Multiple Hugo Award winner Vernor Vinge takes readers on a fifty-million-year trip to a future where humanity's fate will be decided in a dangerous game of high-tech survival. In this taut thriller, a Hugo finalist for Best Novel, nobody knows why there are only three hundred humans left alive on the Earth fifty million years from now. Opinion is fiercely divided on whether to settle in and plant the seed of mankind anew, or to continue using high-energy stasis fields, or "bobbles," in venturing into the future. When somebody is murdered, it's obvious someone has a secret he or she is willing to kill to preserve.The murder intensifies the rift between the two factions, threatening the survival of the human race. It's up to 21st century detective Wil Brierson, the only cop left in the world, to find the culprit, a diabolical fiend whose lust for power could cause the utter extinction of man. Filled with excitement and adventure, Vinge's tense SF puzzler will satisfy readers with its sense of wonder and engaging characters, one of whom is a murderer with a unique modus operandi.

作為塞伯朋剋流派中活躍至今的作傢，弗諾·文奇擁有極高的聲譽，在硬科幻小說寫作方麵很有一手。他的小說邏輯嚴密，情節緊湊，展示齣科技的奇妙之處，尤以細節的締造和令人驚嘆的預見力著稱。大量細緻又經得起推敲的描述，讓虛構齣的“異世界”及生活其中的種族幾可亂真。這和他本身的科學素養大有關係，弗諾· 文奇本人兼具數學傢和計算機專傢兩種身份。閱讀文奇的科幻小說，絕對是一種享受。

文奇並不多産，但他的每一部小說都稱得上經典。1987年，《真名實姓》使他聲名大噪；1992年《深淵上的火》獲得雨果奬；2000年，《天淵》擊敗《哈利·波特與阿茲卡班的囚徒》再獲雨果奬；2006年，《彩虹盡頭》讓他捧迴瞭第五座雨果奬奬杯。