The in-play players have been out-played. The Avant, busy contemplating
many more millennia of utopian existence, must act, or suffer the fate of all
civilisations.
Many thousands of years in the future, humans, drones and Ultras span the galaxy.
Their utopian civilisation is run, as much as anyone could be said to do something as onerous as that, by the Fireside Chat Club. An unprecedented occurrence demands their urgent attention.
Beal Varselen, a young historian with a gift for reading the patterns of the past, is
recruited to assist. Becoming the first human-Ultra hybrid, he finds new ways to
appreciate the senses and experience the higher levels of consciousness. He must
confront the darkness of ritual abuse, martial sadism and extreme sexual perversion, whilst travelling at unimaginable speeds and encountering high-tempo kinetic action. His father, and the friends he makes along the way, all play their parts.
Recognising that society needs a common identity may offer a way forward. If they can work it out, a better future awaits, guided by Roxana's Law.
For fans of Iain M. Banks, Orson Scott-Card & Neal Asher
