Led by their prophetess mother, twins Bowman and Kestrel travel with the Manth people to their promised land, struggling along the way Bowman with desire, and Kestrel with the troubling realization that she cannot foresee life beyond this journey.

At the end of The Cyborg and the Sorcerers, Sam Turner was making a life for himself on the planet Dest. He thought he had left the long-lost interstellar war between Earth and its rebellious colonies behind him forever. "Forever" turned out to be eleven years. That was how long it took for another Independent Reconaissance Unit to respond to the distress call his ship had sent before it was destroyed. And this one made his own berserk killer computer look sane.

Caspar and Hal have found the runes of war that will keep the Valakan horde at bay until spring - by then, they must have recovered the power of the Mother Goddess. Accompanied by Keridwen the Maiden they seek a cauldron lodged in the male preserve of the cathedral in Farona.

An epic fantasy of religious pilgrims on a hostile desert planet. A starfleet of colonists gone irrevocably off-course on their way to a paradisal planet find refuge on a world never meant to be theirs.