Lanik Mueller’s birthright as heir to world Treason’s most powerful rulership will never be realized. He is a “rad”-radical regenerative-a freak who can regenerate injured flesh and trade extra areas of the body to the Offworld oppressors for iron. On the world without hard metals, or the means of escape, iron supplies the promise of freedom through the chance to build a spacecraft. But it is a promise that may never be satisfied, as Lanik uncovers a treacherous conspiracy beyond his creativity. Now charged having a mission of conquest-and exile-Lanik devises a bold and dangerous intend to break the vicious chain of rivalry and bloodshed that enslaves the people of Treason as the Offworld hardly ever could.

This compelling, suspenseful work of science fiction is defined in a fantastical world that could only result from the brilliant imagination of Orson Scott Card.