'In a galaxy far, far away from Earth, men and women struggle for power on an interstellar stage. A young man crushed by his ruthless father falls in love with a woman shaped as a weapon against them both. At stake is not just victory but the survival of the cosmos.'
Source: Gaia to Galaxy.
Notes on variant texts:
Originally published in the anthology New Writings in SF in 1964: the story was Broderick's first professional sale, when he was twenty. This original version of the story was reprinted in Climbing Mount Implausible. The version in Uncle Bones is heavily revised.
The novella also formed the basis of the 1993 novel of the same name. According to the introduction to Climbing Mount Implausible, however, the novel is the result of 'altering and elaborating the far-future culture portrayed in the original version, re-naming most of the central characters, and introducing new subtleties into their motivations' (pp.7-8). The novel has therefore been treated as an adaptation of the original story.