A bog may be Earth's undoing, but it will be a gift to Mars.

Digging up bog bodies and analyzing corpses are the last things archaeology graduate student Felicity Cratchett wants to do. And when unusual mummies are discovered in the subpolar region of Polar Bear Provincial Park, it's the last place she wants to go. But since her faculty advisor insists that she log more hours in fieldwork, she has little choice. In a remote bog with a small team of scientists, Felicity unearths the greatest secret of our time--a secret with ties to ancient Rome, roots in Botswana, and a link to the first people to exercise abstract thought. This revelation will challenge the conventional theory of human origins and human evolution.

Meanwhile, astronaut Lucas Wilson, a man tormented with a deep-seated anger, is terraforming Mars. He reluctantly descends to the Red Planet's surface with his fellow astronauts, preparing to direct their exploration. Mars, in its birth pangs, will challenge every step he takes, with gas explosions and raging rivers, with damaged fuel processors and limited oxygen supplies. In the midst of these disasters, Lucas must keep his companions from discovering a feat of genetic engineering that will transform Mars like nothing has in over a billion years. The double helix of this masterwork twists all the way back to Earth and Felicity's mummies. But if he fails, Lucas must decide whether to take up Mars's sword, or to cast the weapon into a bog.

"She may be a new kid on the science fiction block, but Ottawa writer Deborah Jackson could well rank up there one day with the likes of Isaac Asimov or Arthur C. Clarke."
-Mike Gillespie, Ottawa Citizen

"Ms.Jackson has created a fascinating scientific plotline for this novel, weaving geology, anthropology, and near-future Mars exploration together in a creative way . . . she has developed a plausible chain of events that lead from a bog in the Canadian north through the jungles of Africa and out to the barrenness of Mars. . . The other strength of the novel is characterization. The story is full of intense, driven and flawed people, who strike sparks off each other without fail."
-Renaissance Writer Reviews