When Artemis offers her the chance to fight in her name alongside the Argonauts, the fiercest band of warriors the world has ever seen, Atalanta seizes it. Raised by a mother bear under the protective eye of the goddess Artemis, Atalanta grows up wild and free, with just one condition: if she marries, Artemis warns, it will be her undoing.Īlthough she loves her beautiful forest home, Atalanta yearns for adventure. When Princess Atalanta is born, a daughter rather than the son her parents hoped for, she is left on a mountainside to die.

Soon Proctor finds himself questioning everything he once believed, entangled with a much bigger cause than he realized-and on a desperate mission to uncover the truth. Unrest is building, and there are rumors spreading of a resistance group-known as 'Arrivalists'-who may be fomenting revolution. The Support Staff, ordinary men and women who provide the labor to keep Prospera running, have begun to question their place in the social order. And then comes the day he is summoned to retire his own father, who gives him a disturbing and cryptic message before being wrestled onto the ferry. For another, his monitor percentage has begun to drop alarmingly fast. For one thing, he's been dreaming-which is supposed to be impossible in Prospera.

Proctor Bennett, of the Department of Social Contracts, has a satisfying career as a ferryman, gently shepherding people through the retirement process-and, when necessary, enforcing it. Then they retire themselves, embarking on a ferry ride to the island known as the Nursery, where their failing bodies are renewed, their memories are wiped clean, and they are readied to restart life afresh. In this island paradise, Prospera's lucky citizens enjoy long, fulfilling lives until the monitors embedded in their forearms, meant to measure their physical health and psychological well-being, fall below 10 percent. Mark Hamill and His Return of the Jedi Prop Lightsaber Reunite in Pop Culture Quest Clipįounded by the mysterious genius known as the Designer, the archipelago of Prospera lies hidden from the horrors of a deteriorating outside world.

Witch King by Martha Wells