This final volume of the trilogy that began with Powers That Be opens with the marriage of Yanaba Maddock, administrator of the sentient planet Petaybee, to geneticist and selkie Sean Shongili. The pregnant Yana soon has to travel off-world to defend Petaybee's interests before a skeptical galaxy, leaving the planet open to devious exploitation by such predators as old enemy Torkel Fiske. The narrative shifts focus between the primitive but honest planet and the glittering space city of Gal Three as travails mount at both locations.
Rome's Gothic Wars, From the Third Century to Alaric
Late in August 410, Rome was starving, its residents were turning on one another, and, to make matters worse, the Gothic army camped at Rome's gates was restless. The Gothic commander was Alaric, a Roman general and barbarian chieftain. Leading an army that was short of food and potentially mutinous, sacking Rome was his only way forward. The old heart of Rome's empire fell to a conqueror's sword for the first time in eight hundred years.
Three murder cases place arrogant, gormandizing sleuth Archie Goodwin at an exclusive dinner party where arsenic is served, in a wandering cab with a dead lady driver, and at a rodeo championship.
A vast fortune in uranium, international diplomacy and intrigue, and a female detective become the focus of a trio of mysteries featuring epicurean sleuth Nero Wolfe and his sidekick, Archie Goodwin.
In three cases--a millionaire who writes his own death warrant, a dog who becomes a killer's worst enemy, and an answering service which refuses to talk about a murder--three witnesses hold the solution for detective Rex Stout.
