This is the story of a city on terraformed Mars. This is a story of scandals and nightmares, time travel and religious movements, terror and a pervasive war of all against all. It's the story of captive mechanical angels, rain-inducing musicians, a mirrored tachyon maze that shows every conceivable future, mind-obsessed trains, Martian tripods and cyber-saints. This is the story of how extraordinary, unexpected and all-encompassing science fiction can be. This is the most extraordinary story of Mars exploration ever written. This is the story of the Road of Desolation.