The year is 2100, and the world has adopted the American two-party electoral system. When it comes to the election for president of Earth, the father-daughter team of Toby and Lara Platt are the cutthroat campaign directors who get candidates elected by any means necessary-including the current president, Corbin Dubois of France. But when an alien lands outside the United Nations, claiming to be an ambassador from Tau Ceti, Dubois orders her attacked. Toby resigns. The alien survives-and so, it seems, might Dubois's corrupt reelection campaign, now run by Lara. But Toby vows to put his daughter out of a job. He challenges the two major parties-one conservative, one liberal-and runs for president himself with a third-party moderate challenge. He's a long-shot, but he's determined to fix the problems he created in getting Dubois elected. Amid rising tensions and chants of "Alien go home!" the campaign crisscrosses every continent as father and daughter battle for electoral votes and clash over the ideas and issues facing the world of 2100 in this bare-knuckle, fight-to-the-finish political campaign. The world is watching. And so is the alien. "Larry Hodges is an insightful political commentator and a kick-ass science-fiction writer. A dynamite novel full of twists and turns; this futuristic House of Cards is both entertaining and thought-provoking." - Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of Quantum Night