The Ironlane Detective

Getting on in years and annoyed that he's not trusted, Hobarsson gets fooled into releasing some damn fool alien. Consequently all of a sudden he's on everyone's hate list. It doesn't help that he has to journey with some overly-muscled woman who claims him as a brother-in-law - and this when he's running for his life. The planet is weird - and it's all somehow to do with him. And a robot turns up More

The inhabitants of the generation-ship Skydale are disappointed to find at the end of their long journey a deadly world. Extreme temperatures, clouds of sulphuric acid: the planet is uninhabitable. Nonetheless, Skydale is kept in orbit around this world, and plans are made.

Over the next two thousand years the intrepid travellers turn this hell-world into a green-world - and make it their new home.

More than 800 years after Skydale is finally abandoned in favour of the resurrected planet, a unique meeting takes place in a secluded mining town. One telepath - Hobarsson, a detective - encounters another telepath in violent circumstances. Chased by both an agent of the law and a self-appointed assassin, the fugitives begin a journey in which they discover the truth about how the world was made - and what had really become of the people of Skydale.