From 800 years in the future, a runcible gate is opened into the Polity. Those coming through it had been sent 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 Jain nodes … and a renegade attack ship, The King of Hearts, has encountered something very nasty outside the Polity itself.
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12 thoughts on “

  1. That's not fair, teasing us with this when we have to wait 3 months for it!

    Out of interest, if any of your Polity books were to be made into a film, who might you see playing Cormac? I guess we all have our own ideas, just wondering how you perceive him…

  2. Yippee, another Polity novel, I'm having trouble catching up! You're writing novels faster than I can read them!

    Although that's not a bad thing, come to think of it.

  3. Matthew, Caroline (my wife) immediatley says Kiefer Sutherland, but I have in my mind a vision of a young Paul Newman or Steve MacQueen, so someone like that.

    Alex, I'm damned either way: too fast for you and too slow for Matthew!

  4. it's odd, i realize i have been seeing the same character playing Roland Deschain as Cormac. a mix of an older clint eastwood, and a younger paul newman.

  5. Apologies to Caroline, but I think Keifer has far outstayed his welcome on 24! Maybe he's a bit too emotional… can't see Cormac overcome by worry/anguish/rage etc. This is a bit off the wall, but the idea of Jude Law just occurred to me?

    Anyway, just wanted to say thanks for penning such enormously enjoyable books – and not making us wait too long for them! Now if only Michael Marshall would add the Smith back again for some more books…

  6. I just finished The Voyage Of The Sable Keech earlier today, and I already have Prador Moon and The Engineer Reconditioned on the 'to-read' pile.

    Bugger.

    So many books, so little time.

  7. I hope it's balls to the wall ^_^

    I loved Prador Moon and most of the Cormac stories (espec Grid and Line). You're stuff blows my hair back almsot every time 😉

    j

  8. I've got it on pre-order, in the absence of any signed free copy of course. "A writer's gotta eat" indeed! I thought you all "suffered for your art" :-p Currently reading "the voyage of the sable keach".

  9. Ah, Mr Carrots, I spent twenty odd years doing every crap job under the sun while also trying to write. I've had it with the suffering and now I want the wonga.

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