Book excerpt: The first visitor to paradise in three centuries! For 300 years, Utopia has been separated from the rest of the galaxy. Now, after intricate negotiations, a single visitor from the Other Worlds is permitted to travel to this strange planet. What Hardy Cronyn finds is stranger than he could have imagined: no marriage, few children, and a population that was effectively immortal. No death, no crime . . . a true paradise. But then Cronyn discovers the paralyzing fear shared by all Utopia’s inhabitants: If life is eternal, pain will last a long, long time.