Ben never wanted to be a hero. He’s tired of getting shot at, blown up or fried while battling evil alien AIs who want to transplant his brain into one of their hybrid monstrosities. And he feels stifled after spending his whole life stuck in metal boxes; whether it’s a Citadel on Earth or a giant rotating Habitat on Ceres.
All he really wants is to get back to nature, with a blue sky above, green trees all around, firm ground beneath his feet and a stream running somewhere nearby.
So now he’s about to leave Ceres, to set up the first farming community in the virgin wilderness on Earth, now the land is once more safe from the warmech threat. Unfortunately for him, the rest of the galaxy has other plans, and Ben is about to learn the truth of the saying: ‘beware of what you wish for’.
