When the Orion expedition vanished into the void, most people accepted they were gone. Nick Hartnett wouldn't. His father Steve is out there somewhere, maybe still breathing, and Nick has his father's own invention - counter-acceleration technology that makes interstellar travel possible - to mount a rescue mission. The crew that answers his call is a rough assembly of specialists, each with their own reasons for chasing danger into the dark. Their destination is Hastur, a planetoid where rotation creates optical illusions that warp reality itself. What they find when they arrive - wreckage, survivors, something worse - will test whether hope is a virtue or a curse. Kornbluth writes with the kinetic energy of golden age pulp at its best: fast, propulsive, and driven by characters who feel like real people caught in impossible circumstances. The science feels genuinely strange, the father-son relationship gives the adventure emotional weight, and the mystery of Hastur unfolds with genuine unease. This is rescue mission SF at its core, but with the intellectual rigor and emotional complexity that separates memorable work from forgettable adventure.
