"Griphus was an alien world, light-years from Sol System.
A world where nineteen of her shipmates were going to die."
While still in our infancy as space explorers, humanity discovers a trio of interstellar ships orbitting Sol beyond Pluto. Left behind by an unimaginably advanced race, the "Wormer" ships employ technology of which human scientists have little understanding. Eager to explore the universe, however, humans are quick to set aside fears of the unknown and venture forth in the alien ships.
One of these early explorers is geologist Cassandra Morant. Cassie has reservations about humanity's decision to ride piggyback on the mysterious Wormer technology but nevertheless finds herself assigned to the team sent to explore the far distant planet Griphus. Faced with interesting work and a shipboard romance, Cassie finds the early days of her mission aboard the Wormer ship pleasant enough. But when a power failure causes the ship's orbit around Griphus to decay, and the team sent to the planet's surface to extract a rare element necessary to effect repairs is captured by an indigenous tribe and threatened with execution, Cassie's worst fears are realized.
Faced with the imminent deaths of her team mates on the planet as well as the thousands of people on board the troubled Wormer ship, Cassie wishes she was back on Earth, puzzling through one of her beloved jigsaws, and not unimaginably far from home, spiralling to her destruction around an alien world. But there will be no going home for Cassie or any of her team unless she can solve the puzzle of planetary proportions which has Griphus--and now Cassie and her friends as well--in its grip.
In Jigsaw, Douglas Smith has crafted an intelligent puzzle story with a likable protagonist and a fascinating alien culture. The story is reminiscent of an episode of "Star Trek" in which human smarts and science save the day--except that the scientist in Jigsaw actually gets the science right!