Through a Forest of Stars

It's 2217. Earth's biosphere is dying, Mars' terraforming projects are in ruin, and even the discovery of the voidoids-eerie portals into nearby star systems-has failed to uncover any other Earth-like worlds in Bound Space. Until now. Terra Corporation's discovery of Silvanus, a pristine forest world 27 light-years from Sol, should be cause for rejoicing. Instead, humanity is on the brink of a catastrophic war over its possession, and Aiden Macallan, the company's taciturn planetologist aboard the Argo, finds himself in the middle of it. After a skirmish between military forces of Earth and Mars, Aiden is stranded alone on Silvanus. Drawn into its mysterious beauty, he soon discovers the entire planet is alive-living proof of the Gaia Hypothesis. Its vast global network of symbiotic fungus has evolved a neural net from which a consciousness of profound depth has emerged. It also happens to hold the key to restoring Earth's dying biosphere and the rapid terraforming of Mars-but only if Aiden can solve the deeper puzzle of why Silvanus is killing itself. His quest is guided by an eccentric AI whose fondness for jazz enables it to communicate with the planet's neural net, and by his love for Skye Landen, a gifted geophysiologist from the Lovelock Institute. But time is running out. Cole Brahmin, Terra Corp's malevolent jackal, has gone rogue. He's racing toward Silvanus aboard the Domain's most powerful battle cruiser, bringing war in his wake and pursuing foul designs of his own in which the ruination of Silvanus is only a prelude. Determined to stop him, Skye Landen enlists the aid of the renowned quantum physicist Elgin Woo, and together they set out for Silvanus aboard Woo's Starhawk, an experimental spacecraft with mind-boggling capabilities. Meanwhile, Aiden must trek across a living landscape of exquisite diversity, driven by a recurring dream in which dark pagan archetypes grow frighteningly real-and more personal-with each step of his harrowing pursuit to save Silvanus and reclaim humanity's future. They're all on a collision course that can end only in the destruction of civilization or its ultimate salvation.