Piers Anthony is best known for his long-running Magic of Xanth series, of which many titles have appeared on the New York Times bestseller list. Another immensely popular series is “Cluster,” and E-Reads is publishing it. Today we bring you the eponymous first novel of five.

The “Cluster” adventures are set in a future focused on colonization of distant planets. Sphere Sol is about 100 light years in diameter, centered on the Earth’s sun. Surrounding this sphere are similar ones centered on another star such as Polaris or Canopus. Colonization is accomplished by instantaneous teleportation, called matter transmission or mattermission. Cryonically preserved colonists are sent out in “freezer” ships.

Because of the difficulty of colonization and the smaller population bases, all spheres suffer spherical regression– that is, the greater the distance from source star to colony, the lower the level of technology that survives. Social organizations regress backward to historical periods of the home planet’s past. Outworld, Sphere Sol’s farthest colony, is populated by paleolithic tribes who hunt with flint spears and make fire. Colonists know about the interstellar empire and the home worlds “mattermit” government and security personnel to all colony worlds.

Every living thing has a Kirlian aura that can be measured. Through transfer, a refinement of mattermission technology, the mind and personality of individuals with high aura can be sent to animate a body physically distant but a hosted aura fades at the rate of about 1 unit per Earth day and higher-Kirlian individuals last longer and thus have more freedom of movement.

The first three novels in the sequence, Cluster, Chaining the Lady and Kirlian Quest form a linked trilogy. Thousandstar and Viscous Circle come later and take place in the time sequence between the second and third volumes of the original trilogy.

Look for all five titles on the Piers Anthony page of the E-Reads website. And visit Piers Anthony’s website

RC