***Winner in Science Fiction at the 2001 SouthWest Writers***

Riches beyond their wildest imaginations–all they have to do is collect the gems on an alien planet deep within a jungle from which no one has ever returned. It is guarded by supernatural forces no human was meant to see.

Three teams are vying to reach the gems first: Jake’s devoted years of his life to finding the gems and gaining untold wealth. Rhaina, his ex-girlfriend, has a team that’s fully-funded by a businessman who happens to be inconveniently dead. Tone is a member of an eco-terrorism organization barely holding together inside a dilapidated lunar base, and he knows that much money could fund their organization for millennia.

However, the Lygmies, the planet’s indigenous population, have other plans. They know far more than they’re willing to reveal, the jungle’s wild animals are unnervingly sentient–and they obey the Lygmies’ commands. Now a race to steal gems might be a race for survival–not just for Jake, Rhaina, and Tone, but for the entire human population on this violent planet. The Lygmies demand freedom from their human invaders, and they’re willing to resurrect the most violent God in their ancient history to achieve it.

What can stop a creature so powerful, so bloodthirsty, and so chaotic he’s willing to destroy everything in his path just because it’s fun?