The ancient menace has finally escaped from Lalonde, shattering the Confederation's peaceful existence. Those who succumbed to it have acquired godlike powers, but now follow a far from divine gospel as they advance inexorably from world to world.
On planets and asteroids individuals battle for survival against the strange and brutal forces unleashed upon the universe. Governments teeter on the brink of anarchy, the Confederation Navy is dangerously overstretched, and a dark messiah prepares to invoke his own version of the final Night.
In such desperate times the last thing the galaxy needs is a new and terrifyingly powerful weapon. Yet Dr Alkad Mzu is determined to retrieve the Alchemist - so she can complete her thirty-year-old vendetta to slay a star. Which means Joshua Calvert has to find Dr Mzu and bring her back before the Alchemist can be reactivated.
But he's not alone in the chase, and there are people on both sides who have their own ideas about how to sue the ultimate doomsday device.
`Hamilton puts Britain sci-fi back into interstellar overdrive.' The Times
`Space opera has rarely been dealt with in such majesty... inventive, ambitious, and, like the greatest of tumbling acts, leaves you giddy for more.' Daily Express
- ISBN10 0333669355
- ISBN13 9780333669358
- Publish Date 10 October 1997
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 15 February 2010
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Tor Books
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 1225
- Language English