Chapter 1-2 Summary

Five years have elapsed since the events of the third book.

Aenea, Raul Endymion and the android A. Bettik, having escaped from the Core assassin Rhadamanth Nemes, are living on Old Earth, which was transported to a nearby galaxy by the alien forces known as the Lions, Tigers, and Bears. Aenea has been working as an apprentice under the cybrid Frank Lloyd Wright, who has set up a compound for architectural students called Taliesin West, in what use to be New Mexico.

Father Captain DeSoya, having been court-martialed for allowing Aenea to escape his grasp on God's Grove, has settled into a quiet life as a parish priest on Madrededios.

The Pax's war against the Ousters, a confederation of advanced humans and aliens living on the edge of human galactic expansion, continues.

Part One

Chapter 1

Father Lenar Hoyt, now Pope Julius XIV, dies for the...