When the Viking lander on the planet Minerva was destroyed, sending back one last photo of a strange alien being, scientists on Earth were stunned. And so a joint investigation - by the USA and the USSR - was launched, the first long-distance manned space mission and a symbol of the new peace between old rivals.

Humankind's first close encounter with extraterrestrials would be history in the making, and the two teams were schooled in diplomacy as well as in science. But nothing prepared them for alien war - especially when the Americans and the Soviets found themselves on opposite sides...

The internationally bestselling author Harry Turtledove has once again set up an epic story of conflict in an alternate world of 'what if?' and 'what could be...'