Milky Way, thirteenth millennium of the stellar age. Human beings have long since left the surface of the Mother Planet, Earth, and so much time has passed they barely remember it. They have established themselves as the predominant form of life among the stars and all the while they expand, colonize and multiply undisturbed. At times they are at peace, other times they quarrel with one another in an endless strife of meaningless skirmishes. But one day the balance is broken. A terrible alien race, relentless and apparently unstoppable, now threatens to upset this delicate order and wash away over twelve millennia of progress and expansion. People in the Milky Way call them Herem, the Anathem… BOOK FOUR: DIARY OF AN IMMORTAL Captain Aaron Quietsea is ready to leave Earth. His mission: to embark on one of the very first interstellar travels in the history of mankind. He has no certainties, many doubts, and one great responsibility: to establish and lead one of the first human colonies in the galaxy…