Jace Mannering is on a covert mission to deliver a living Fractal of the Creator to the Universal Council, a gathering of cosmic powers desperate to stop a rising darkness. Crashing in fire and light, on a planet that carries the most evil of races, Jace makes a single, impossible choice: to merge with the Fractal that he is to deliver to the Council before the enemy can claim it. In that instant, man and divinity become one… and vanish. J ared Hawkins , a former Navy pilot haunted by guilt from a mission gone wrong, finds himself stalked by a glowing blue crystal sphere, and is pulled into a mystery he neither understands nor wants. Each time he touches the blue crystal, it drags him through visions that feel too real, raw, painful journeys across dying worlds and forgotten stars. What he doesn’t yet know is that the sphere carries the living Fractal, and it has chosen him. To remember it will cost him everything. To deny it will cost creation itself. As the ancient Atlas stirs once more, the cosmic messenger answers a distress call from across galaxies. The war between light and shadow ignites again, both in the stars… and in the human heart. FIRST HARDBACK EDITION