About the book: 2020 / Their arrival on Earth changed the world beyond recognition. The flora and fauna not only became different, they became as hostile to humans as possible. More or less comfortable conditions have been preserved only in the Far North, where peaches still bloom and apples are grown. The rest of the world is a hot furnace in which the water cycle has practically stopped. Ordinary fresh water has become the most valuable resource for which people, large companies and entire states are fighting. Centralized control remained, but in a completely different form. But people... People remained the same. And in this world the surveyor Gorokhov goes his own way. Events unfolding one hundred and fifty years before the birth of Akim Sablin, before the formation of the Great Swamps and before the war with the Chinese. Prequel. How it all began.