Gregory Roarke – former bounty hunter, former Trailblazer, current agent for the ultra-secret Icarus Group – has received a new locate a suspected but as-yet undiscovered teleportation portal on the backwater colony world of Alainn. The rival Patth are also searching for the device, and have considerably more resources at their disposal. Fortunately, Roarke has Selene and her incredibly sensitive Kadolian sense of smell. On paper, it should be a straightforward enough job. But that was before there was a murder in the small town of Bilswift…and another one…and the discovery that the Patth are already on the scene and have narrowed the search to a heavily forested area in the hills and mountains east of town. Most disturbing of all is the discovery that one of Selene’s people, a Kadolian teenaged boy named Tirano, is working at one of Bilswift’s fish markets. A boy who may have lost his parents before his proper socialization was completed. A boy who may be connected to both the murders and the Patth. A boy who may be the potentially dangerous wild card that the Kadolians call changelings.

Udgivet af Baen 

Timothy Zahn
Amerikansk forfatter som har skrevet SF siden 1979. Han vandt en Hugo pris for novellen "Distant Friends" og har skrevet serierne "Cobra" og Blackcollar", men det som han nok er mest kendt for I dag er som manden som var med til at gøre "Star Wars" populær igen. 8 år efter "Return of the Jedi" fik premiere, udkom "Heir to the Empire" den første "Star Wars" roman som foregik EFTER filmene. Det blev til tre velfortjente bestsellere, og de bøger blev begyndelsen på den lange serie SW romaner som er udkommet siden. Zahn skrev selv en to-binds efterfølger, "Spectre of the Past" og "Vision of the Future."