Ballantine/Del Rey, New York, 2001; stated 1^st, BCE.  ISBN 0-345-43077-8.  Hard cover, 452+ pages.  Very good; light shelf wear, spine ends lightly bumped; binding sound.  Dust jacket shows some edge and cover wear, primarily at spine ends and flap folds.  Interior clean and unmarked with very lightly tanning pages.  ‘… Malenfant ventures to the far edge of the solar system, where he discovers a strange artifact left behind by an alien civilization:  A gateway that functions as a kind of quantum transporter, allowing virtually instantaneous travel over the vast distances of interstellar space.  What lies on the other side of the gateway?  Malenfant decides to find out.  … back on Earth the Japanese scientist Nemoto fears her worst nightmares are coming true.  Startling and chilling discoveries reveal that the Moon, Mars, Venus, even the Jovian moons, once thrived with life…life that was snuffed out in the distant past by starfaring races.  Snuffed out not just once but many times, in cycles of birth and destruction as plain as they are inexplicable.  One fact is clear.  The recent, Earthbound arrival of the Gaijin portend the first alien visitors in a new cycle.  And behind them looms another – a species with an ominous predilection for blowing up suns.’ (from front flap)