"Byrne's allegorical debut boasts a premise that's simultaneously dark and playful, lovely synesthetic imagery, and world-building that jumps delightfully between moments of fairy tale fantasy and high-tech dystopia." -- Publishers Weekly"Inventive and clever" -- SF CrowsnestPeter Blackwell wakes from a coma into a world he doesn't recognize or understand, where hopelessness prevails and suicide is normal. Without memory or identity, all he has are nine random images. Nine planets. Eight he can see although he does not understand them, but the impenetrable ninth is the secret that two opposing and hidden brotherhoods have been searching for for nearly two millennia. In a time-hidden parallel reality on the edges of our visible world, pursued and betrayed, Blackwell has twelve days to unlock his ninth planet and prevent terminal worldwide suicide. And his only ally is a manic assassin sent out to extract the secret and kill him.