Poul Anderson is well known as a writer of technologically sophisticated science-fiction adventure, and this absorbing story of an expedition to Saturn's moon Iapetus will delight his many fans. What's less noticed in Anderson's writing (or at least fewer people comment on it) is his sure command of character and human emotions... the things that make adventure compelling. The explorers in this story have been playing a game on the long voyage out—a fantasy psychodrama so fascinating that when real dangers threaten they seem oddly remote. But they're real and they're deadly.