Winner of multiple Hugo and Nebula awards, voted favorite writer of the 1980s by readers of Locus magazine, David Brin commands one of the most eloquent, incisive voices in science fiction today. Now the New York Times bestselling author of Earth, Startide Rising, and The Uplift War returns to set a new course, delivering a novel rich in texture, universal in theme, monumental in scope - pushing the genre to new heights.Long ago, the Founding Mothers left old Earth and the Phylum Worlds, seeking a hidden place to reforge human destiny. Through genetic wizardry, they have altered human sexual patterns. For most of the year, any child born on planet Stratos is a clone of her mother, identical to all the sisters in her venerable clan. Only in summer are "vars" conceived - old-fashioned, gene-mixed girls, and even sometimes boys - each one garishly, ignobly unique.Maia, one lonely young var, grows up knowing she must summon all her skill to win a place in this world run by and for high-caste clanswomen. A world far gentler than those of the Old Phylum ...except for those rare seasons of change, where the planet seems to call its people forth to glory.Preparing to set sail, Maia watches the strange, bearded face of the seamen. Are the teachings true? Are men practically another species, fit only for brief encounters? Or might their arts and games and secret ways hint of something deeper to share with the women of Stratos?Ready to seek a place in the world, Maia sets forth expecting labor and hardship. What she finds is danger, adventure, and a strange, half-innocent emissary, whose simple message may mean new hope...or a return to ancient terrors. From the vast unforgiving sea, to imprisonment, to rocky depths where she must wrest hidden secrets from the clutches of time, Maia comes to understand why the Founding Mothers sought a change in human life...and what a price their descendants must pay.Here is a saga of remarkable passion and drama, set in a faraway place and time but shining light upon issues vexing our own confused era. Given the laws of biology and growing alienation on the part of many women, might an experiment such as Stratos Colony ever come to pass? David Brin makes it seem both chillingly and rousingly believable. A moving, satirical, exciting, and finally transcendent tale of the human spirit, this major novel is about a time when all the people of a human world - men and women - must come face-to-face with their glory season. Read Less