I asked her. She looked at me in surprise. When the ship she is traveling on is torpedoed by a German U-boat in the early years of World War I, Lys is rescued by fellow survivor Bowen Tyler. A no-nonsense modern woman, she is caught between two men and must make her choice. I realize as never before how cheap and valueless a thing is life.
Life seems a joke, a cruel, grim joke.
You are a comic little figure, hopping from the cradle to the grave. When Laythe is attacked and overrun by the Kalkars of Orthis, she flees to Earth with the man she loves. You Earth Men must be very blind, my Julian. We have one another, and if we die together, doubtless we shall live together in a new incarnation. The unapproachable daughter of the jong, Duare finds herself falling in love with the forward aviator from Earth.