title: InterstellarNet: Origins (Volume 1)
author:  Edward M. Lerner 
description: "Lerner's world-building and extrapolating are top notch." <br />-- <i>SFScope</i><br /><br />"<i><span>Faster-than-light travel is such a commonplace convention in SF that we seldom consider the flip side: a universe in which FTL does not exist. In this book ... Edward M. Lerner uses such a universe to great effect."</span></i><br /><span>--<span> </span>Analog Science Fiction and Fact</span>
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  **A New Order of Things: Part II of IV** by Edward M. Lerner **Civilization
  and its handmaiden, Technology, depend on trust--but that contains its own
  pitfalls.**
  
  * * * *
  
  * * * *
  
  _Illustrated by John Allemand_
  
  * * * *
  
   **Synopsis**
  
  _For a century and a half, a growing interstellar community has maintained
  radio contact. A_ _vigorous commerce in intellectual property has accelerated
  the technical progress of all its_ _members. Travel between the stars seems
  impossible, but InterstellarNet thrives using an elegant_ _alternative:
  artificially intelligent surrogates who act as local representatives for
  distant societies._
  
  _Quarantine procedures strictly govern the delivery and operational
  environment of each alien_ _agent, protecting agents and their host networks
  from subversion by the other._
  
  _A radio message shatters this comfortable status quo. The signal comes from a
  habitat-sized_ _decelerating interstellar vessel, its unannounced trip from
  Barnar