When man's emerging star-empire met that of the savage Cromanths, the alien hordes began a war of extinction against humankind. So overwhelming was their power that Earth's outposts and finally the Earth itself were utterly destroyed. But one starship managed to escape, carrying colonists toward some distant habitable planet, if such a place existed, and if the Cromanths didn't find them first. The mission was successful and the colony established. Mankind began to adapt to its new world, developed new abilities, and forgot much of its past on Earth. But then a Cromanth ship landed on the new planet--and the last remnants of humanity were in jeopardy once more. Could humankind somehow survive this savage new onslaught by the Cromanthian Empire? A first major SF novel by a modern master of the genre!