"It has been fifty-six hard years since the events of The Machine Crusade. Following the death of Serena Butler, the Synchronized Worlds and Unallied Planets are liberated one by one, and at long last, the human worlds begin to hope that the end of the centuries-long conflict is finally in sight. Unfortunately, Omnius has one last, deadly card to play. Virulent plagues are let loose throughout the galaxy, decimating the populations of whole planets...

"The crusade against thinking robots has ground on for years; the human worlds grow weary of war, of the bloody, inconclusive swing from victory to defeat. The fearsome cymeks, led by Agamemnon, hatch new plots to regain their lost power from Omnius. Aurelius Venport and Norma Cenva are on the verge of the most important discovery in human history--a way to "fold" space and travel instantaneously to any place in the galaxy. And on the faraway, nearly...