Maximilian Howell is a Temp on the planet of Capricornia-4, a specialised and lucrative role in which a part of his personality is copied and placed into another person's mind, in order to carry out tasks the person doesn't wish to do themselves. He's done it hundreds of times, and always smugly remained himself. But this time something has gone wrong, and Max is now Max-472, an abstract of himself, stuck in a body that isn't his own and destined to expire. And, worse, his original self has been violently kidnapped before his newly borrowed eyes. Now Max-472 must follow the trail the kidnappers left behind, in search of himself and a conspiracy that spans the entire Seven Systems, and perhaps will lead to a shocking secret, one from centuries earlier. In the end, the revolution will be temporary. THE TEMP is an old-fashioned, fast-paced sci-fi detective adventure story in the tradition of Isaac Asimov and Douglas Adams, with a little Phillip K. Dick thrown in for good measure.