there is life everywhere throughout the Milky Way Galaxy. It takes forms that will astonish and frighten, that will challenge and terrify as they exist within the greater fight of existence: eat or be eaten. But to the crew of the frigate Basalt, those alien life forms that exist in the near vacuum of interplanetary space only serve to be of fascination in the crew's quest for knowledge. And there is a vicious conflict brewing as the Octopoids test the occupants of an outer planet of Humanity, in all its varied forms, probing and looking for the weaknesses of the marshalled forces. But who is the enemy really? 'Wheeler has crafted a world overflowing with technological realism, imaginative depth and rollicking adventure.' Dominion Post (NZ)