Bestselling, award-winning futurist David Brin returns to globe-spanning, high concept Science Fiction with Existence.

Gerald Livingston is an orbital garbage collector. Only now, high over the blue Earth, he spots something that's ... unusual... and pulls it in, sending rumors across Earth's infomesh about an "alien artifact." Amid a maelstrom of worldwide speculation, the Artifact is a game-changer. A message in a bottle? An alien capsule that wants to communicate... or deliver a warning? After surviving countless pitfalls – natural disasters, nuclear terrorism, rising seas – might this push our troubled era over the brink of chaos? The world reacts as humans always do: with fear and hope and selfishness and love and violence. And insatiable curiosity.

Brilliant and gripping, David Brin's novel of the near future is the work of a modern master of science fiction.