The Ghost Sister

Far-future humans confront long-held ideas about nature and themselves in the Philip K. Dick Award-nominated novel from the author of *The Poison Master***.**

On the planet Monde D'Isle, Mevennen ai Mordha is an outcast, a "landblind" person who can't feel the energy under the earth or the pull of the tides. Her ailment is a weakness, leaving her at risk of being harmed, even by members of her own family. For on Monde D'Isle, only the strong survive . . .

Now a crew from humanity's tamed and civilized homeland, Irie St. Syre, has been sent to investigate this ancient human colony. The last transmission received from the settlement-before it was apparently abandoned by its visionary leader-described the world as cursed. On board is Shu Gho, a writer of myths and folktales and a descendent of one of the original colonists. She has traveled over a hundred years to learn of its fate.

Instead of finding a terraformed habitat, the crew is shocked to find a bleak, unwelcoming landscape. And when Shu meets Mevennen and her family, she is drawn into the mysterious evolution of these not-quite-human people-with their clawed hands, fierce connection to nature, and predatory bloodlust.

Together, the two women embark on a quest to do right by a world that neither truly understands, while the danger of human intervention-past and present-threatens them all . . .

"Williams addresses difficult moral and ethical questions in a compelling novel concerned with genetic engineering and a people's struggle to transcend their limitations." -****Booklist

"A thoughtful, absorbing novel with fully realized characters and dramatic descriptive passages, intelligently staged by an exceptional writer." -****Infinity Plus