Philip Jose Farmer 
Unreasoning Mask 

It is known as the alaraf drive: instantaneous travel between two points of space. Three of special ships have been built using this technology to explore and make contact with the many sentient races inhabiting the universe. Captain H d Ramstam launches his ship, al-Buraq, on a mid-tearing space odyssey with a planet’s god in his cabin – and a planet-destroyer on the loose . . . What exactly is the vast, superpowerful, worldburning BOLG? Can it be taken out or is it unstoppable? And who precisely is the green-cloaked mystery glimpsed by Ramstam? Can it be al-Kindhr, the Green One, mentioned in Surat 18 of the Qu’ran? Or is it someone older, wiser and more deadly? Ranstan, a thoughtful and moral man, becomes a fascinated yet reluctant pawn in the hands of the strange forces which arise to fight the deadly destroyer. Ultimately, he is the one man who, in a fearful race against time, can stop the destruction. But what price must he pay for becoming the saviour of intelligent-kind?