Alastair Reynolds pushes the boundaries of science fiction and "confirms his place among the leaders of the hard-science space-opera renaissance" (Publishers Weekly) in this novel in his Revelation Space universe. Late in the twenty-sixth century, the human race has advanced enough to accidentally trigger the Inhibitors--alien killing machines designed to detect intelligent life and destroy it. The only hope for humanity lies in the recovery of a secret cache of doomsday weapons--and a renegade named Clavain who is determined to find them. But other factions want the weapons for their own purposes--and the weapons themselves have another agenda altogether...