**Hugo Award finalist by a Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author!** In 2007, a signal is detected coming from the Alpha Centauri system. Mysterious, unintelligible data streams in for ten years. Heather Davis, a professor in the University of Toronto psychology department, has devoted her career to deciphering the message. Her estranged husband Kyle is working on the development of artificial-intelligence systems and new computer technology utilizing quantum effects to process a nearly infinite number of calculations simultaneously.When Heather achieves a breakthrough, the message reveals a startling new technology that rips the barriers of space and time, holding the promise of a new stage of human evolution. In concert with Kyle’s discoveries of the nature of consciousness, the key to limitless exploration — or the end of the human race — appears close at hand. **ROBERT J. SAWYER** has won the Hugo, Nebula, John W. Campbell Memorial, Seiun, and Aurora Awards, all for best science fiction novel of the year. His novels include **Hominids** , **Rollback** , **Wake** , **FlashForward** (basis for the TV series), and **The Oppenheimer Alternative**. A member of the Order of Canada, he lives near Toronto.