Book description
They call them the “rat-catchers.” They're the crew of the spaceship
Daedalus, which an economically destitute Earth has dispatched on a
mission to re-establish contact with its far-flung, long-lost colonies
in space. Alex Alexander, the ship's biologist, together with his staff,
must help solve the mysteries of human and alien ecosystems that he
encounters light-years from home.
Dendra is a stable world, covered by a huge, unchanging
forest-except that nothing living can really be free of change. The
planet has no seasons, but its animal life still undergoes life-cycles
involving birth, maturation, metamorphosis, and death. The Earth
colony sent to tame the world has failed, at least in the terms
expected of it, and seems beyond redemption; but the crew of the
Daedalus still has to find out exactly why and how the program has
gone wrong. Provided, of course, that they can survive the
investigation itself!
