On The Fourth Planet

Kworn, a member of the rigid, lichen-feeding Folk, is halted by a gleaming metal ruin rising from the sand—a barrier that threatens his land, rank, and very survival. In a society ruled by unforgiving law, where trespass means exile and exile means death, he must choose between obedience and the exhausting gamble of crossing before morning. His neighbors, especially the aggressive Varsi and the cautious Caada, offer little hope, and Kworn's own pride, depleted strength, and failed reproductive cycle leave him increasingly desperate. When he finally touches the relic, the obstacle erupts into a colossal, flame-spewing machine that proves both deadly and miraculous. A fatal mistake costs Ul Caada his life, yet Kworn is drawn into a reservoir of rich nourishment, where feeding, growth, and reproduction trigger a flood of buried memories from a forgotten age of abundance and technological greatness. As his mind opens to the truth of his people's degraded state, he realizes the machine is observing and perhaps recording him, while his own offspring becomes an unsettlingly independent partner in the struggle to escape. Trapped inside a mysterious torch-like artifact, Kworn must confront hunger, law, memory, and the possibility that contact with this ancient device could change the Folk forever. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.