Michael Barley

Two thousand years before the story begins, a starship flees our own solar system to found New Foster, a distant colony on another world. Generations later, four childhood friends playing wargames discover an ancient laser rifle and embark on an adventure that proves to be life-shattering for them all. Their wounded leader, Osseph, grows up to establish a military dictatorship. The girl, Iilaria, becomes a beautiful woman who spins a web of intrigue to defeat his maniacal plotting, resulting in a battle of wit and seduction. Osseph’s brother, Mihan, fulfills his childhood promise as a technological genius with unexpected consequences. Greghory, Iilaria’s twin brother, leaves on a star-flung voyage, returning generations later to search out what has happened to the others, who are then all deceased. Or are they? In this outstanding work of science fiction, the story evolves against a background of ‘terra-forming’ an entire planet, while playing its characters against each other in a state of ‘virtual consciousness,’ nothing less than extended survival beyond physical death, possibly even into immortality.