WE ARRIVED FIRST

For 542 years, the starship Celandine has carried generations of people towards Aldervane.

Their mission is to survive the journey and build humanity a new home.

When Commander Romilly Ketteridge finally reaches the planet, cities light its surface. Spacecraft fill its skies. Millions of people already live there.

Earth survived, built faster ships and overtook them.

Now twenty-four thousand arrivals must find a future on a world that no longer needs discovering. Below, the inhabitants have been expecting them. Aboard Celandine, the purpose that held a civilisation together is beginning to fracture.

As Romilly negotiates their place, evidence raises questions about what the ship’s leadership knew—and what its people were allowed to believe.

An epic science-fiction thriller about loyalty, competing claims and a commander trying to secure a home for people whose life’s mission has already been completed.