David Loxley is a dead man walking. His brother, the former star of Greenwood Academy, has failed the Trails, an intergalactic game of chance offered by Earth’s enigmatic alien visitors. These invaders claim that Paradise awaits the worthy, but should an examinee fail… all traces of their lineage will be wiped from existence. Not a bad choice considering the grim alternative: scavenging amid the post-apocalyptic remnants of Earth. Our protagonist, a man bereft of mana and cursed by the gods of magic, is pitted against the upper echelons of spell-slinging aspirants. If David is to survive, he will have to muster every shred of wit cultivated by his harrowing experiences back home. But even an indomitable will may not be enough to overcome a certain uncertainty eating away at him. How could he triumph if the paragon of Greenwood failed