Impending personal tragedy is dimming the brilliant light of Dr. Benjamin Knowlton's world. On the threshold of their greatest achievement, the renowned astrophysicist's beloved wife and partner—ex-astronaut-turned astronomer—is dying. But something looms alarmingly on the far edge of the solar system: at once a scientific find of unparalleled importance that could ensure the Knowltons' immortality, and a potential earth-shattering cataclysm that dwarfs their private one. For Benjamin and Channing have discovered "Eater," an eons-old black hole anomaly that devours stars and worlds. Yet its most awesome and devastating secrets are still to be revealed... and feared.