Vor, The Maelstrom

ALIEN HORROR It materializes off the Oregon coast in a burst of devastation and tsunamis: an island containing an alien city . . . and perhaps the way for Earth to escape the Maelstrom. But the Union soldiers and civilian scientists sent to the strange ruins aren't the only ones who want the island's power. For the humans are soon confronted by unearthly monsters: the walking-dead Pharons and morphing Sand. And these horrors intend to claim victims on their unholy journey through the Maelstrom, even as the entire island itself begins to disappear.

"The Cutter Stream colonies were at peace. If everyone behaved reasonably, that peace could last a thousand years. Allen Allenson had known war; it had made him peaceful and reasonable. He was far too experienced to believe the same of all his fellow colonists, let alone the government of the distant homeworld. War was coming, a war the colonies had to win if they were ever to be more than prison camps and a dumping ground for incompetent noblemen. Allenson knew that he wasn't really a general, but he understood his fellow colonists better than any homeworld general could. He would free the Cutter Stream or die trying"--

TIME OUT! Alexi keeps getting killed. A Neo-Soviet soldier fighting Union troops and Maelstrom predators, Corporal Alexi Minsk is suddenly reliving battles--even ones he hasn't yet been in--over and over, as if he's trapped in a warped video game. For the realities of Then, Soon, and Now have come unglued, while an enigmatic Zykhee alien keeps trying to warn Alexi that all humanity is doomed. And unless Alexi can fight his way through the temporal madness, Earth will be destroyed-for all time. . . .