Paperback, 534 pages
English language
Published May 11, 2005 by Orbit.
It is 4034 AD. Humanity has made it to the stars.
Seconded to a military-religious order he's barely heard of, Fassin Taak must travel amongst the Dwellers of the gas giant Nasqueron, in search of a secret hidden for half a billion years. Any help they offer will be on their own terms and in their own time.
But time is one thing Fassin Taak doesn't have, with each passing day bringing the system closer to war—a war that threatens to overwhelm everything and everyone he's ever known.
Erik loaned me the UK edition. It's good — a solid adventure with plenty to think about. It's a refreshing departure from a lot of the issues raised in the Culture books, set in what feels like a more densely populated universe. I felt like the resolutions of some of the plot threads were forced, though. Things just fall into place too easily.
