Professor Richard Helms heads up a tight-knit band of scientists and soldiers sent to explore New Amazon, a lush but savage planet seemingly determined to attack them at every turn. When they are done cataloguing every detail of this vast, unfamiliar ecosystem, they will burn it to the ground and make it fit for human habitation.

But when the team falls under attack, Helms and his followers are forced to flee into the depths of the jungle. Here, old enemies and petty rivalries surface as they struggle to survive. They soon end up fighting for their lives - against the planet they are exploring, the robots designed to protect them and, most of all, against each other. For the countdown into madness is ticking.

Palmer burns a new path for science fiction in this gripping, dark tale of man's place in the universe.