At the heart of Known Space lies mystery: How did so anarchic and violent a species as the Kzin ever learn to cooperate sufficiently to develop the technology to conquer an interstellar empire? The answer to this and other questions have been hinted at before, but now Gregory Benford, a renowned high-energy physicist, and molecular biologist Mark O. Martin bring their formidable talents and extraordinarily broad range of expertise to bear on all the mysteries of Known Space.