Summary:

River was screwed. His first away mission was supposed to be exciting, help develop his PhD, and jump start his career. Instead, he was on a one-way trip to the apocalypse. Eridani’s only inhabited planet had gone dark, all its modern urban centers gone, replaced by medieval towns, castles, and old-school farmland, as if the entire planet decided to return to the dark ages. Now River and his team have to find out what caused it. Some kind of advanced attack by an unknown, maybe unknowable enemy? A runaway mad-science experiment? Literal demons arriving into our universe? River had no idea how to deal with this problem, let alone solve it, or even where to begin. And then a voice speaks into his mind and gives him a race, a class, and role-playing-game appropriate clothing. Then the monsters come. And it’s all he can do to survive.