Foreigner

by Robert J. Sawyer

  year: the time it takes for the Face of God to complete one orbit around its sun; between 18,310 and 18,335 Quintaglio days. A Quintaglio female becomes sexually receptive at the end of each year of life. [2]

  Yenalb (Det-Yenalb): (7067-7110) Master of the Faith; he blinded Sal-Afsan using a dat-kar-mas. He was killed during the skirmish between the palace loyal and the Lubalites. [1]

  Zamar (Det-Zamar): one of Pack Carno’s senior priests. [1]

  About the Author

  Robert J. Sawyer is the author of three previous science fiction novels, a dozen SF short stories, and over 200 nonfiction pieces. Orson Scott Card called Rob’s first book, Golden Fleece, the best SF novel of 1990; it also won Canada’s Aurora Award for best English-language SF novel of 1990/91.

  Rob is also the author of Far-Seer and Fossil Hunter (the first two books in the Quintaglio trilogy) and End of an Era (an unrelated and quite different novel about dinosaurs to be published in November 1994 by Ace). Far-Seer won the 1992 HOMer Award for best SF novel of the year, voted on by the 18,000 members worldwide of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Forum on the CompuServe Information Service.

  Rob’s short SF has appeared in Amazing Stories, The Village Voice, Leisure Ways, Dinosaur Fantastic (edited by Mike Resnick), and 100 Great Fantasy Short Short Stories (co-edited by Isaac Asimov). Rob also writes and narrates documentaries on SF topics for CBC Radio’s Ideas series, is The Canadian Encyclopedia’s authority on science fiction, and is Canadian Regional Director of the Science-fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He lives in Thornhill, Ontario (just north of Toronto), with his wife, Carolyn Clink.