February 13 2082 First Contact. Sixty-two thousand objects of unknown origin plunge into
Earth's atmosphere - a perfect grid of falling stars screaming across the radio spectrum as
they burn. Not even ashes reach the ground. Three hundred and sixty degrees of global
surveillance: something just took a snapshot. And then... nothing. But from deep space
whispers. Something out there talks - but not to us. Two ships Theseus and the Crown of Thorns
are launched to discover the origin of Earth's visitation one bound for the outer dark of the
Kuiper Belt the other for the heart of the Solar System. Their crews can barely be called
human what they will face certainly can't. 'A tour de force redefining the First Contact
story for good' Charles Stross. 'If you only read one science fiction novel this year make it
this one! ... it puts the whole of the rest of the genre in the shade ... It deserves to walk
away with the Clarke the Hugo the Nebula the BSFA and pretty much any other genre award for
which it's eligible. It's off the scale ... F**king awesome!' Richard Morgan.
'State-of-the-art science fiction: smart dark and it grabs you by the throat from page one'
Neal Ascher.
