The Terracan, Vicehorn, the Tel bi Ree are all gone, fallen to dust. Only those known as the Four survive the 60 forgotten millennia, thrown across an ocean of time to find the Dreaming Stone and open the path back to the stone builders, the Cad a Hoi. But would those who inherited the quest understand it? The Baron Moncrieff thought he did but it robbed him of his reputation, health and finally his life. It led him to ever more desperate treks into the high places of the world, searching for "The bright shining hills". But no one believed his mystic ramblings and within a few years of his last journey he was dead. Now the dream passed to his grandson, Thomas. He too would begin to seek answers to the mystery. With the aid of his friend, Lumpy, he would search in secret for the two warriors locked in a stone. He had read the Prophecy and seen the first glimmers of its truth. So armed only with his love of the old man and the need to understand his own dream he too would keep faith and await the Messiahs.

In a bid to escape their dying world the Cad a Hoi send out dreaming stones across the galaxy. Some are found by the Taff-Taff while out in space dredging for materials with which to build new realms around their sun. But something goes wrong, bringing terrible consequences. The Realm of Agryen para Noranach becomes infected by ghouls and is ruled by fear and superstition. The Taff-Taff, unlike the Cad a Hoi, do not dream except for some children who, considered possessed, are doomed to a grisly end at the hands of the fanatical Archimandrite. Hope lies in the young Infanta, Tiopany Agryen. Aided by a strange apparition she meets in dreams Tiopany embarks on a quest to save her people. The dangers escalate as she grows to womanhood and the forces of the evil Archimandrite mount against her. Tiopany struggles to understand her mission. Who is her guardian angel, what is meant by the enclosure where she must lead her people, and, more importantly, who can she trust?

For millennia the Terracan have merged with the sky stones, travelling their mysterious paths, searching for the Dreaming Stone and the path back to those who sent them, the alien Cad a Hoi. Then hope comes with the birth of the twin Messiahs. Soon the Terracan's guiding Prophecy will be borne out and the Dreaming Stone's whereabouts known. But, King Vicehorn, believing his empire threatened, pursues the Terracan mercilessly. He attacks their northern settlement and the Messiahs, Dillapan and Tontith, accompanied by the beautiful, enigmatic Coonishinook and her fire brother, Teeka, flee into the unknown and an adventure in which they encounter strange lands, fantastic cities and fabulous creatures. Their lives, loves and loyalties will be torn and tested before the ancient Prophecy leads them to an unbearable truth, the solution of which lies 60,000 years in the future.

The Stars Down to Earth shows us a stunningly prescient Adorno. Haunted by the ugly side of American culture industries he used the different angles provided by each of these three essays to showcase the dangers inherent in modern obsessions with consumption. He engages with some of his most enduring themes in this seminal collection, focusing on the irrational in mass culture - from astrology to new age cults, from anti-semitism to the power of neo-fascist propaganda. He points out that the modern state and market forces serve the interest of capital in its basic form. Stephan Crook's introduction grounds Adorno's arguments firmly in the present where extreme religious and political organizations are commonplace - so commonplace in fact that often we deem them unworthy of our attention. Half a century ago Theodore Adorno not only recognised the dangers, but proclaimed them loudly. We did not listen then. Maybe it is not too late to listen now.