Against the backdrop of the Gaean Reach, the widely populated region of space where the full diversity of human development is revealed, the story of Jaro Fath unfolds: from wildling orphan to spaceship captain, a tale of adventure and discovery wittily told.

Jaro''s life is directed by an inner voice he cannot account for . . . until he returns to Kammerwelt, described in The Handbook of the Planets as the fourth world in the entourage of Robert Palmer''s Star, drifting in a far-flung sector of the galaxy known as the Dragon''s Maw.

Jaro is haunted by memories of his dead mother''s terror, and he is about to find out why . . .