A Memory of Dragons takes place in Colorado. The exact year is unspecified, but it is presumably a time in the middle to late 1990s. Paul, the novel's hero, works as a technician at MARJOMAC, a huge defense-industry complex twenty miles south of Denver. Hightech weaponry and space probes are not the only things MARJOMAC produces. Hidden within its labs and offices a shadowy game is being played which puts the whole nation's future in jeopardy.

Both sides try to recruit Paul. As they draw him willy-nilly into their web of intrigue, the young man's inner horizons expand. The setting also expands. In his search for information Paul travels into the rugged mountains on a desperate rescue mission. And he "travels" in time as well, visiting his childhood and the life of a Civil Warera ancestor, as he seeks help for his memory gaps.

Much of the social...