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The narrative of this novel begins on Melchior, the second of the planets
dubbed the Three Kings (and the subject of the previous book in the trilogy).
No sooner do we get reacquainted with the people stranded there, than the
action shifts to a new story-line that will inevitably lead us to the last of
the Three Kings, Kaspar.
Like the previous novels in this set, a lot of the action happens before
the wormhole to the Three Kings is re-discovered. Task Force Eleven intercepts
Captain Murphy smuggling three pregnant girls off a primative planet where their
lives are endangered because they are unmarried. They and Captain Murphy are
taken aboard the Thermopylae where the young women procede to take over the
ship's computers with the help of some alien communications devices they have
dangling like jewels around their necks.
The Captain of the Thermopylae decides to help Captain Murphy deliver his
passengers . . . seemingly just to get them off the ship and to get his computers
back under control -- but we suspect that he has ulterior motives. The insanity continues
on-planet . . . all inevitably leading towards the Three Kings and Kaspar.
If you have read the other two books, then you will want your questions answered.
Who constructed the Three Kings and what holds them together? Just what are the Magi
stones and why do some people see devils and visions in them? What caused the Great
Silence? Chalker answers most of your questions in this one, and has a go at another
question he included on the first page:
"If the universe is full of advanced civilizations, where are they?"
'Til Next Month,
Happy Reading
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