All things will pass away. Nothing remains but death and the glory of deeds.
From the Elder Edda

A Science-Fictional Tempest!

The classic novel of man against machine by Canada’s greatest science fiction writer.

It’s all-out combat, Man and Mutant vs. Machine in a gigantic battle for survival and control of GalFed’s trash planet, Barrazan Five, also known as Dahlgren’s World. Years ago, geneticist Dahlgren arrived on the planet with 100 humans and 1,000 ergs. Then the robot-ergs, their intelligence expanded by Dahlgren’s experiments, rebelled and slaughtered their masters. Now it’s a war for possession of Dahlgren’s World, a brutally hot, highly radioactive and barely habitable jungle in space. On one side of the conflict are the ergs, who have evolved into sophisticated artificial intelligences. They are opposed by the mutants, including a talking goat, a mothering gibbon, and a four-armed youth. The mutants are allied with the remaining humans, including Shirvanian, a crybaby boy prodigy who can communicate telepathically with machines and may be man’s last hope for regaining control of the planet.

And then there is the creator, Dahlgren himself ... and a game of chess unlike any other, with the fate of a planet and a people as the stakes.