Description:

On a distant planet isolated from Earth since its colonization 20,000 years ago, a young boy's religious conviction is put to the test in a bound-and-weighted baptism of endurance beneath the waves of the ocean. He experiences a divine euphoria at the moment his breath gives out, and when he's brought back to the surface, the love of Beatrice, Daughter of God, flows through him with born-again contentedness. Years later as a biology student at the University, his conviction is thrown into turmoil when his own study of aquatic zooytes is used to challenge the source of his beliefs. Locus Poll Award Winner, Hugo Award Winner