Astronaut Keith Stoner, member of a joint US-Soviet mission to capture an alien ship that had entered the solar system, was trapped alone aboard the spacecraft. But he didn’t die; he lay frozen in deep sleep for fifteen years, kept alive by alien biotechnology. Now Stoner is something more than just a man. While asleep he was inoculated with nanotechnology designed to repair his body, expand his brain, and let him live forever. Stoner also carries the knowledge and memories of the being whose body was enshrined in the alien craft. He now knows of many different intelligent races that destroyed themselves, battering themselves to death on the stony problems of war, famine, runaway population, and ill-planned technological breakthroughs. Stoner fears for mankind, and he will do everything in his power—his extensive, alien-enhanced power—to preserve humanity into the future. However, there are powerful leaders, both corporate and political, who are becoming aware of Stoner, and they want that power for themselves—and will do anything to gain it. Nothing Stoner can say or do will convince these ruthless men and women that what they seek may destroy them utterly.
Ben Bova (1932–2020), American author of more than one hundred books of science fact and fiction, was awarded posthumously the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award. His work earned six Hugo Awards. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation in 2005, and his novel Titan won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for the best science fiction novel of 2006. In his early career, he was a technical editor for Project Vanguard, the United States’s first effort to launch a satellite into space in 1958. He then was a science writer for Avco Everett Research Laboratory, which built the heat shields for the Apollo 11 module. He held the position of president emeritus of the National Space Society and served as president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
Stefan Rudnicki is an award winning audiobook narrator, director and producer. He was born in Poland and now resides in Studio City, California. He has narrated more than three hundred audiobooks and has participated in over a thousand as a writer, producer, or director. He is a recipient of multiple Audie Awards and AudioFile Earphones Awards as well as a Grammy Award, a Bram Stoker Award, and a Ray Bradbury Award. He received AudioFile’s award for 2008 Best Voice in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Along with a cast of other narrators, Rudnicki has read a number of Orson Scott Card's best-selling science fiction novels. He worked extensively with many other science fiction authors, including David Weber and Ben Bova. In reviewing the twentieth anniversary edition audiobook of Card’s Ender's Game, Publishers Weekly stated, "Rudnicki, with his lulling, sonorous voice, does a fine job articulating Ender's inner struggle between the kind, peaceful boy he wants to be and the savage, violent actions he is frequently forced to take." Rudnicki is also a stage actor and director.