One faction will betray their own
to incite war

Thorvald Spear is drowning in dark memories that aren't his own. Penny Royal, rogue artificial intelligence, has linked Spear to the stored personalities of its many victims. But does this signal the AI's wish for redemption or something more sinister? Either way, Spear needs to destroy it.

As Spear hunts the AI across a hostile starscape, he has company. Sverl, an alien prador, has been warped by Penny Royal and hungers to confront it. Sverl's prador enemies aren't far behind, either. They plan to use his transition to prove human meddling, to trigger a devastating new war. Clues indicate Penny Royal's bound for the defective war factory that made it. So allies and enemies follow, heading for the ultimate showdown.


'Incredible space battles in this tangled but heart-pounding sequel'
Publishers Weekly
'Nobody does science fiction like Neal Asher'
SFFWorld