A fugitive of Old Earth, captain of a stolen, self-aware ship, Burton is a man on a personal mission of the highest importance: to find the human race a new home amid the stars. He's got the tools, he's got the genetic material, and he's got a teenage first mate, who may or may not be his daughter. As the planets roll past and the secrets roll out, Burton will confront the very past he hoped to leave behind. But in the meantime, he has the music of the ages to kick back to.

Did Helen of Troy have no choice in provoking the Trojan War? Is Falsehood more powerful than truth? Does anything exist, and if it does, can we say anything about it? These are the sort of controversies with which the Sophists of Ancient Greece scandalized their audiences. None did so as famously or successfully as Gorgias of Leontini. Plato devoted an entire dialogue to attacking his methods, and Aristotle praised and criticised him in his guidebook on Rhetoric. But he has had few books devoted to him. Until now. This reader contains all of Gorgias' extant works, including the "Encomium of Helen" plus a parody/tribute, "An Encomium of Gorgias" by editor Andrew J. Patrick.