200 years before the discovery of Ringworld...

Covert agent Sigmund Ausfaller is Earth's secret weapon, humanity's best defense against all conspiracies, real and imaginary, and all foes both human and alien. Who better than a brilliant paranoid to expose the devious plots of others?

But Sigmund may finally have met his match in Nessus, representative of the secretive Puppeteers, the elder race who wield vastly superior technologies. Even after the Puppeteers abruptly vanish from Known Space, Nessus schemes in the shadows with Earth's traitors and adversaries.

As a paranoid, Sigmund has always known things would end horribly for him; only the when, where, how, why, and by whom of it all eluded him. But even Sigmund never imagined that his destiny would be entwined with the fates of worlds.

REVIEWS


LARRY NIVEN is the multiple Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author of the Ringworld series, along with many other science fiction masterpieces. His novels Footfall, coauthored with Jerry Pournelle , and Beowulf’s Children, coauthored with Jerry Pournelle and Steven Barnes, were New York Times best-sellers. He lives in Chatsworth, California.

“[Niven and Lerner] clearly enjoy revisiting aliens familiar from Niven’s menagerie while spinning an elaborate tale of interplanetary intrigue. Their many fans will, too.”—Booklist

EDWARD M. LERNER has degrees in physics and computer science, a background that kept him mostly out of trouble until he began writing SF full time. His books include Probe, Moonstruck, and the collection Creative Destruction. Fleet of Worlds is his first collaboration with Larry Niven. He lives in Virginia with Ruth, his wife of thirty-five years.