Book description
As CLUSTER opens, the alien envoy Pnotl of Sphere Knyfh seeks help from
Sphere Sol in a shared galactic-level crisis: Galaxy Andromeda has
discovered the secret of energy transfer and intends to use it to steal
the basic energy of the Milky Way Galaxy. Knyfh offers the secret of
aura transfer on the understanding that Sphere Sol will spread the
technology to help create a galactic coalition to find and defeat agents
of Andromeda. Sol's highest-Kirlian individual is Flint, a green-skinned
native of Outworld, who has a Kirlian aura of 200, an eidetic memory
(useful for memorizing the complex equations of Kirlian transfer that he
will need to communicate to other spheres). He has extraordinary
intelligence, and is highly adaptable. His mission is complicated,
however, by the fact that he is pursued everywhere by a very high
Kirlian female Andromedan agent and, somehow, the Andromedans are able
to detect and trace Kirlian transfers. Flint embarks upon several
missions to bring transfer technology to neighboring spheres, inhabiting
various alien forms. His efforts are successful despite attacks and
sabotage by the Andromedan agent. Through the conflict, however, the
mutual attraction of their two vastly superior auras begins to undermine
their individual loyalty to their own Spheres. Flint and a group of
other entities recover the information that will allow them to detect
and trace transfers and one of the group is revealed as the Andromedan
agent. One result is the catastrophic destruction of the local habitat.
Flint and his nemesis are transferred into alien Mintakan bodies to
survive. Choosing to leave things with parity between their two
galaxies, Flint and the Andromedan mate and remain together until their
auras fade (which happens rapidly since their physical bodies have been
destroyed). Piers Anthony has written dozens of bestselling science
fiction and fantasy novels. Perhaps best-known for his long-running
MAGIC OF XANTH series, many of which appeared on the New York Times
Bestseller List, he has also had great success with THE INCARNATIONS OF
IMMORTALITY series and the CLUSTER series as well as BIO OF A SPACE
TYRANT and others.
