It isnt easy travelling with an extraterrestrial fl ower, especially an intelligent
Martian one who has the power of thought and speech. Being pursued
through time by homicidal maniacs hardly makes it any easier.
Space ethicist Kim Hawthorne and our long-suffering narrator Ishmael
Starbuck join Hymoliga Eight on a wild ride through history, to the Gold
Rush, where time travelling robbers are stealing all the gold, to ancient
Ephesus, where they become involved in a plot to kill Saint Paul, and to
Pompeii, on the eve of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. But for Hymoliga
Eight, the pressing question is: can he tell a story well enough to persuade
Jonathan Swift to accept him into a famous 18th century writers club?
