“It’s what we do, darling. We don’t have a choice.”
“Several people think the best way to defeat the Originators is to use the things that live in netherspace,” Anson said. “Marc would be invaluable.” He thought back to the night on the Severn Estuary, when the world had exploded in light and anger, leaving him face down in the mud five hundred metres away. He’d limped back to the house, on the way discovering five bodies turned inside out. One of them had to be Bel Drago. Even in horrific death she’d still clutched what must be an inside-out assault rifle. It was then that Anson had really appreciated the power of the entities – and how they were even more alien than the Gliese.
“He’ll show up,” Kara said. “He promised. And it’s time he met his son.”
Unspoken between them, the mystery of who or what had saved humanity. The spherical alien who’d first given Anson Greenaway the box that had helped destroy the pre-cog empire. Whoever, whatever had implanted in Tatia’s brain a chip... unknown to human and Originator science... that had magnified her emotions to an extent that destroyed an alien race.
Thirty kilometres away there was a shimmering above the computer that controlled air traffic on the M6. A human arm appeared, so blazingly multi-coloured any human would need to look away. There were no humans present, only an Originator that the hand seized and smacked against the computer a few times before hurling three battered globes hard against the wall.
A man’s laughter and the portal closed.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
So the end of the trilogy. It has been exciting, frustrating and sometimes insane.
As always, thanks to my family for their support. At least one of them has read all three books! Thanks to friends, especially Helen and Paul Stickland of Black Shed flower farm fame for conversation and wine. Hugh Foster (no relation) for movie chat and crosswords. To everyone at Winstone’s, always the best independent bookstore in the world. Seriously good coffee, too. Thanks to everyone at Titan, especially George Sandison, Lydia Gittins, Steve Gove and my editor Craig Leyenaar who came late to the project. One of the most creativ e and professional people in the business. Thanks to Andy Lane who began this project with me. We will talk movies, television and English gramma and drink beer again. To Robert Kirby for his patience and calming influence.
Most of the science references current blue-sky thinking. Thanks to the New Scientist, Marcus Sautoy and Jim al-Kalili for explaining advanced stuff so clearly I can understand it for at least an hour.
Every writer stands on the shoulders of those who inspired them. For me that means Kate Atkinson; Ian M Banks; Octavia Butler; M John Harrison; Ross Thomas; Scarlett Thomas; Alice Bradley Sheldon, writing as James Tiptree Jr; and Don Winslow.
Finally, thanks to the readers without whom publishing would starve. Go tell your friends about this series, please. Good Irish whiskey or Blue Argave tequila do not come cheap. I will miss Kara, Tatia, Marc and Anson. Hope you do as well.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
NIGEL FOSTER began as an advertising copywriter, first in the UK and then North America. He moved on to television and radio factual programming before co-founding a successful movie magazine. Back in the UK highlights include developing and launching OK! Magazine; an international non-fiction bestseller about the Royal Marines Commandos; and six of the most popular Bluffer’s Guides, worldwide.
ALSO AVAILABLE FROM TITAN BOOKS
THE RIG
ROGER LEVY
Humanity has spread across the depths of space but is connected by AfterLife – a vote made by every member of humanity on the worth of a life. Bale, a disillusioned policeman on the planet Bleak, is brutally attacked, leading writer Raisa on to a story spanning centuries of corruption. On Gehenna, the last religious planet, a hyper-intelligent boy, Alef, meets psychopath Pellon Hoq, and so begins a rivalry and friendship to last an epoch.
‘Levy is a writer of great talent and originality’ SF Site
‘Levy’s writing is well-measured and thoughtful, multi-faceted and often totally gripping’ Strange Horizons
TITANBOOKS.COM
ALSO AVAILABLE FROM TITAN BOOKS
EMBERS OF WAR
GARETH L. POWELL
The warship Trouble Dog was built and bred for calculating violence, yet following a brutal war, she finds herself disgusted by conflict and her role in a possible war crime. Seeking to atone, she joins the House of Reclamation, an organisation dedicated to rescuing ships in distress. But, stripped of her weaponry and emptied of her officers, she struggles in the new role she’s chosen for herself.
‘It’s a smart, funny, tragic, galloping space opera that showcases Powell’s wit, affection for his characters, world-building skills and unpredictable narrative inventions’ Locus
‘An emotionally wrenching take on life in a war-torn far future’ Publishers Weekly
TITANBOOKS.COM
ALSO AVAILABLE FROM TITAN BOOKS
THE LOST FLEET
JACK CAMPBELL
DAUNTLESS • FEARLESS • COURAGEOUS • VALIANT • RELENTLESS VICTORIOUS • BEYOND THE FRONTIER: DREADNAUGHT BEYOND THE FRONTIER: INVINCIBLE • BEYOND THE FRONTIER: GUARDIAN BEYOND THE FRONTIER: STEADFAST • BEYOND THE FRONTIER: LEVIATHAN
After a hundred years of brutal war against the Syndics, the Alliance fleet is marooned deep in enemy territory, weakened and demoralised and desperate to make it home.
Their fate rests in the hands of Captain “Black Jack” Geary, a man who had been presumed dead but then emerged from a century of survival hibernation to find his name had become legend. Forced by a cruel twist of fate into taking command of the fleet, Geary must find a way to inspire the battle-hardened and exhausted men and women of the fleet or face certain annihilation by their enemies.
‘Black Jack is an excellent character, and this series is the best military SF I’ve read in some time’ Wired
‘Fascinating stuff … this is military SF where the military and SF parts are both done right’ SFX Magazine
TITANBOOKS.COM
ALSO AVAILABLE FROM TITAN BOOKS
ALPHA OMEGA
NICHOLAS BOWLING
Something is rotten in the state of the NutriStart Skills Academy.
With the discovery of a human skull on the fringes of the school,
