With such classic novels as Orphan Star and The Tar-Aiym-Krang, New York Times bestselling author Alan Dean Foster has captivated readers with his brilliantly imagined Humanx Commonwealth, the interstellar empire where intelligent aliens and humans live side by side. Now Foster takes us back to the unplanned beginnings of this extraordinary alliance …

In the years after first contact, humans and the insect-like Thranx agreed to a tentative sharing of ideas and cultures despite the ingrained repulsion they had yet to overcome. Mindful that one day they might need each other as allies, the leaders of the two species conceded that the only way to reach an accommodation was through a slow, lengthy process of limited contact. When the time was right, the leaders of both worlds would reveal to their respective peoples that a union with an alien race was indeed possible.

However, they never planned for a chance meeting between a misfit artist and a petty thief. Desvendapur was a talented Thranx poet who was bored with his life and needed new inspiration for his work. Hearing a rumor that a secret alien contact project existed on his homeworld, he recklessly forged a new identity and headed off to find his muse.

In a place unlike the familiar Hives of Willow-Wane, Desvendapur ran into Cheelo Montoya, a small-time criminal with big dreams of making a fast buck. But chance and circumstance tossed the con man and the mad poet together in what was to become a journey that would forever change their beliefs, their futures, and their worlds.