The Firstborn-the mysterious race of aliens who first became recognized to science fiction fans as the builders of the iconic dark monolith in 2001: AN AREA Odyssey-have inhabited legendary science fiction master Sir Arthur C. Clarke’s composing for many years. With Time’s Eyes and Sunstorm, the initial two books in the acclaimed Time Odyssey series, Clarke and his excellent coauthor, Stephen Baxter, thought a forseeable future where the Firstborn look for to stop the advance of human civilization by employing a about Firstborn technology indistinguishable from magic.

Their first act was the Discontinuity, where Earth was carved into sections from different eras of history, re-stitched right into a patchwork world, and renamed Mir. Mir’s inhabitants included such notables as Alexander the fantastic, Genghis Khan, and US peacekeeper Bisesa Dutt. For factors unknown to her, Bisesa entered into communication with an alien artifact of inscrutable purpose and godlike power-a power that ultimately came back her to Globe. There, she played an instrumental part in humanity’s race against time to fully stop a doomsday event: an enormous solar storm triggered with the alien Firstborn, made to eradicate all existence from the earth. That fate was averted at an inconceivable price. Today, twenty-seven years later, the Firstborn are back again.

This time, these are pulling no punches. They have sent a “Q-bomb.” Speeding toward Globe, it is a tool that human scientists can hardly comprehend, that cannot be ceased or destroyed-and that will obliterate Earth.

Bisesa’s desperate search for answers sends her first to Mars and to Mir, which is normally itself threatened with extinction. The end seems unavoidable. But as shocking brand-new insights emerge approximately the nature of the Firstborn and their chilling programs for mankind, an urgent ally appears from light-years apart.