A strange machine crash lands in the jungle near a small village on the peninsula of Nanagada, on the planet of the same name. When the villagers come to find out what has happened an equally strange man climbs out of the machine and immediately asks them where they obtained their supplies and weapons. They tell him that all their good come from Capitol City, all the way out on the tip of the Nanagadan peninsula. He asks for directions and then sets out right away into the jungle, heading for this distant destination. His name is Pepper and he hasn’t a moment to spare. He desperately needs to find a man named John deBrun. There’s a problem, though. John deBrun is desperately trying to find himself as well.

John can’t remember anything prior to when he was found washed ashore near the town of Brungstun nearly thirty years ago. He has remained in the town, married and had a son and leads a good, happy life now but the details of his past have never returned to him. He can’t stop thinking about it. He knows his past is still there, hanging just out of reach on the fringes of his mind. Dim images of other people and places come to him in his dreams but he can’t make sense of them. He has no context. But he is forced to put aside these thoughts in view of a terrible threat.

The day that the inhabitants of Nanagada have dreaded has finally come. Beyond the Wicked High Mountains, which form a natural barrier between the peninsula and the rest of the continent, the Azteca Empire has raised an army powerful enough to mount a full scale invasion. Driven to this end by the Teotl, inhuman, predatory beings who demand sacrifices to make the rains fall and the crops grow, the Azteca plan to slaughter every last Nanagadan to quench the blood-thirst of their inhuman masters.

One by one, the towns and villages empty out and refugees pour into Capitol City ahead of the advancing Azteca. The city’s administrators must now look for guidance from their own alien allies, the Loa, small, frail beings who dwell underground and are the adversaries of the Teotl.

Pepper catches up with John while he is also moving his family toward the imagined safety of Capitol City. He tells John that he is a friend from his past and refers to him as an Old Father. He also informs him that the answers to all of his questions lay far away to the north, frozen in polar ice, in a device called the Ma Wi Jung.

Now John is torn between protecting his family and finally having the opportunity to find out who he really is. With the Azteca army looming ever closer, John arrives in Capitol City and goes to appeal to the city leaders to allow him to mount an expedition to the north to locate the Ma Wi Jung, as it may well also be something that could be used to fend off the Azteca. His request is granted and he and Pepper lead a small group of ships northward to find out what is up there.

This is an exciting and imaginative debut from author Tobias S. Buckell. The story features characters that are carefully nuanced and thus, wholly believable. The ending, though logical, is truly heartbreaking . The main message that Buckell delivers is that things are not always as they appear. John deBrun spends the course of the novel trying to regain his memories but the passage of time distorts and exaggerates memories and the truth behind them.