Worlds Trilogy

By the close of the twenty-first century, almost half a million souls have already abandoned Earth to live in satellites orbiting the strife-ridden planet. Each of these forty-one Worlds is an independent entity boasting its own government and culture, yet each remains bound to the troubled home World by economic pressure. A brilliant student of political science born and raised in New New York, the largest of the orbiting Worlds, young Marianne O'Hara has never been to the surface but now has a golden opportunity to continue her studies far below her floating home of steel. Life on Earth, however, is very different from anything she has ever experienced. With power in the hands of a privileged few and unrest running rampant, the allure of radical politics might be too much for an idealistic and inexperienced young World dweller to resist. But even the best of intentions can have disastrous consequences, and Marianne soon finds herself unwittingly drawn into a wide-ranging conspiracy that could result in the total destruction of everything on Earth . . . and above.

By the author of The Forever War: The classic Worlds trilogy continues as a survivor of a destructive conflict must work to prevent humanity's extinction. The war that destroyed everything lasted a single day. After an initial nuclear strike, the Earth's population was further devastated by an insidious bioweapon targeting anyone above the age of puberty. Now most of what's left of human civilization gathers on New New York, one of the few orbiting Worlds that remain. Monitoring the Earth below from the floating habitat, Marianne O'Hara searches for signs of life-and, in particular, for Jeff Hawking, her former lover, who survived the viral nightmare thanks to a biological anomaly that rendered him immune. But Jeff is not the sole surviving adult in this landscape of death, ruin, and feral children, and those who fled to safety underground are being seduced by a terrible new religion preaching blood and vengeance. The last war, it seems, is not over-and the last hope for preventing the final holocaust may be Marianne O'Hara.

From the author of The Forever War comes the Worlds trilogy finale: the last of humanity faces extinction on a doomed voyage to a new home in the stars. The Earth is no more, an uninhabitable shell following the one-day war that obliterated the population. In the decades that followed, the surviving Worlds orbiting the dead planet have become the last refuge of humankind. With the discovery of a possibly habitable planet in a distant star system, ten thousand brave colonists are preparing to depart from New New York aboard the interstellar vessel Newhome. Among them is Marianne O'Hara, who will ultimately control the fate of what remains of the human race. The momentous voyage is plagued from the start by ignorance and sabotage, and by the dark tenets of a nihilistic religion dedicated to ultimate destruction. But despite the many trials and tragedies, the spacefarers-and particularly Marianne and her loved ones-will be forced to endure. There is no turning back once the journey begins . . . for soon there will be nowhere left to return to.