On the Ark, a colony ship bound outward across the stars, not everyone is a volunteer-or even human. Lovelock is a capuchin monkey, engineered from conception to be the perfect servant: intelligent, agile, and devoted to his owner. He is a Witness, privileged to spend his days and nights recording the life of one of Earth's most brilliant scientists via digital devices implanted behind his eyes.

But Lovelock is something special among Witnesses. He's a smarter than most humans - smart enough to break through some of his conditioning. Smart enough to feel the bonds of slavery - and want freedom. Like Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide, Lovelock probes the provocative interface between humanity and another sentient species, set against the awesome scope of interstellar space.