Book Two of the Time’s Odyssey Trilogy
Bizesa Dutt, returning to Earth in 2037 with the help of the Firstborn—mysterious and immensely powerful beings—finds herself haunted by the memories of the five years she spent on the strange planet Mir, a patchwork world composed of places and peoples drawn from different periods of human history.
Arthur C. Clarke is widely regarded as one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time.
He also made significant contributions to science and culture in other ways, including a 1945 essay that helped inspire the concept of communications satellites.
Arthur Clarke’s books have sold more than one hundred million copies worldwide. He died shortly after completing the present trilogy, in the spring of 2008.
Stephen Baxter holds engineering degrees from the Universities of Cambridge and Southampton. He is best known for his Manifold series of novels.
He has won the British Science Fiction Award, the Locus Award, the John W. Campbell Award, and the Philip K. Dick Award, and has also been a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award.
Why did the Firstborn create Mir? Why did they return Bizesa to Earth just one day after her initial disappearance?
Bizesa’s questions are answered when scientists discover an unnatural anomaly in the Sun’s core, caused by extraterrestrial interference two thousand years earlier. The hidden designs of these mysterious beings—set in motion light-years away from Earth—are now coming to fruition through a solar storm that will erase all life on the planet, bombarding it with lethal radiation.
The Apocalypse approaches, but cooperation proves difficult among the peoples and nations of Earth. Religious and political divisions threaten to undermine humanity’s desperate struggle for survival.
And the Firstborn watch… and wait.