Product Description

Herb returns to the remote planet he has been furtively trying to build a city on, to find it a swarming nightmare of self-replicating machinery. Eva has taken desperate steps to escape the tedium of her pointless life ... only to end up in the super-intelligent clutches of a yellow mechanical digger. Constantine arrives at the remote part-idyllic, part-nightmare settlement of Stonebreak and - unsettlingly - begins to confront the truth of his own unreality.

Meanwhile in the farthest reaches of outer space, the Enemy is plotting the final overthrow of the human race which created it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #204933 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-17
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Vector
'An exceptional first novel. A new British star has arrived to join the likes of Hamilton, Reynolds and Banks.'

About the Author

Tony Ballantyne has contributed regularly to SF magazines, and lives in the Manchester area. This is his first published novel.

Customer Reviews

Worth reading but not collecting
Ballantyre tells 3 loosely connected stories in 1 during this book via linked novelletes that are interspersed amongst each other - the sum definitely being greater than the parts would have been in isolation. It's an engrossing read the first time through as the `big ideas' are gradually leaked to the reader. However a second reading would be rather tedious since much of the enjoyablity is tied up with not knowing the outcome - and once this tension is defused, the actual action within the book is rather pedestrian.

Worth reading if you enjoy space/AI, but probably not the kind of book to join a limited permanent collection.

New authors damn fine start
A brand new author with an interesting tale to tell, perhaps the thing that should be mentioned about this novel from the outset is that the back reads like one hell of an idea for a computer strategy simulation and as such will put the reader into that frame of mind from the beginning. That said the reader does try to outguess the outcome and possible strategies as if they were playing a game but the author takes the readers into all directions leaving them never sure where the tale will end up. As a first novel this is a great start and as such will be interesting to see how Ballantyne develops over future presentations.

Give it a miss
This is his first book and apparently he is a teacher - to which I can only say don't give up the day job. To say that the characters are cardboard does a diservice to a mundane packaging material. Once you grit your teeth and get past half way the plot (AI's & Von Newman machines) picks up a bit and so becomes a bit more readable, but on the whole I'd say don't bother.