Tanner Mirabel, a security specialist seeking vengeance, travels to the planet Yellowstone to hunt a noble who murdered his client’s wife. He finds the once-technological utopia of Chasm City ravaged by the Melding Plague, a nanotech virus that warps sentient machines and architecture into gothic horrors. As Tanner navigates the tiered society of the Canopy and the Mulch, he experiences vivid hallucinations of Sky Haussmann, a generational ship leader from centuries prior. These memories reveal the brutal origins of the human colonies and Tanner’s own shifting identity.
Hard science fiction readers who enjoy intricate world-building and noir mysteries will find a detailed study of post-human degeneration. The narrative provides a technical look at how uncontrolled nanotechnology dismantles advanced civilizations. Readers finish the book with a dark understanding of the moral compromises required for interstellar survival and the fluid nature of memory. It serves those interested in the darker possibilities of cybernetics and the long-term consequences of space colonization without faster-than-light travel.
- Published
- 2001
- Language
- EN
