Starship pilot Terry Radnor is puzzled and outraged when he is suddenly recalled from interstellar exploration to the desolate training base on Titan. His spirits rise after he volunteers for a secret project offering him extraordinary physical and psychic capabilities, yet before he can complete this new training, he is transferred against his will to the cruiser Shepard for a tour of duty he expects to hate. But Shepard's mission turns out to be unlike anything he could have imagined. Advancing rapidly in his career, Terry finds fulfillment in love and in commitment to a cause--until an ironic twist of fate tears him away from everything he has ever cared about. He is forced to build a whole new life, far from all that has previously mattered to him, and only the effort to regain what he has lost keeps him from despair. Is there any hope that he can fulfill his pledge to protect the world whose safety is crucial--more crucial than anyone else knows--to the future of humankind?
While this novel completes the trilogy begun with Stewards of the Flame and Promise of the Flame, it is a completely independent story set two hundred years later, and can be read alone. Unlike Sylvia Engdahl’s other previous novels, it is not a Young Adult book and is not appropriate for middle-school readers. However, it will be of interest to adults who have enjoyed Enchantress from the Stars and The Far Side of Evil, as it deals with some of the same themes.