When the Viking lander on the planet Minerva is destroyed, sending back one last photo of a strange alien being, scientists on Earth are stunned. And so a joint investigation - by the USA and Russia - is launched, the first long-distance manned space mission and a symbol of the new peace between old rivals.

Humankind's first close encounter with extraterrestrials will be history in the making, and the two teams are schooled in diplomacy as well as in science. But nothing prepares them for alien war - especially when the Americans and the Russinas find themselves on opposite sides.

The bestselling author of the Worldwar and Colonisation sequences has once again set up an epic story of conflict in an alternate world of 'what if ' and 'what could be'.

'The wizard of If.' Chicago Sun-Times

'The standard-bearer for alternate history.' USA Today