined to find out… And maybe, just maybe, find a runaway groom along the way.

Her older brother Wilson is equally set on quitting his job as a surveyor’s apprentice to become an asteroid hunter, a calling fraught with the promise of fabulous riches and the danger of sudden death. He will find a full share of romance and disappointment, love and loss, and pursue the asteroid hunter’s holy grail, the legendary Diamond Rogue.

Llyra’s training will require years, and a journey that will take her to Ceres, at one tenth Earth’s gravity, where her father bosses the Ceres Terraformation Project, to the one-sixth gravity of the Moon, to Mars and one third gravity, and finally to Earth. Along the way, she will survive jealous rivals, a hostile press, terrorist attacks, and the hijacking of a spaceliner in order to achieve her goal.

In the end, Llyra and Wilson will hear the call of the stars, themselves.