Look Into the Sun: James Patrick Kelly

Book II of Messengers Chronicle. Phillip Wing is the brilliant architect of the Glass Cloud, an amazing floating sculpture and one of the Seven New Wonders of the World - and he's not well disposed to his benefactors, the Messengers, who have now come to Earth. They have brought a new technology, a new culture and most surprisingly, a new religion to the human race - and with the cult of the Message has come a new lover for Phillip's wife. Far Up-Time, on the distant planet of Aseneshesh, a dying Goddess is struggling with the future of her people, the Chani. The Messengers believe Wing is the only mortal able to engineer their cultural survival. But success depends on taking the first step of the one-way trip to Aseneshesh - a decision which will separate him from his wife, his lifetime and even his own humanity - forever. Cover art by Richard Dunn.