An ancient threat rises again in this grand, complex, and dark stand-alone novel set in Neal Asher’s Polity universe. The Theocracy died 20 years ago, and the Polity rules on Masada. But there is a group of rebels, called the Tidy Squad, who cannot accept the new order. They hate the surviving theocrats, and the iconic Jeremiah Tombs is at the top of their hit list. After breaking out of his sanatorium, Tombs is pushed into painful confrontations with all that he has avoided since the rebellion. Many years ago, an almost mythical hooder called the Technician attacked him and did something to his mind. Tombs’s insanity needs to be cured, because he might have knowledge about the suicide of an entire alien race. The war drone Amistad, who has the task of bringing this information to light, recruits Leif Grant, a former rebel Commander, to protects Tombs. Penny Royal and Chanter are recruited as well. Meanwhile, far off in deep space, the device that the Atheter used to reduce them to animals awakens and begins to power its weapons. . . .

Udgivet af Night Shade Books 

Neal Asher
Neal Asher (born 4 February 1961 in Billericay, Essex, England) is an English science fiction writer. Both of Asher's parents are educators and science fiction fans. Although he began writing speculative fiction in secondary school, Asher did not turn seriously to writing until he was 25. Asher identifies The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and other fantasy work including Roger Zelazny’s The Chronicles of Amber series as important early creative influences. The majority of Asher's work is set in one future history, the "Polity" universe. It encompasses many classic science fiction tropes including world-ruling artificial intelligences, androids, hive minds and aliens. His novels are characterized by fast-paced action and violent encounters. While his work is frequently epic in scope and thus nominally space opera, its graphic and aggressive tone is more akin to cyberpunk. When combined with the way that Asher's main characters are usually acting to preserve social order or improve their society (rather than disrupt a society they are estranged from), these influences could place his work in the subgenre known as post-cyberpunk.