All systems fail. All societies crumble. All worlds end. Nebula Award Ray Bradbury Prize
and Arthur C. Clarke Award finalist and Hugo and Locus Award winner Ray Nayler returns with a
gripping technological thriller. 'A fast-paced dystopian thriller' - SFX Magazine
'First-rate science fiction' - Cory Doctorow 'As much a novel of ideas as it is a
techno-thriller . . . A more erudite and emotionally engaging Philip K Dick' - Irish Times In
a familiar yet different Europe governed by AI life is more efficient objective and
peaceful. Yet all is not as it seems. Meanwhile at Europe's eastern edge the Federation
endures under the rule of a President who has preserved his power by transferring his
consciousness from body to body. As both worlds begin to crumble Lilia a Federation
scientist discovers a way to slip the nets of surveillance and alter the balance of power. On
the run she becomes the reluctant centre of a struggle between resistance and control. Yet the
systems and people surrounding her may already be beyond redemption. Is there any way to put
humanity's future back in its own hands?
