A Rumor of Angels

From the back cover of the Signet first edition: The Wards - the maximum security prisons where Earth permanently disposes of its most troublesome citizens. Jude Rowe has survived six years in the Wards, and now Earth Intelligence is offering her a way out. The price - a one-way trip to Arkoi, an Eden-like planet, with its childlike, primitive natives and its thriving human colony. But there is something terribly wrong with this picture of paradise. Every expedition sent beyond the colony's borders has disappeared. The few survivors who eventually straggle back are totally, permanently insane. Are Arkoi's natives not as docile as they seem? Or are there some Others out there ready to destroy any humans who stumble into their territory? Can Jude alone succeed where whole expeditions have failed? Or will she too vanish without a trace while two worlds whirl closer and closer to a final cataclysmic confrontation?