Search Worlds Without End

From Julian May, the acclaimed author who created the incredible worlds of The Many-Colored Land and The Golden Torc, comes a bold new science fiction adventure!

When rebellious Asahel Frost was expelled from the Interstellar Commerce Secretariat on trumped-up charges, he lost it all: wife, citizenship, fortune, self-respect. Exiled to a beautiful but remote planet in the Perseus Spur, Frost became Helmut Icicle, a man without a past or a future. But someone remembered Asahel Frost--remembered him enough to send an assassin to kill him. And in so doing, brought him back to life.

Now, determined to track down the would-be assassin, Helmut finds himself caught in a conspiracy as convoluted as it is deadly. His sister, Eve, has mysteriously vanished. His estranged father wants him to find her with the assistance of the lovely Matilde Gregoire, who happens to hate his guts. As Helmut follows the tangled strands of deceit, greed, and violence back to their common source, he begins to wonder if he is the hunter or the hunted...

After a brief (but heroic) fling with all that is right and just, Asahel Frost has reverted to his true nature--undisciplined and feckless, according to the girlfriend who just dumped him. Now he is once again the legal nonentity known as Helmut Icicle, living the riverboat skipper life in a tiny galactic outpost with the rest of the ne'er-do-wells.

That is until his sister Eve, herself genetically altered by the alien Haluk, begs Helmut to expose the Haluk's conspiracy, which threatens humans throughout the Spur worlds. Genetic alteration is tightly controlled, yet now it's running rampant. Helmut must find the culprits, but time is running out. Too many people have vanished into the secret empire where an evil genius reigns supreme. Worse yet, there's an unknown traitor in Helmut's own family who is quite willing to murder. Only one thing's clear: Helmut will emerge either triumphant... or dead.

Two centuries into the future, the Hundred Concerns, a group of powerful corporations that dominate galactic commerce, have pressured the Commonwealth of Humans into signing a pact with the Haluk, a conquering alien race with nefarious designs. Among the few people who recognize the malevolent intent of the aliens is hotheaded maverick Helly Frost.

To prove that the Haluk have created demiclones--genetically engineered individuals who are perfect human replicas--Helly travels to the Sagittarius Whorl, a fearsome region of the galaxy hostile to every form of life. But he must find crucial pieces of evidence that will expose the Haluk plot. Instead, he discovers something far darker than he had ever imagined....