In the thousand-sun network of humanity’s expansion, new colony worlds are desperate for their way. Every new planet lives on the knife-edge between collapse and question, and the crew of the ageing gunship Rocinante possess their hands more than full keeping the fragile peace.

In the vast space between Earth and Jupiter, the inner planets and the Belt have formed a tentative and uncertain alliance still haunted by a brief history of wars and prejudices. Around the lost colony world of Laconia, a hidden enemy has a fresh vision for most of humanity and the power to enforce it.

New technologies clash with old as the annals of human being conflict profits to its historic pattern of war and subjugation. But individual nature is not the only foe, and the pushes being unleashed possess their own cost. A price which will change the form of humanity – and of the Rocinante -unexpectedly and permanently…