Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0441080588, Mass Market Paperback)

Man had always sought a meaning beyond Earth. Lonely, even with the company of his fellow Man, he had sought another spark of life, somewhere out there. But by the end of the century, the gates of exploration had shut. The Earth was constricted by a radioactive belt of Man's own making. ~ ~~ ~ Yet scientists still searched the skies through radio probes for a signal, a hope that intelligent life beyond our galaxy might exist. But the Universe yielded no emissions. ~ ~~ ~ And unless a strange young boy was allowed to develop and understand his baffling "wild talent," a talent frightening but with no apparent purpose, they might never find an answer.