On the planet Talos VII, twenty-three years before the
events of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, an anomaly is
detected: a vast circular pit, with dimensions so perfect that
it could only have been the result of conscious design. So a
small team is assembled to learn more - perhaps even who
built the hole and why. Their mission will take them on a
hazardous trek to the very edge of existence.
For one explorer, this is the opportunity of a lifetime. For
another, a risk not worth taking. And for xenobiologist Alex
Crichton, it's a desperate attempt to find meaning in an
uncaring universe. But every step they take towards that
mysterious abyss is more punishing than the last. Ultimately,
no one is prepared for what they will encounter.

Christopher Paolini was born in Southern California and has lived most of his life in Paradise Valley, Montana, with his family. He published his first novel, Eragon, in 2003 at the age of nineteen, and quickly became a publishing phenomenon. His Inheritance Cycle – Eragon and its three sequels – have sold nearly 40 million copies worldwide. To Sleep in a Sea of Stars was his first adult novel.