Pilot Harry Silver's name is known throughout the galaxy-and that notoriety does not always work in his favor. While he has defeated his share of Berserkers, he has also stolen a powerful weapon from the Space Force, making him a fugitive from the life he once knew. Looking for an adventure, and not one to turn down a lot of cash, Harry agrees to bring a passenger aboard his ship, Lily, a woman who is on a quest to retrieve her husband.
It won't be easy, as Lily's husband has joined a secretive religious cult on Maracanda, an almost-planet lodged between a shifting black hole and a neutron star. While the landscape of Maracanda is treacherous, so, too, may be the people around Harry Silver.
As the search for Lily's husband deepens, Harry finds himself investigating a larger mystery and looking for missing person, almost ending up one himself. And as always, there is the threat of death from above, in the path of a machine whose only intent is to kill. . . .
Good, solid space adventure with a believable MacGuffin, engaging protagonists and some real feelings along the way. -- Paul Di Filippo, Scifi.com
Saberhagen is an incredible story teller. -- Cindy Lynn Speer, Fantastica Daily
After the slow start I kind of slogged through for a while and then something interesting happened. I found that I really wanted to know what was really going on, and what was going to happen to these annoying people. I still don't know how that happened. -- Dave Goldfeder, SFRevu