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On a colonial planet isolated in deep space, archaeologist Brynn Silva discovers a rusted claw in the desert. The moment is a sea change for the colonists of Shanidar. Although abandoned cities abound on the planet, no alien remains have ever been discovered. No tombs. No cemeteries. No artifacts of death. Only the ruins and artwork of a vanished society. Until now. Here, reaching through a wound in the sand, is one of the Owl Men. As Brynn, a xenolinguist rival, and a cult of zealots called The Resurrectionists strive to understand the past and future of Shanidar, a mysterious stranger appears on the horizon, taking the colonists in directions no one can predict. Is the wanderer a survivor of a prior expedition, as he claims? Is he one of the beings that inhabited Shanidar in the distant past? Or is he, as the Resurrectionists come to believe, a messiah from the stars? On Shanidar, horror is in the eye of the beholder.