ISBN: 0446567507 9780446567503

Category: Fiction / Science Fiction / Hard Science Fiction

Page count: 180

<p><b>The third novel in the Nebula Award–winning author's classic series: “A challenging, pacesetting work of hard science fiction that should not be missed” (</b><i><b>Los Angeles Times</b></i><b>).</b><br><br>Nearly 100,000 years after first contact with the machines that dominate the universe, a few hundred humans survive. Trapped on Snowglade, a barren world near the center of the galaxy, people like Killeen of Family Bishop and his child Toby are primitive scavengers, homeless and hunted by the ruling “mechs.”</p><p>Then suddenly, a strange cosmic entity—neither organic nor cybernetic nor living matter—reaches out from a black hole to speak with Killeen. But can this fallen descendant of starfarers understand this alien being in time . . . and seize the only chance to save his family and mankind from final annihilation?</p>