Var began to flirt with the idea of surviving.
‘Good, you’re alive,’ said a familiar voice over her suit radio.
She gazed up through his visor. It was her brother’s face; just the eyes were disconcerting. She considered further the impossibility of flying that bedstead contraption still hidden behind a wall of dust. Sure, it was impossible, unless you just happened to be the kind of person capable of stealing space stations and trashing whole planets.
She continued staring at him for long minutes, as reality returned along with its aches, pains and other glorious discomforts.
‘What kept you?’ she asked.
By Neal Asher
Cowl
The Technician
The Owner
The Departure
Zero Point
Agent Cormac
Shadow of the Scorpion
Gridlinked
The Line of Polity
Brass Man
Polity Agent
Line War
Spatterjay
The Skinner
The Voyage of the Sable Keech
Orbus
Novels of the Polity
Prador Moon
Hilldiggers
Short story collections
Runcible Tales
The Engineer
The Gabble
Novellas
The Parasite
Mindgames: Fool’s Mate
Acknowledgements
As always, many thanks to all those who have helped bring this book to your shelves, Kindle, iPad, fancy phone, computer screen or whatever. At Macmillan these include Julie Crisp, Bella Pagan, Chloe Healy, Louise Buckley, Amy Lines, Catherine Richards, Ali Blackburn, Eli Dryden, Neil Lang, James Long and others whose names I simply don’t know. Thanks also to Jon Sullivan for his consistently weird cover pictures capturing the spirit of the books and to Peter Lavery for his consistently meticulous editing. And always, thank you, Caroline.
I also have to mention all those fans whose comments, criticisms and accolades help maintain my enthusiasm for what I’m doing. Of course, on many levels, I couldn’t do it without you. Thanks also to all those unpaid keepers of websites and message boards, and the contributors both to them and the social networks, who have invigorated debate on all subjects under the sun, and who are steadily cutting the ground away from underneath moribund and tribal media organizations. With the excellent tool that is the Internet they have truly taken things back to ‘grass roots’ and we are certainly seeing their effect in the world today.
For this book I also have to thank all those who have written on zero-point energy, possible space drives and weird energy sources. It’s good to know that some are prepared to think outside the box, even if they are falling off the far side of weird.
First published 2012 by Tor
an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Basingstoke and Oxford
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 9780230765443 EPUB
Copyright © Neal Asher 2012
The right of Neal Asher to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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