This is the third part of the Venus Ascending trilogy. By now the Venus Ascending has grown to fifty-eight domes cobbled together into a complex housing twenty-one different species and John is still the president of the Legue of Planets. Word of the rich and decadent space port had spread with new species arriving to become members of the League, but now a species set on acquisition has its eye on the League. A strange malady announces the first pass of a conquering species, but then things escalate into a war. Can a community of hedonistic pleasure seekers defend itself from a species set upon conquest?