The multiple award-winning author of Timescape and Eater, Gregory Benford returns with a gripping new novel set in the same dynamic future as his wildly popular The Martian Race.
The first manned mission to Mars has been successful. However, there is a gathering mystery surrounding "marsmat"- the complex, anaerobic life-form that the expedition discovered inside a honeycomb of tunnels below the planet's surface. The search for the answers to humanity's ultimate questions about life in the universe will lead to the fringes of the solar system-to the dark and cold void beyond the planet Pluto.