First published 2009
Tom Jericho, a paleontologist at the Royal Ontario Museum, faces an extraordinary visitor when a six-legged alien emerges from a shuttle craft outside his workplace. The creature speaks perfect English and makes an unusual request: it wants to study Earth's fossil record. The alien reveals that Earth, its home world, and a third planet all suffered identical catastrophic events at the same moments in history, including the meteor strike that killed the dinosaurs. Two alien species believe these synchronized disasters prove a divine intelligence has guided evolution across multiple worlds. Jericho finds himself at the center of humanity's first contact with evidence of universal design. Not everyone welcomes this revelation about cosmic intervention in planetary development. The discovery raises more questions than answers about the nature of any supreme being. When astronomers detect a supernova that threatens all three civilizations, the ultimate test arrives: will the same force that orchestrated five previous extinctions step in to prevent a sixth?
Genres: fiction, science-fiction, mystery, thriller
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: first-contact, fish-out-of-water
Setting: Royal Ontario Museum, Earth
Period: Present Day
336 pages · Paperback · Tor Books