'Jack McDevitt is that splendid rarity, a writer who is a storyteller first and a science fiction writer second. In his ability to absolutely rivet the reader, it seems to me that he is the logical heir to Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke' Stephen King

In 2204, tragedy and terror forced a scientific team to prematurely evacuate the rare, life-supportingplanet of Maleiva III. Nineteen years later, it is hurtling through space and the opportunity to study it is about to be obliterated.

With less than three weeks left before the disaster, superluminal pilot Priscilla 'Hutch' Hutchins - the only even remotely qualified professional within light years of the ill-fated planet - must lead a small scientific team to the surface to glean whatever they can about its life forms and lost civilizations before time runs out.

But catastrophe awaits when they are stranded on this strange and complex world of puzzles and impossibilities. And now Hutch and her people must somehow survive on a hostile world going rapidly mad as the clock ticks towards apocalypse for a doomed enigma now called Deepsix.