comment on setting

The novel begins on a futuristic planet Earth, or Terra, that has travel centers that have developed throughout the world allowing travel is mere seconds from country to country, state to state, and city to city. One of these travel centers has developed at the site of the Statue of Liberty. This travel center also includes gates that move passengers from planet to planet, allowing colonist to move to their new home planets in a manner of seconds. The novel then moves to a new setting when Rod Walker walks through one of these gates for his survival test and lands on a planet unfamiliar to him. This planet is much like Earth in its vegetation, but boasts animals that are like nothing Rod has ever seen anywhere else. There are lions that are twice as big as those on earth and some sort of mammal that sings a grotesque, opera-like song all night long.