Major Jimjoy Earle Wright, secret agent of the Empire, is intelligent and highly trained. But he succeeds all too well in overthrowing a military dictatorship—and the result is a new government inimical to the Empire and disgrace for Jimjoy. After surviving two assassination attempts, Jimjoy realizes that it's his own imperial superiors who want him dead; that, in fact, his worst enemies could become his best friends. He fights his way to safety on the planet Accord, where the Ecolitan Institute wins his loyalty and changes his identity. Now he is James Joyson Whaler, Ecolitan, in the middle of a war of independence against the inconceivably superior forces of the Empire.

Spanning the human galaxy, the Empire is all-powerful, its agents everywhere, its military forces huge and technologically advanced. No human or alien forces have ever been able to stand against its power. But now, on the planet of Accord, at the Ecolitan Institute, the seeds of change have been sown. Jimjoy Earle Wright was the best, the smartest and the toughest secret agent in the Empire forces - until his employers decided to kill him for political reasons. But Jimjoy survived the assassination attempts and fought his way to safety on accord. And there the Ecolitan Institute won his loyalty and changed his identity, Now he is James Joyson Whaler, Ecolitan, in the middle of a war of independence against inconceivable superior forces. Jimjoy will win or die, as his friends perish and the odds increase against him. What is the cost of victory to a hero?

Four hundred years after winning Secession from the Terran Empire, the star system Accord wants to sign a simple trade treaty on microchip export affairs, but the top economist at the Ecolitan Institute is chosen as Accord's Envoy. Reissue.

L.E. Modesitt, Jr.'s science fiction novels have been pleasing readers for nearly two decades. Among his earlier novels were three books set in the future universe of the Ecolitan Institute. Now Modesitt returns to that world to tell another story of cultural conflict and interstellar diplomacy. The Ecolitan Enigma is sure to thrill his old fans and win new ones. Nathaniel Firstborn Whaler is an Ecolitan, both a professor at the Institute and a field agent with extraordinary powers. Sent to a backwater colony planet nominally to determine its economic viability, Whaler evades assassin's bullets only steps from the spaceport. He soon uncovers evidence that the planet will become the flashpoint for interstellar conflict between two empires, with each prepared to blame the Ecolitan Institute should war break out. Whaler must do everything in his power to stop what might become the worst disaster in human history. And Nathaniel whaler just may have more power than any man in the galaxy.