New Releases by Neal Asher

He can jump between worlds. But can he save his own? As a totalitarian Inspectorate tightens its grip, one man discovers the power to slip through the gaps and traverse alternate universes. World Walkers by Neal Asher is an exhilarating standalone novel set within the Owner Trilogy. Ottanger is a rebel and mutant on an Earth governed by a ruthless Committee. But after its Inspectorate experiments on him, Ottanger realizes the mutation allows him to reach alternate worlds. The multiverse is revealed in all its glory and terror—and he understands that he can finally flee his timeline. Then Ottanger meets the Fenris, an evolved human, visiting his Earth from the far future. He’d engineered the original world walking mutation, so those altered could escape the Committee’s nightmarish regime. Yet this only worked for a few, and millions continued to suffer. And Ottanger sees that that Committee will become unstoppable if not destroyed. However, the Fenris has drawn yet another threat to Ottanger’s Earth. With the power of its trillion linked minds, it craves world-walking biotech and will do anything to get it. As conflict looms at home, and war threatens the multiverse—the Fenris, Ottanger and his companions must prepare for a galaxy-altering battle. . .

Rebellion could be their salvation—or their doom. Long ago, the Cyberat left Earth to co-evolve with machines. Now, led by the powerful dictator Castron, their Old Guard believe that machines should replace the physical body. But these beliefs are upended with the arrival of the human Polity—and their presence ignites rebellion. Piper was raised as a weapon against the Cyberat, implanted with secretive hardware. When his parents are captured by the Old Guard, the Polity offer him unexpected aid. Piper knows the Polity want more from him, but at what cost? The rebellion also attracts the deadly prador, placing an entire world in peril. As war rages across the planet, Piper must battle with the unknown technology implanted in his bones. It may be the Polity’s answer to their relentless fight against the prador. It could also be civilization-ending Jain tech—or something far more extraordinary. War Bodies by Neal Asher is a gripping, high-octane standalone set in his expansive Polity world.

Weaponized is a thrilling far-future adventure by acclaimed science fiction author Neal Asher. A bright new future for humanity – or a dark and inescapable past. With the advent of new AI technology, Polity citizens now possess incredible lifespans. Yet they struggle to find meaning in their longevity, seeking danger and novelty in their increasingly mundane lives. On a mission to find a brighter future for humanity, ex-soldier Ursula fosters a colony on the hostile planet Threpsis. Here, survival isn’t a given, and colonists thrive without their AI guidance. But when deadly alien raptors appear, Ursula and her companions find themselves forced to adapt in unprecedented ways. And they will be pushed to the very brink of what it means to be human. As a desperate battle rages across the planet, Ursula must dig deep into her past if she is to save humanity’s future.

This high-octane adventure is set in the same world as Neal Asher''s acclaimed Polity universe. It''s a thrilling, fast-paced standalone novel, perfect for fans of Alastair Reynolds and Stephen Baxter. Created to die–determined to live . . . Jack Four–one of twenty human clones–has been created to be sold. His purchasers are the alien prador and they only want him for their experimentation program. But there is something different about Jack. No clone should possess the knowledge that’s been loaded into his mind. And no normal citizen of humanity’s Polity worlds would have this information. The prador’s king has been mutated by the Spatterjay virus into a creature even more monstrous than the prador themselves. And his children, the King’s Guard, have undergone similar changes. They were infected by the virus during the last humans-versus-prador war, now lapsed into an uneasy truce. But the prador are always looking for new weapons – and their experimentation program might give them the edge they seek. Suzeal trades human slaves out of the Stratogaster Space Station, re-engineering them to serve the prador. She thinks the rewards are worth the risks, but all that is about to change. The Station was once a zoo, containing monsters from across known space. All the monsters now dwell on the planet below, but they aren’t as contained as they seem. And a vengeful clone may be the worst danger of all. ‘Neal Asher’s books are like an adrenaline shot targeted directly for the brain’ John Scalzi, author of the Old Man’s War series ''Magnificently awesome. Then Asher turns it up to eleven'' Peter F. Hamilton, author of Salvation and others, on Asher''s The Soldier

One man will transcend death to seek vengeance. One woman will transform herself to gain power. And no one will emerge unscathed. Thorvald Spear wakes in hospital, where he finds he''s been brought back from the dead. What''s more, he died in a human vs. alien war that ended a whole century ago. But when he relives his traumatic final moments, he finds the spark to keep on living. That spark is vengeance. Trapped and desperate on a world surrounded by alien Prador forces, Spear had seen a rescue ship arriving. But instead of providing backup, Penny Royal, the AI within the destroyer turned rogue. It annihilated friendly forces in a frenzy of destruction, and, years later, it''s still free. Spear vows to track it across worlds and do whatever it takes to bring it down. Isobel Satomi ran a successful crime syndicate. But after competitors attacked, she needed more power. Yet she got more than she bargained for when she negotiated with Penny Royal. She paid it to turn her part AI herself, but the upgrades hid a horrifying secret. The Dark AI had triggered a transformation in Isobel that would turn her into a monster, rapidly evolving into something far from human. Spear hires Isobel to take him to the Penny Royal AI''s last known whereabouts. But he cheats her in the process and he becomes a target for her vengeance. And as she is evolves further into a monstrous predator, rage soon wins over reason. Will Spear finish his hunt, before he becomes the hunted?

In The Human, the final book in Neal Asher’s epic Rise of the Jain trilogy, an entire galaxy hangs in the balance as the ancient and powerful Jain threat emerges anew . . . A Jain warship has risen from the depths of space, emerging with a deadly grudge and a wealth of ancient yet lethal technology. It is determined to hunt down the alien Client, and will annihilate all those who stand in its way. So Orlandine must prepare humanity’s defense. Both humanity and the Prador thought their ancient foe—the Jain—had perished in a past age. And they resolve to destroy these outliers at any cost. Orlandine wants the Client’s inside knowledge to act, but the Client has her own agenda. Earth Central therefore looks to the Prador for alliance, after the Jain destroy their fleet. However, not everyone is happy with this, and some will do anything to shatter this fragile coalition. As the Jain warship makes its way across the galaxy, it seems unstoppable. Human and Prador forces alike struggle to withstand its devastating weaponry. Orlandine’s life work is to neutralize Jain technology, so if she can''t triumph, no one can. But will she become what she’s vowed to destroy?

The dangers of ancient technology loom over the Polity in the sequel to The Soldier, Neal Asher’s latest action-packed space opera series. The haiman Orlandine, charged with safeguarding lethal Jain tech swirling inside an accretion disc located in the distant reaches of space, has weaponized a black hole to eliminate the threat. But others are suspicious of her motives, and both the Polity AIs and the leaders of the alien prador kingdom dispatch fleets of warships in anticipation of conflict. As the black hole continues to eat its way through the planets in the accretion disc, making its way towards a dead sun, it becomes clear the disc has been hiding a larger secret. Nefarious forces with ulterior motives have manipulated Orlandine into deploying the black hole, triggering a series of larger events that will uncover a danger far older than even the Polity itself. From British science fiction writer Neal Asher, The War Ship picks up right where its predecessor, The Soldier, left off, showcasing Asher’s unique take on cutting-edge and fast-paced science fiction.

Sable Keech is a walking dead man, and the only one to have been resurrected by a nanochanger. Did he succeed because he was infected by the Spatterjay virus, or because he came late to resurrection in a tank of seawater? Taylor Bloc wants to know the truth - and he also wants adulation, power and control.

In a far corner of space, on the very borders between humanity’s Polity worlds and the kingdom of the vicious crab-like prador, is an immediate threat to all sentient life: an accretion disc, a solar system designed by the long-dead Jain race and swarming with living technology powerful enough to destroy entire civilizations. Neither the Polity or the prador want the other in full control of the disc, so they’ve placed an impartial third party in charge of the weapons platform guarding the technology from escaping into the galaxy: Orlandine, a part-human, part-AI haiman. She’s assisted by Dragon, a mysterious, spaceship-sized alien entity who has long been suspicious of Jain technology and who suspects the disc is a trap lying-in-wait. Meanwhile, the android Angel is planning an attack on the Polity, and is searching for a terrible weapon to carry out his plans?a Jain super-soldier. But what exactly the super-soldier is, and what it could be used for if it fell into the wrong hands, will bring Angel and Orlandine’s missions to a head in a way that could forever change the balance of power in the Polity universe. In The Soldier, British science fiction writer Neal Asher kicks off another Polity-based trilogy in signature fashion, concocting a mind-melting plot filled with far-future technology, lethal weaponry, and bizarre alien creations.

In the outskirts of space, and the far corners of the Polity, complex dealings are in play. Several forces continue to pursue the deadly and enigmatic Penny Royal, none more dangerous than the Brockle, a psychopathic forensics AI and criminal who has escaped the Polity’s confinements and is upgrading itself in anticipation of a deadly showdown, becoming ever more powerful and intelligent. Aboard Factory Station Room 101, the behemoth war factory that birthed Penny Royal, groups of humans, alien prador, and AI war drones grapple for control. The stability of the ship is complicated by the arrival of a gabbleduck known as the Weaver, the last living member of the ancient and powerful Atheter alien race. What would an Atheter want with the complicated dealings of Penny Royal? Are the Polity and prador forces playing right into the dark AI’s hand, or is it the other way around? Set pieces align in the final book of Neal Asher’s action-packed Transformation trilogy, pointing to a showdown on the cusp of the Layden’s Sink black hole, inside of which lies a powerful secret, one that could destroy the entire Polity.

Thorvald Spear, resurrected from his death over a hundred years earlier, continues to hunt Penny Royal, the rogue AI and dangerous war criminal on the run from Polity forces. Beyond the Graveyard, a lawless and deadly area in deep space, Spear follows the trail of several enemy Prador, the crab-like alien species with a violent history of conflict with humanity. Sverl, a Prador genetically modified by Penny Royal and slowly becoming human, pursues Cvorn, a Prador harboring deep hatred for the Polity looking to use him and other hybrids to reignite the dormant war with mankind. Blite, captain of a bounty hunting ship, hands over two prisoners and valuable memplants from Penny Royal to the Brockle, a dangerous forensics entity under strict confinement on a Polity spaceship that quickly takes a keen interest in the corrupted AI and its unclear motives. Penny Royal meanwhile continues to pull all the strings in the background, keeping the Polity at bay and seizing control of an attack ship. It seeks Factory Station Room 101, a wartime manufacturing space station believed to be destroyed. What does it want with the factory? And will Spear find the rogue AI before it gets there? War Factory, the second book in the Transformation trilogy, is signature space opera from Neal Asher: breakneck pacing, high-tech science, bizarre alien creatures, and gritty, dangerous far-future worlds.

One man will transcend death to seek vengeance. One woman will transform herself to gain power. And no one will emerge unscathed... Thorvald Spear wakes in a hospital to find he''s been brought back from the dead. What''s more, he died in a human vs. alien war that ended a century ago. Spear had been trapped on a world surrounded by hostile Prador forces, but Penny Royal, the AI inside the rescue ship sent to provide backup, turned rogue, annihilating friendly forces in a frenzy of destruction and killing Spear. One hundred years later the AI is still on the loose, and Spear vows for revenge at any cost. Isobel Satomi ran a successful crime syndicate, but after competitors attacked she needed power and protection. Negotiating with Penny Royal, she got more than she bargained for: Turning part-AI herself gave Isobel frightening power, but the upgrades hid a horrifying secret, and the dark AI triggered a transformation that has been turning her into something far from human… Spear hires Isobel to track Penny Royal across worlds to its last known whereabouts. But he cheats her in the process and quickly finds himself in her crosshairs. As Isobel continues to evolve into a monstrous predator, it’s clear her rage will eventually win out over reason. Will Spear finish his hunt before he himself becomes the hunted? Dark Intelligence is the explosive first novel in a brand new trilogy from military SF master Neal Asher and a new chapter in his epic Polity universe.

The Complete Owner Trilogy by Neal Asher, including The Departure, Zero Point, and Jupiter War. The Departure: Visible in the night sky the Argus Station, its twin smelting plants like glowing eyes, looks down on nightmare Earth. From Argus the Committee keep an oppressive control: citizens are watched by cams systems and political officers, it''s a world inhabited by shepherds, reader guns, razor birds and the brutal Inspectorate with its white tiled cells and pain inducers. Soon the Committee will have the power to edit human minds, but not yet, twelve billion human being need to die before Earth can be stabilized, but by turning large portions of Earth into concentration camps this is achievable, especially when the Argus satellite laser network comes fully online . . . This is the world Alan Saul wakes to in his crate on the conveyor to the Calais incinerator. How he got there he does not know, but he does remember the pain and the face of his interrogator. Informed by Janus, through the hardware implanted in his skull, about the world as it is now Saul is determined to destroy it, just as soon as he has found out who he was, and killed his interrogator . . . Zero Point: Earth’s Zero Asset citizens no longer face extermination from orbit. Thanks to Alan Saul, the Committee’s network of control is a smoking ruin and its robotic enforcers lie dormant. But power abhors a vacuum and, scrambling from the wreckage, comes the ruthless Serene Galahad. She must act while the last vestiges of Committee infrastructure remain intact – and she has the means to ensure command is hers. On Mars, Var Delex fights for the survival of Antares Base, while the Argus Space Station hurls towards the red planet. And she knows whomever, or whatever, trashed Earth is still aboard. Var must save the base, while also dealing with the first signs of rebellion. And aboard Argus Station, Alan Saul’s mind has expanded into the local computer network. In the process, he uncovers the ghastly experiments of the Humanoid Unit Development, the possibility of eternal life, and a madman who may hold the keys to interstellar flight. But Earth’s agents are closer than Saul thinks, and the killing will soon begin. Jupiter War: Alan Saul is now part-human and part-machine, and our solar system isn''t big enough to hold him. He craves the stars, but can''t leave yet. His sister Var is trapped on Mars, on the wrong side of a rebellion, and Saul''s human side won''t let her die. He must leave Argus Station to stage a dangerous rescue -- but mutiny is brewing onboard, as Saul''s robots make his crew feel increasingly redundant. Serene Galahad will do anything to prevent Saul''s escape. Earth’s ruthless dictator hides her crimes from a cowed populace as she readies new warships for pursuit. She aims to crush her enemy in a terrifying display of interstellar violence. Meanwhile, The Scourge limps back to earth, its crew slaughtered, its mission to annihilate Saul a disaster. There are survivors, but while one seeks Galahad''s death, Clay Ruger will negotiate for his life. Events build to a climax as Ruger holds humanity’s greatest prize -- seeds to rebuild a dying Earth. This stolen gene-bank data will come at a price, but what will Galahad pay for humanity’s future?

Alan Saul is now part-human and part-machine, and our solar system isn''t big enough to hold him. He craves the stars, but can''t leave yet. His sister Var is trapped on Mars, on the wrong side of a rebellion, and Saul''s human side won''t let her die. He must leave Argus Station to stage a dangerous rescue -- but mutiny is brewing onboard, as Saul''s robots make his crew feel increasingly redundant. Serene Galahad will do anything to prevent Saul''s escape. Earth''s ruthless dictator hides her crimes from a cowed populace as she readies new warships for pursuit. She aims to crush her enemy in a terrifying display of interstellar violence. Meanwhile, The Scourge limps back to earth, its crew slaughtered, its mission to annihilate Saul a disaster. There are survivors, but while one seeks Galahad''s death, Clay Ruger will negotiate for his life. Events build to a climax as Ruger holds humanity''s greatest prize -- seeds to rebuild a dying Earth. This stolen gene-bank data will come at a price, but what will Galahad pay for humanity''s future?

Outlink station Miranda has been destroyed by a nanomycelium, and the very nature of this sabotage suggests that the alien bioconstruct Dragon - a creature as untrustworthy as it is gigantic - is somehow involved. Sent out on a titanic Polity dreadnought, the Occam Razor, agent Cormac must investigate the disaster. Meanwhile, on the remote planet Masada, the long-term rebellion can never rise above-ground, as the slave population is subjugated by orbital laser arrays controlled by the Theocracy in their cylinder worlds, and by the fact that they cannot safely leave their labour compounds. For the wilderness of Masada lacks breathable air ... and out there roam monstrous predators called hooders and siluroynes, not to mention the weird and terrible gabbleducks.

From 800 years in the future, a runcible gate is opened into the Polity and those coming through it have been sent specially to take the alien ‘Maker’ back to its home civilization in the Small Magellanic cloud. Once these refugees are safely through, the gate itself is rapidly shut down – because something alien is pursuing them. The gate is then dumped into a nearby sun. From those refugees who get through, agent Cormac learns that the Maker civilization has been destroyed by pernicious virus known as the Jain technology. This, of course, raised questions: why was Dragon, a massive biocontruct of the Makers, really sent to the Polity; why did a Jain node suddenly end up in the hands of someone who could do the most damage with it? Meanwhile an entity called the Legate is distributing pernicious Jain nodes . . . and a renegade attack ship, The King of Hearts, has encountered something very nasty outside the Polity itself.

Alan Saul is now part-human and part-machine, and our solar system isn''t big enough to hold him. He craves the stars, but can''t leave yet. His sister Var is trapped on Mars, on the wrong side of a rebellion, and Saul''s human side won''t let her die. He must leave Argus Station to stage a dangerous rescue - but mutiny is brewing onboard, as Saul''s robots make his crew feel increasingly redundant. Serene Galahad will do anything to prevent Saul''s escape. Earth''s ruthless dictator hides her crimes from a cowed populace as she readies new warships for pursuit. She aims to crush her enemy in a terrifying display of interstellar violence. Meanwhile, The Scourge limps back to earth, its crew slaughtered, its mission to annihilate Saul a disaster. There are survivors, but while one seeks Galahad''s death, Clay Ruger will negotiate for his life. Events build to a climax as Ruger holds humanity''s greatest prize - seeds to rebuild a dying Earth. This stolen gene-bank data will come at a price, but what will Galahad pay for humanity''s future?

Earth’s Zero Asset citizens no longer face extermination from orbit. Thanks to Alan Saul, the Committee’s network of control is a smoking ruin and its robotic enforcers lie dormant. But power abhors a vacuum and, scrambling from the wreckage, comes the ruthless Serene Galahad. She must act while the last vestiges of Committee infrastructure remain intact – and she has the means to ensure command is hers. On Mars, Var Delex fights for the survival of Antares Base, while the Argus Space Station hurls towards the red planet. And she knows whomever, or whatever, trashed Earth is still aboard. Var must save the base, while also dealing with the first signs of rebellion. And aboard Argus Station, Alan Saul’s mind has expanded into the local computer network. In the process, he uncovers the ghastly experiments of the Humanoid Unit Development, the possibility of eternal life, and a madman who may hold the keys to interstellar flight. But Earth’s agents are closer than Saul thinks, and the killing will soon begin.

Neal Asher takes on first contact, Polity style. This original novel recounts the first contact between the aggressive Prador aliens, and the Polity Collective as it is forced to retool its society to a war footing. The overwhelming brute force of the Prador dreadnaughts causes several worlds and space stations to be overrun. Prador Moon follows the initial Polity defeats, to the first draws, and culminates in what might be the first Polity victory, told from the point of view of two unlikely heroes. For the first time in the US in eBook format.

Visible in the night sky the Argus Station, its twin smelting plants like glowing eyes, looks down on nightmare Earth. From Argus the Committee keep an oppressive control: citizens are watched by cams systems and political officers, it''s a world inhabited by shepherds, reader guns, razor birds and the brutal Inspectorate with its white tiled cells and pain inducers. Soon the Committee will have the power to edit human minds, but not yet, twelve billion human being need to die before Earth can be stabilized, but by turning large portions of Earth into concentration camps this is achievable, especially when the Argus satellite laser network comes fully online . . . This is the world Alan Saul wakes to in his crate on the conveyor to the Calais incinerator. How he got there he does not know, but he does remember the pain and the face of his interrogator. Informed by Janus, through the hardware implanted in his skull, about the world as it is now Saul is determined to destroy it, just as soon as he has found out who he was, and killed his interrogator . . .

Now featured as part of the Love Death + Robots series on Netflix Snow in the Desert is compelling, brutal and lingers long after the final word: the perfect introduction to Neal Asher’s Polity universe fiction. In the parched, arid wastes of this far-flung Polity world, Snow is being hunted. With a prize on his head and his life in danger, trust is a luxury he can’t afford. Hirald, pale and deadly in the blistering heat, is an ambiguous presence. But who is she? What does she want from him? Mankind has sought Snow’s secret for thousands of years, and blood will flow in the desert before it’s revealed. Neal Asher is the author of many full-length novels, including Jack Four, The Soldier, Dark Intelligence, The Departure, The Skinner and Gridlinked.

In Neal Asher''s The Technician, the Theocracy has been dead for twenty years, and the Polity rules on Masada – but it is an order that the rebels of the Tidy Squad cannot accept, and the iconic Jeremiah Tombs is top of their hitlist. Its secrets could mean our survival . . . On the savage planet of Masada, one of the native aliens is spreading terror through the human population. It creates sculptures from its victims’ remains, earning it its nickname: the Technician. And only Jeremiah Tombs has survived an encounter. This sent him mad, but he may have learned something key to humanity’s survival – if he lives to remember it. Jeremiah was a member of a brutal regime, now deposed, and a radical sect still wants its revenge. The Technician buried something in Jeremiah’s mind about the alien Atheter, an entire race that committed suicide. However, in seeking to understand their disappearance, we may somehow be attracting the same fate. And to unlock Jeremiah’s secrets, Polity operatives must keep him alive.

Orbus continues the adventure of Captain Orbus in Neal Asher''s high-octane, science fiction Spatterjay series. A cold war is turning white hot. Old Captain Orbus commandeered a ship to flee Spatterjay, desperate to escape the violent planet. Orbus’s alien enemy, the Prador Vrell, is also moving on. The Spatterjay virus mutated him into something even more dangerous. And he’s hunting the Prador King himself – who sought to kill him, to bury the secret of their similar transformations. Orbus and Vrell clash in the Graveyard, a lawless zone where the Prador have seized a key space station. Official action by humanity or Prador would end peace, as a centuries-long cold war simmers. So Earth commands Orbus to destroy the station, even as the King recruits a monster to exterminate Vrell. But their actions will awaken an intelligence that annihilated civilizations, as it stirs after five million years . . .

The Voyage of the Sable Keech returns to Neal Asher''s water-bound world of Spatterjay, teeming with bizarre characters and gruesome monsters. Taylor Bloc is a walking dead man, determined to live again. He also wants adulation, power and control – and will do anything to get them. Of Bloc’s kind, Sable Keech alone has achieved resurrection. So Bloc will retrace Keech’s journey across Spatterjay’s wild seas, with his crew of killers, to grasp his secret. Erlin wanted solitude to understand her eternal life, until an attack prompts her own strange journey. And Janer returns, with forbidden weaponry. He must stop an agent controlled by a hive mind with a death fixation. But a wider crisis will overshadow personal missions. In the deeps, an alien Prador is stirring, horribly transformed by Spatterjay’s immortality virus. And an enemy ship would destroy the planet to keep this secret. Continue the science fiction adventure series with Orbus, or start at the beginning with The Skinner.

Discover action, intrigue and mind-bending science in Hilldiggers, a gripping science fiction novel from Neal Asher where four siblings holding the keys to unthinkable power. Two planets, bound by the same solar system, were once locked in war. Then a cosmic super-string overflowing with alien technology - or life - was discovered. For safety, it was stored within a maximum-security space station. Sometime later, a female scientist from the station became pregnant and gave birth to quadruplets. But she inexplicably committed suicide by walking directly out into space. When war finally ends, one planet is devastated. It has been decimated by the other planet''s hilldigger weaponry, so named as their blasts are capable of transforming landscapes into mountains. As the remnants of their society rebuild, the quadruplets, adults now, begin their ascension to power. One of them has his sights set on claiming the hilldiggers and their power for himself. But with what consequences for humanity? Set in the aftermath of Neal Asher''s Spatterjay trilogy, Hilldiggers is an action-packed science fiction story.

An extraordinary collection from the architect of the Polity universe, Neal Asher''s The Gabble - And Other Short Stories reveals a universe of unbridled imagination, and each one is a delight in itself. Much of Neal Asher’s fiction is set in the galactic civilization he calls the Polity, an alliance of human-populated worlds. And in this collection of thirteen marvellously inventive and action-packed short stories, Asher is on top form. You can expect conflicted humans, fiendishly clever plot twists, extraordinary technologies and so much more. The discerning reader can also savour tales of alien poisons, the walking dead, the Sea of Death, and the putrefactor symbiont. No one does weird, wonderful and downright gruesome aliens better than Neal Asher, so prepare to visit his favourites. Sample the lifestyles of creatures such as the gabbleduck and the hooder, as Asher takes you on a wild ride into his vividly-imagined futures.

Line War is the fifth and final novel in Neal Asher''s action-packed Agent Cormac series. Their worlds are ending . . . The human Polity worlds are under attack from Erebus, a renegade AI. And it’s now merged with lethal Jain technology, and isn’t afraid to use it. When Erebus kills millions, on a world of no apparent significance, Agent Ian Cormac is sent to investigate. He’s also secretly struggling with an ability no human should possess – and starts questioning the motives of his AI masters. Further indiscriminate attacks attract the Polity’s most dangerous individuals. Mr Crane, a brass killing machine, seeks vengeance. Orlandine, part AI and part human, hunts a weapon of appalling power. And Dragon plans to wake the makers of Jain technology from their ancient slumber. But can Erebus be stopped – or is this the end for the Polity?

Raised to adulthood during the end of the war between the human Polity and a vicious alien race, the Prador, Ian Cormac is haunted by childhood memories of a sinister scorpion-shaped war drone and the burden of losses he doesn’t remember. Cormac signs up with Earth Central Security and is sent out to help restore and maintain order on worlds devastated by the war. There he discovers that though the Prador remain as murderous as ever, they are not anywhere near as treacherous or dangerous as some of his fellow humans, some closer to him than he would like. Amidst the ruins left by wartime genocides, Cormac will discover in himself a cold capacity for violence and learn some horrible truths about his own past while trying to stay alive on his course of vengeance.

Human beings have considerable freedom in Polity Space, a mostly civilized place, but enormously powerful AIs make all the important decisions. Three monstrous creatures threaten the Polity: Dragon, a gigantic being of unknown origin; Skellor, an evil, once human scientist transformed by the nanotechnology of the extinct Jain race; and Mr. Crane, the monstrous killing machine who does Skellor''s bidding.