Pioneering can be Perilous. Often, the Worst danger is not the unknown challenges that lie ahead, but the fear and ignorance of those who stay behind. Thus it is for the courageous colonists of Blueheart, an ocean planet inhabited by humans genetically engineered to survive long periods underwater. They have built a life on Blueheart and created their own society and lifestyle, but now their peaceful community is under threat. A faction of "real" humans is protesting the DNA engineering that created these water-adapted colonists, and they plan to terraform Blueheart and force the colonists to join mainstream galactic society. Tensions mount, and when the body of a woman is discovered deep beneath the sea, the investigation of her unnatural death unleashes a catastrophe that Blueheart and its inhabitants might not survive.

"A splendid combination of world-building touched with emotion...and a crucial measure of hope". -- Locus (reviewing the British edition of Blueheart)

"World-building of an intricacy and invention to rival Herbert and Clarke". -- Lucius Shepard