Not only humans who know the meaning of hate.    

'This is often gruesome and shocking but it is always engrossing and never once does Asher drop the ball' -- sfrevu (John Berlyne)

'Gritty. Now, there's a word you don't often hear in connection with science fiction ...' -- sfsite (Lisa DuMond)

'Asher is the hot ticket, and if he doesn't get started on the sequel this book is crying out for then I'll send Mr Crane's dad down to the school to sort him out' -- TTA (Peter Tennant)

Published by Pan Macmillan & Tor in America. Available at all good book shops. (ISBN 0-333-90363-3) price £10.00, in mass-market paperback from March 2002 (ISBN 0-330-48433-8) price £6.99. Also now available through online stores like Amazon in paperback or hardback.

A technician comes through the runcible on Samarkand at a fraction below light speed. His arrival has killed thousands and wrecked a terraforming project. The immortal Horace Blegg sends agent Cormac to investigate, but Cormac must resolve things without the support of the AI grid, for his thirty years of being gridlinked has left him without humanity. He does have Shuriken, a throwing star with a mind of its own, the ambivalent dracomen, and Golem combat androids at his side. But Pelter, with his mercenaries and something out of nightmare, is on his trail.

Samarkand has descended into frigid cold and sabotage is uncovered. The prime suspect is unfortunately an alien called ‘Dragon’, which had apparently destroyed itself twenty-seven years before the event. An alien artefact is uncovered and its monstrous guardian is a killer. How did both of these get where they were? Why was the runcible destroyed? Cormac must resolve all questions and decide who is lying. He must do this while hunted by Pelter and avoiding the ungentle attentions of the killing machine, Mr. Crane. And in the end someone must be punished.

Read the reviews and interviews on www.sfrevu.com or on the SF site!

The alternative scooby ending can be found here.

Foreign covers: