Daric is a boy growing up on an isolated estate on a far future terraformed Mars. He tends the estate plant life and listens to his ancient grandpapa's stories about the amazing exploits of the long-dead Emperor Darius, who transformed the entire Solar System. His brother gives him a task to accomplish in a nearby city and Darius get involved in a trail of adventures which will see him follow in the footsteps of Darius.

He is is kidnapped by agents of the faction fearing the return of Darius to stop an attempt to bring him to earth to open a trove that Darius left sealed long ago. He escapes and begins a journey that takes him to an asteroid, Triton and Pluto's ,moon.

The feel of the future in this novel is very strange. It draws a picture of technologies which function almost like a magical landscape, which does create a mysterious future, if not quite a believable one. One memorable aspect is the series of floating numbers Daric/Darius sees which enable him to locate himself in space. While the story and action are baroque in the extreme, what this novel lacks is any sense of real danger or of the clashing of 'big ideas'. There is no tension here. A boy grows up as a clone of a man. ( )

Interesting story, but didn't quite jell. ( )

Weird. Details a strange, strange and curious universe. Well written. But not interesting enough to hold one's attention all the way through, unfortunately. ( )

A weird tale of a future of the solar system that has undergone numerous poltical earthquakes so deep that the information itself takes on mythic proportions. It's an odyssey of a young man on Mars who awakens to his legacy as the former Ruler of the Solar System. ( )