A qi antithetical to life itself, a well of power more immense than the human mind can comprehend, and the only man in the galaxy who can see it. The vast emptiness of deep space drives cultivators insane. Deprive one of qi for long enough, and sooner or later they’ll start stealing it from anythi...

Neal Asher has been publishing short fiction and books in the small press in Britain for several years, and made a successful move to paperback in 2001 with Gridlinked . He got a sheaf of favorable notices. “This is a brilliant and audacious work, chock-full of cutting-edge ideas. . . . I look fo...