When an ancient artifact dissolves in the hands of a man calling himself Mr. Veilleur, he knows something has gone wrong...terribly, cosmically wrong. Dr. Roderick Hanley, Nobel Prize-winning geneticist, dies in a plane crash. His last words: "The boy! They'll find out about the boy! He'll find out about himself!" When Jim Stevens, an orphan and struggling writer, learns that he is the sole heir to the Hanley estate, he is sure he has at last found his biological father. But he's only half right. The true nature of his inheritance—and the truth about his conception—will crush him. In New York City a group of Charismatics has been drawn together—without invitation, simply showing up at a Murray Hill brownstone—with a sense of great purpose. Satan is coming, and they have been chosen to fight him. Mr. Veilleur too has been drawn to the group, but he realizes it's not Satan who is coming. Satan would be a suitable au pair compared to the ancient evil that is in the process of being Reborn. Tor is reissuing the third title in the Adversary Cycle, The Touch, in July 2009.

When an ancient artifact dissolves in the hands of a man calling himself Mr. Veilleur, he knows something has gone wrong...terribly, cosmically wrong. Dr. Roderick Hanley, Nobel Prize-winning geneticist, dies in a plane crash. His last words: "The boy! They'll find out about the boy! He'll find out about himself!" When Jim Stevens, an orphan and struggling writer, learns that he is the sole heir to the Hanley estate, he is sure he has at last found his biological father. But he's only half right. The true nature of his inheritance—and the truth about his conception—will crush him. In New York City a group of Charismatics has been drawn together—without invitation, simply showing up at a Murray Hill brownstone—with a sense of great purpose. Satan is coming, and they have been chosen to fight him. Mr. Veilleur too has been drawn to the group, but he realizes it's not Satan who is coming. Satan would be a suitable au pair compared to the ancient evil that is in the process of being Reborn. Tor is reissuing the third title in the Adversary Cycle, The Touch, in July 2009.