The city vessel Phoenix is in its 43rd year of the journey from Mars to the 55 Cancri system. The three species aboard are shocked to find the planet Nexus is nothing like the Axis remembered it to be. Renewal chronicles the deadly struggle between the crew and a life form which tries to control them. Meanwhile Earth and Mars are on the eve of war, and they are blissfully unaware of a similar threat being unleashed on them by the steadily rising ambient temperature on the red planet. The altered orbit of Nexus is stable, but this has been achieved by an event external to its solar system. The explanation is ultimately discovered, yet it is barely credible, and shapes the entire future of all three species. Renewal is a stand alone volume, but follows on from The Darwinian Extension and reveals all with respect to the elusive Progenitors.
