Forerunner Foray is actually 3rd in the Shan Lantee series (see "Storm Over Warlock" and "Ordeal in Otherwhere"), although it won't be apparent until you're well along in the book. The evening our story begins, Ziantha, a Guild Esper, ventures into the office of one of the many power-brokers who reside on the pleasure-planet Korwar. She's not there even to touch any of the valuable artwork - just to use her talent to identify specific computer memory cubes in his safe, and to copy their contents into her own memory without touching them, or leaving any trace. But while her defenses are down for the transfer, she is drawn to one of the artifacts - the ugly lump of rock on the coffee table, which is more than it seems. Ziantha's superior, the Lady Yasa, organizes an expedition to trace the artifact back to its origins, during which Ziantha is drawn into its past. This book provides a different view of life on Korwar (the starting point for several of Norton's science fiction novels), more Forerunner civilization(s), and a closer look at the Guild. --Michele L. Worley, Amazon review