Stated first Ace printing, with several previous editions. Tight, flat, square, book with edge wear, owner's marks on the inside front cover, toned pages. "KIDNAPPED! Eight men and eight women, with curious bumps on the backs of their heads, and no memory of anything but an interrupted journey, a flight that never landed. They emerged from their green plastic coffins one by one, into the sunlight of an endless alien plain...." The novel begins with 16 strangers waking up in coffin-like containers on an empty street in the middle of a plain in seeming wilderness. On one side of the street is a hotel, and on the other side sits a grocery store. An empty cab is parked in front of the hotel, and an empty Saab is parked by the grocery store. The street seems to exist as something seen on a film set, disappearing into forest land in either direction. A hotel, a supermarket and the road, and 16 strangers waking in coffins, with no memory of how they got there. It?s one of those setups that was all the rage a couple years ago with shows like LOST and PERSONS UNKNOWN.