Nova

A quest for a priceless element—and revenge—fuels this far-future interstellar adventure that “reads like Moby-Dick at a strobe-light show” ( Time ).  In 3172, the universe is divided between three political units: the stars and worlds of Draco, with Earth as its power center; the Pleiades Federation, on whose capital world, New Ark, lives the incredibly wealthy Von Ray family, descended from well-heeled merchants whose ancestors made their fortune as pirates; and the Outer Colonies, where,